Game Of Thrones Actor Iwan Rheon AKA Ramsey Bolton Shares That He Dreaded Filming The Sansa Stark Rape Scene. We Can Only Imagine!
The quickest way to judge if who you’re watching on the screen is a great actor or not, is often by simply realising how they make you feel- that their act is convincing. Isn’t that why we sometimes find ourselves falling head over heels in love with a protagonist, or other times feel pure rage for a character who has done justice to his role of villain, because we are so engrossed by their performance? There is something about the way they wear the skin and personality of the character they are playing. It is so compelling that they end up being remembered as the character they played till long after. And one such remarkable actor, and an even better antagonist during this time has been none other than Iwan Rheoon aka Ramsey Bolton from the hit series Game of Thrones.
I remember the first time his character was introduced on the show, under the clever ruse of helping out Theon Greyjoy, and it was a introduction the cruelty this character was capable of. One of the most heartless characters on the show, he (along with Geoffery) was one the most hated characters and with good reason. Ramsey Bolton made us cringe, curse and more with as he went on to deliver a performance that grew his fan base but also made his character irredeemable.
And while all of it proved his caliber as an actor, Iwan recently opened up about how it didn’t come without struggles of his own. While it is not all that easy to see a character be that cruel on the screen, turns out it is even harder to play them in front of the camera. And one such scene that Iwan regards as the ‘worst day of my career’, is the one where his character had to rape Sansa Stark.
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A scene on the show that was difficult for all of us to stomach, turned out to be one of the most disturbing points in Iwan’s career. He shared. “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,” Rheon said. “They didn’t sensationalize it or anything. It was very, very hard watching. It’s a horrible thing that happens, unfortunately… It was the worst day of my career.”
He went on to say, “Chopping someone’s finger off you don’t really see it, and when you’re doing like a close-up, it’s a piece of plastic. We’re just acting, it’s not real. Then 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. This is something that we shouldn’t even have to worry about because it’s something that shouldn’t exist in this world but unfortunately it does.”
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@_iwanrheon poses with Drogon at the #GoTPremiereSF. #gameofthrones #hbo
His sentiment resonated deep within us on a level, where we agreed on not having anyone experience the kind of things that Ramsey Bolton put Sansa Stark or Theon Greyjoy through. In 2019, Sophie Turner also spoke about the scene as she recalled her journey of playing the role of Sansa and told Harpers Bazaar that, “Initially, I didn’t feel there was anything that stayed with me from all the things Sansa went through. But though I think it hasn’t affected me emotionally, I did start thinking about the domestic abuse and rape, and it spurred this little part of me that might be an activist.”
