As Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones, Sophie Turner has jumped off the roof of a castle and fearlessly dodged deadly enemies. As the series is going beyond the books, she talks about the show, her audition and family
Finally you are going beyond where the books are because George R. Martin hasn’t written the book that this last season partly coveredIJ
I have read the first two books. After that the storyline was kind of going hither thither and my character’s story line in season five in the book was actually replaced by another character. So I didn’t want to pay attention to the books at that point. I don’t know whether the creators of the show, David and Dan, are going take any different direction to the one George wants to take it. So it’s pretty scary but it’s exciting.
You started the show when you were 13 years old and you are 20 now. Has the experience of the show changed you, from being a teenager when you started and now being a young womanIJ
It doesn’t really feel like anything is changed. Even though the show got more and more success, it happened very gradually. To the point where none of us really even noticed.
n You used to have your tutor and parents on the set. The tutor is gone, are your parents still thereIJ
Well, my parents hung around till I was 16. They were not like stage mom and dad, and weren’t around me 24/7 telling me what to do. They just kind of were in the background, and would be like ‘if you want anything I got some snacks’.
That’s the way every parent should raise their kids...
Stage mums can be real nightmares. I heard about this one stage mum who would coach her child to emote perfectly. When the kid had to do a crying scene, she took him aside and hammered the words, “your dad is dead, your dad is dead.” The confused kid cried like mad. And all I mum would say is “I’ve got fruit loops.”
So tell me about the audition.
It was just make-believe for me at that point. I hadn’t read the script. I didn’t know what any of it meant, they wouldn’t give us the script, it was just playing my part. I didn’t even know what kind of show it was. It was when Sansa sees her dad’s head on the spike for the first time. I just remember having a Red Bull in the audition scenes and hi-fiving everyone afterwards.
Game of Thrones season 1- 6 airs at 10pm on Star World and Star World HD