Hannah Waddingham explains how she became the Shame Nun on Game of Thrones (2024)

Hannah Waddingham is getting a lot of buzz lately for her role onTed Lassoon Apple TV+, butGame of Thronesfans will always remember her as Septa Unella, aka the Shame Nun who walked behind Cersei Lannister during her naked march through King’s Landing ringing a bell and yelling “shame” over and over.

It was a small part with a big impact, and it might not have happened had Waddingham not turned up to the casting call despite feeling she wasn’t right for the part. She toldYahoo Entertainmentthat she showed up expecting to be rejected but wanting to get her face in front of producers in case they had another part later that she might be a good fit for. But it didn’t go that way.

“I was nearly eight and a half months pregnant, like pregnant from the cheekbones out, you know, when your face joins in, in the last month!” Waddingham said.“I walked in, and honestly, I genuinely thought I was in the wrong place.Because all the women were like, 70-odd, about five foot two and about 20 foot wide. I was like: ‘Right. I appreciate that I’m pregnant at the moment but I’m definitely in the wrong casting.'”

It sounds like the producers were looking for actors who resembled Unella as described in George R.R. Martin’s books, where she’s said to be stout and sturdy. The tall, long-limbed Waddingham doesn’t quite match that description, but the producers saw something they liked in her audition. “Apparently I’d been put in as the wild card,” Waddingham continued. “So when I went in for the meeting, and met [showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], and I was a bit like: ‘Hello. I don’t really know why I’m here and I know nothing aboutGame of Thrones. And I’m so pregnant, I might have an accident right here!”

The key moment came during the audition when Waddingham accidentally hit a casting assistant on the leg with a wooden ladle. “In the middle of the tape, when I’m meant to be really nasty, I went: ‘Oh my god, darling. Are you all right?’And when I came back for my recall, David Benioff and Dan Weiss just went: ‘That made us laugh so much. It was like this menacing person who’s going to kill someone, and then you turned intoJoanna Lumley!'”

Joanna Lumley, for reference, is the actor who played the hilarious and depravedPatsyStone on the British sitcomAbsolutely Fabulous. Clearly it worked for Waddingham, because casting director Nina Gold “came chasing out after me” and offered her the job.

Things were just as frantic on set forGame of Thronesseason 5, where Waddingham brought her infant daughter.“And so my daughter was eight weeks old when I went out there with my friend and had the really embarrassing moment of being in my wimple and nun’s habit. And I could hear my daughter crying, like, offstage, behind the building for that first part of the walk of shame.And I thought, oh my god, I’m going to start lactating through my [clothes]… but thankfully not!”