“Game Of Thrones” Star Hannah Waddingham Just Revealed That She Has Been Left With “Chronic Claustrophobia” After She Was Actually Waterboarded For 10 Hours While Filming A Disturbing Torture Scene

Sophie was just 15 years old when she landed the role, and her character was at the center of many of the series’ most harrowing storylines, including being regularly tortured by evil Joffrey Lannister when Sophie was still a minor. 

And when she was 19, Sophie was involved in what is considered to be one of the most controversial scenes in Game of Thrones’ history; when sadist Ramsay Bolton violently raped Sansa on their wedding night.

Opening up about how she handled the difficult storylines at the time, Sophie told the Cut: “Growing up on a show like Game of Thrones, the subject matter was so heavy that I just developed a coping mechanism of just having the most fun in between takes, so I wouldn’t get traumatized.”

“I’m sure I’ll exhibit some symptoms of trauma down the road,” she added. “At that age, I don’t think I could comprehend a lot of the scene matter.”

“That was horrible - nobody wanted to be there. Nobody wants to do that, but if it’s telling a story, then you have to tell it truthfully,” he told Metro in November 2020. “It was very, very hard watching [it]. It’s a horrible thing that happens.”

“It was the worst day of my career,” Iwan went on. “Something like that, where you’re in the actual reality of the situation, is very difficult to deal with. It was a horrible, horrible day.”

Now, one more Game of Thrones star has come forward to share how another of the show’s disturbing scenes impacted their real life.

Waterboarding is a torture method that makes the victim suffer the physical and psychological sensation of drowning. 

“Thrones gave me something I wasn’t expecting from it, and that is chronic claustrophobia,” Hannah told Stephen.

“I’ve talked about it since with David Benioff and David Weiss, the two exec producers on it, I was like: ‘Good job it was for them because it was horrific,’” she went on. “10 hours of being actually waterboarded… Like, actually waterboarded.”

Detailing her grueling day on set, she recalled: “I’m strapped to a table with all these leather straps, and I couldn’t lift up my head because they said that it would be too obvious that it’s loose. And I was like: ‘Right, I’d quite like it to be loose!’”

Once filming for the scene had wrapped, Hannah was looking a little worse for wear in a “fancy pants” elevator, and she said: “I had grape juice all in my hair, so it went purple. I couldn’t speak because the Mountain [another character] had his hand over my mouth while I was screaming, and I had strap marks everywhere like I had been attacked.”

“And the [elevator] doors opened, and one of the other guys who had been shooting something else was like: ‘What has happened to you?’” she laughed. “And I told him everything, and he went: ‘Well, you’re lucky. I’ve just been crawling through shit on my elbows for four days.’ And we were laughing about the fact that both of us are in Game of Thrones, and it kind of doesn’t matter when you’re in Thrones. You just want to give the best."

“Lena [Heady, who played Cersei] was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself,” she confessed. “But in those moments, you go: ‘Do you serve the piece and get on with it? Or do you chicken out and go: This isn't what I signed up for.’”

She also opened up during a video chat with Lena later that same year, saying: “One thing I've said a lot is that both of us were quite uncomfortable about it. But as with all these things, you know that they're not actually going to kill you, so you just get on with it and do it."

Lena then admitted: “It made me feel horrendous doing that scene with you.”