When Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso,” now airing Season 4, started in 2020 during the pandemic, its cast had no idea the impact the show would have. Its positive spin on the rise of a failing soccer team in London was like chicken soup for the soul, filled with lovable characters like Jason Sudeikis’ titular coach and the eternally grumpy Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein). But one standout star was Hannah Waddingham as the club’s formidable owner: Rebecca Welton. Waddingham’s charming performance won audiences over as Welton transforms from wanting to destroy the club to spite her ex-husband, to actively loving her work.
Waddingham’s character development as a businesswoman is shocking compared to her disturbing role as Septa Unella in “Game of Thrones” Seasons 5 and 6. Unella psychologically tortured Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and forced her to walk naked through the streets while she shouted “Shame!” behind the humiliated woman. She’s arguably one of the best TV villains to come from “GoT” but gets overlooked compared to the likes of Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) and Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson).
Unella helped put an international spotlight on Waddingham because of how intense and cruel she is in “Game of Thrones,” which is one of the best original HBO series ever made. She appeared in eight episodes of the show as part of the plot where the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) and the Faith of the Seven have King’s Landing in their grasp. Cersei eventually got her revenge on the religious extremists in the Season 6 finale by bombing the Sept of Baelor with wildfire. Unfortunately for Unella, her fate was much, much worse.
Septa Unella’s death at the hands of the Mountain was originally far more brutal
The last time audiences saw Septa Unella, she was waterboarded with wine in the same dungeon Cersei Lannister was kept in. When Cersei leaves, the undead Gregor Clegane (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) steps into the room, while Unella screams. The show cleverly chooses not to reveal how the Mountain is torturing the Shame Nun, and it’s left entirely up to the audience’s imagination. However, that wasn’t always the case: The scene originally involved a brutal sexual assault.
“She was meant to be raped by The Mountain, and I think they’d had so many complaints about the rape of Sansa that they chose not to go with it,” Hannah Waddingham told Collider. The writers changed the scene at the last minute while she was traveling to the Belfast set, and was told she needed a wetsuit top for the dungeon scene. She added: “Sure enough, when I got there, I was then put in a wetsuit top and I was like, ‘Because?’ And they went, ‘Oh, it’s waterboarding instead.'”
There was significant backlash to the Season 5 scene where Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) is assaulted by Ramsay Bolton, so it makes sense why Unella’s final moments were dialed down to something less visceral, but still disturbing.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
