'Game of Thrones' Showrunners Face Backlash After Admission of 'Traumatizing' a Baby on Set

Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are in hot water again this week after their appearance at the Austin Film Festival, at which they reportedly discussed shooting the episode "Oathkeeper" from Season 4.

The episode in question is when it's finally revealed where Craster’s sons go when they are taken by the White Walkers. We see a baby being carried by one of the generals and placed on an ice altar. The Night King then picks him up and touches him on the face, turning him into one of them.

Metro UK reports that at the talk, the duo stated that this scene “was not their finest moment,” referencing what the real-life baby had to go through in order to get the shot. Benioff explained:

“So the altar was actually a hard block of ice and we put a baby on top of this block of ice. A real baby. This baby is lying there like, ‘What the f**k?’ Then a monster, deformed, walks up and puts his clawed finger on this poor baby’s face and the baby starts screaming. ‘I’m like “we’re f**king traumatizing this poor kid.’”

Yikes. After fans caught wind of this admission, many took to social media to complain about Benioff and Weiss, understandably.

The showrunnners also reportedly explained that the mother of the baby got very uncomfortable that they discussed at length getting a shot of the child’s penis to show that the White Walkers only took male children. Weiss stated, “We had needed to reshoot that scene…the baby’s mother opted out. She didn’t feel comfortable about the director making loud, overt references to her baby’s penis in front of 25 people.”

With all the controversy these two have caused at their Austin Film Festival talk alone, I am starting to understand why they skipped out on San Diego Comic-Con.