Ramsay Bolton actor Iwan Rheon defends controversial Sansa Stark rape scene 

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, there was one moment that proved increasingly controversial; the scene in which Ramsey Bolton rapes Sansa Stark on their wedding night. 

Petitions were set up soon after, pushing people to stop watching the show because of the vile depiction. The showrunners eventually announced that season six would tone down the sexual violence following the outcry.

In an attempt to justify the scene, Bolton actor Iwan Rheon told

: “I understand why the reaction\'s there because people have watched this girl grow up and they love her.

"But at the same time there was such an intense backlash about it, and it isn\'t the worst thing that\'s happened on

You know, burning a child... nobody seems to go mad about that.”

The actor went on to detail how the entire cast and crew felt uncomfortable filming the scene: “It was horrible. I didn\'t sleep a wink the night before, when usually I\'m quite good at detaching from Ramsay. 

Season 5, episode 6: Fans were outraged as the episode ended with Sansa Stark being brutally raped by her new husband, Ramsey. The camera soon panned to Theon as he watched on, terrified.

Season 5, episode 9:Stannis burns his daughter Shireen at the stake after Red Priestess Melisandre advises him to make a sacrifice to gain more power

Season 3, episode 10: While being tortured by Ramsey, Theon Greyjoy goes through all sorts of pain. The most horrible though is when his penis is cut off and then sent to his family.

Season 1, episode 10: According to the directors, they couldn’t get enough prosthetic heads made up for the show and ended up using the spare one’s lying around. One of those just happened to be the fake head of George Bush, which eventually ended up on a spike.

Season 2, episode 4: In one of his most violent moments, Joffrey finds himself with two prostitutes in his room and the most disgusting thing he can think to do with them, uses them as living targets.

Season 3, episode 9: It was the turning point for the entire show. Just as everyone thought it was going the Starks way, they nearly all end up murdered in one of the bloodiest episodes of any TV series ever.

Season 2, episode 4: Torture is a pretty common occurrence on Game of Thrones, but none were quite a bad as this. In the scene a bucket of rats is put to a man’s chest and then heated up with a flame so they must eat through the man to escape. Terrifying.

Season 4, episode 8: Just as everything was going Oberyn Martell’s way, it all literally blew up in his face. The warrior ended up looking like a squashed watermelon in one of the most awful scenes in the entire series.

Season 2, episode 6: Beheadings: In one of the more gruesome beheadings, Theon strikes Ser Rodrick Cassel not just once but four times in the neck, finally taking it all the way off with a kick.

“Also Sophie (Sophie Turner who plays Sansa) is young herself and such a lovely girl... it just felt like nobody wanted to be there and nobody wanted to be doing it and it just filtered all the way through the crew. But you\'ve just to get on with it, and Sophie dealt with it very well.”

In the same interview (which you can read here), Rheon talks about male nudity in the show and his next role, Hitler.