11. The torture of Septa Unella
Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon also includes a pretty lengthy recounting of Cersei’s Walk of Shame, one of the central scenes of the season 5 finale, “Mother’s Mercy.” Hibberd dug up all the details on the casting for Cersei’s body double, how the cast and crew navigated this difficult scene, and all sorts of other interesting tidbits.
Then there was Septa Unella. Played by Hannah Waddingham, the stoic, blank-faced Septa continuously “shames” Cersei throughout her imprisonment and the terrible walk she must endure afterward. There’s no denying that Cersei Lannister is pretty awful…but it’s hard not to root for her when she finally gives the sadistic Unella her well-deserved comeuppance, pouring wine on her while gleefully recounting her many sins.
As it turns out, what we saw on screen was the “tame version” of Unella’s final moments. According to Waddingham, Unella was originally supposed to be “raped by the Mountain.” The actress showed up to shoot the scene, was tied to a table in the dungeons of King’s Landing…only to then find out that the scene had been changed. And, unfortunately for her, the tamer version ended up being an even more “tortuous experience” than what was originally planned. Literally. Here’s what Waddingham had to say about it:
"They instead decided to have [Unella] waterboarded. But I didn’t know that until I was lying on the torture table. All I knew was I had been given a wetsuit top in my trailer. So I put it on going, ‘I don’t know what this is for, but hey-ho.’ So David Benioff and Dan Weiss come up to me while I’m strapped to the table. They go, “Look, the script said, ‘Cersei empties the remainder of her glass of red wine into Unella’s face to wake her up.’ But fans are going to be expecting more brutality toward Unella, so it needs to be a full carafe of wine. We then spent the whole day with me being waterboarded. I’m not exaggerating when I say that — other than childbirth — it was the worst day of my life. The wine was going in my face for seven or eight hours while they were getting every pass under the sun. It was basically like drowning while the rest of your body is dry. One of the crew came up and was like, “Hannah are you all right? Because we are actually waterboarding you.” And I’m all, “You don’t have to tell me that!“"
Brutal indeed.