It’s hard to believe that some of the actors on Game of Thrones were barely in their teens when they began work on the show. Sophie Turner, for example, was only 13 years old when she took on the role of Sansa Stark, and fans have seen both her and her character grow tremendously over the past eight seasons.
In a recent interview with The Wrap, Turner dove deep into her Game of Thrones experience, her thoughts about the story coming to a close, and her interpretations of Sansa’s growth from the series premiere all the way to the finale.
“I wasn’t allowed to read the books, you see, since I was only 13, and they were too graphic for me,” Turner remembered of the early days. “We only know when we get the scripts for the next season — that’s when we find out what happens to us.”
If that’s the case, Turner’s likely had plenty of surprises over the past decade. After all, her character has gone through more struggles than almost any other in the series. In season 8, a scene between Sansa and the Hound stirred up controversy when Sansa seemed to attribute her strength to being sexually assaulted and abused:
Turner disagreed with that interpretation of the scene. “I think that absolutely it was not so much the assault — what made her the person she is today, the politician and the manipulator, was the mentality, not the things that she went through.”
"It’s a wonderful thing to see a sexual assault survivor grow from that, and see her turn into this political leader she is today — but no, the rape is absolutely not a plot device to make the character seem stronger. The sexual assault made her resilient, but by no means has it made her this wonderful character that we see today. It absolutely broke her, and we saw that on screen. But seeing her thriving is so wonderful to see."
And after finally getting Sansa to a point where she is thriving, Turner was forced to say goodbye to the character she’d grown up with. Her final scene involved her shooting for five days in a row in the heat. Part of her wanted it to be over, but the part that knew the series was finally coming to a close wanted to keep going. “It was like this weird Groundhog Day — you never really wanted it to end, but it was driving you nuts,” she said. “But toward the end, I could feel it kind of winding down. We would cut, and they would talk amongst themselves, and I would start tearing up, and then they’d be like, ‘OK, moving on, next setup,’ and you’d have to wipe the tears away and be fine again.”
To hear Turner tell it, she’s not sure she’s done with the tears yet, or if she’s fully let go of her role. We can see her working through her feelings in this touching Instagram post she uploaded ahead of the series finale:
With her acting talents, Turner’s got a promising career ahead of her once the pain of leaving Westeros behind subsides. She’s already got X-Men: Dark Phoenix coming out next month, and is excited to dive into new projects that are outside of her comfort zone. “I’ve really only done drama, so I’m excited to have the time to explore many different genres of filmmaking and behind-the-camera things.”
Of course, finding a job that lives up to Game of Thrones won’t be an easy feat. Turner admitted that “the standards are incredibly high now.” It’s difficult to find female roles as well written and complex as the women of Westeros, and there’s truth to the sentiment that the Game of Thrones cast has been “spoiled.”
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Happily, Turner has a solution. “But it’s kind of inspired me to start screenwriting, because if you can’t find those roles for yourself, you’ve got to make them for yourself.”
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