This Game of Thrones Scene Was Too Cruel for Even Jaime Lannister

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There has certainly been no shortage of gruesome, controversial and just plain disturbing scenes over the course of Game of Thrones’ first seven seasons. But for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau—who plays Cersei Lannister’s twin brother Jaime on the HBO drama—there was one moment in particular that he apparently couldn’t bear to watch.

During an interview with Variety at the 2018 Cannes Lions film festival, the Kingslayer actor revealed that the season five sequence in which Stannis Baratheon allows Melisandre to burn his daughter Shireen alive was simply too much for him.

“I thought [it] was just cruel,” he explained. “It made sense story wise and I understand why they did it. But I just couldn’t watch it. It was difficult to even read it.”

Coster-Waldau added that he also had trouble sitting through the scenes in which Catelyn Stark’s sister, Lysa Arryn, breastfeeds her 10-year-old son Robin. “It was so weird and wrong on every level,” he said.

Watch the clip below.

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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com