Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner talks friendship with Maisie Williams, working with Kit Harington again

With the release of ITV's new crime drama Joan, all eyes are on Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner again. The Emmy nominee plays the titular role in the six-part series, based on Joan Hannington's 2004 memoir I Am What I Am: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief. Ahead of the show's premiere, Turner spoke with The Times about her connection to the part and how being a mother herself changed how she approached her performance.

In the years since Turned finished playing Sansa on Game of Thrones, undoubtedly Turner's biggest role to date, the English actress has appeared in movies like X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Do Revenge, along with series such as The Staircase and Quibi's Survive. (RIP Quibi.) Turner admitted that "nothing I did [after Thrones] was going to be as good," adding, "I went away for a little bit, so now I feel like I don’t have that pressure on me of everyone going, ‘What is she going to do next?’"

And Joan is hardly the only new project Turner's got in development, with other titles like the psychological thriller Trust and a heist series on Amazon Prime Video called Haven in the works. Though the actress has no doubt moved on from Thrones, that doesn't mean she isn't still connected to her former co-stars. In fact, another project Turner has coming up is a gothic horror movie called The Dreadful, which she ended up scoring Kit Harington (Jon Snow) a role in.

“They were trying to find someone for that role, and I was like, ‘You can’t not have Kit,’” Turner recalled. “It’s set around the time of the Wars of the Roses, so we’ll probably be floating about in robes on clifftops again.” Sounds perfect.

Sophie Turner jokes she'd be "in a crack den" without Maisie Williams

Harington wasn't the only Thrones co-star Turner talked about during the interview; she also, maybe unsurprisingly, touched on her friendship with Maisie Williams. The two played siblings in the HBO series. Off-screen, they established a very close bond throughout their years of filming. While talking about childhood fame, Turner admitted she would "highly discourage" her daughters from acting before they're adults. Turner credited Williams with helping her get through it.

“Without her, I don’t know where I’d be. In a crack den somewhere,” Turner joked. The actress' friendship was a major highlight for Thrones fans, who loved to see their latest interviews and photos together. That they were so close in real life made their performances as Sansa and Arya Stark, respectively, feel all the more special.

Elsewhere in the interview, Turner commented on a negative moment while working on Joan: when they finished filming and she attended the wrap party. Photos of the actress were posted on social media and, amid her divorce from Joe Jonas, she was branded a bad mother away from her children. Like her character, Turner knows a thing or two about being judged as a single mom. “There’s so much shame that comes with motherhood,” she said. “You go to work, you’re shamed. If you don’t go to work, you’re shamed.”

“If I hadn’t been a mother, I don’t know if I would have been able to bring the same energy that I did into it,” Turner shared about Joan.

Joan premiered on ITV in the UK on September 29, but don't worry; fans of Turner in the US can watch the new show. Joan premiered on The CW on October 2 and new episodes air every Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. ET. I haven't checked it out yet, but the chance of seeing Turner on my screen again — plus the positive reviews — is swaying me.

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