Her memories are vague, but it was nine years ago – almost a lifetime of experiences – and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner’s recollections of filming the pilot episode of the hit drama are as impenetrable as a snow storm north of The Wall, save for one detail. “All I remember in the pilot was seeing [co-star] Sean Bean in the corner reading [the book] Game of Thrones on the set of Game of Thrones!” Turner, 23, tells WHO.
After eight seasons of blood, sex and dragon fire, the medieval fantasy series (concludes Mon., 11am, Fox Showcase) has come to an end. Finally, we’ll see who, if anyone, gets to sit on that damn pointy Iron Throne. Turner, like her character Sansa Stark, has grown before our eyes. But fame, it seems, has been a double-edged sword for the actress.
“I trust very few people and not because I don’t warm to people immediately, but I suppose if you are in the public eye, then you kind of have to protect yourself a bit more,” she explains. “And so, all the people that I trust are pretty much my family and my friends that I have had since I was 2 years [old]. They are the people that I trust.”
Both Turner and her character have had trust issues, she acknowledges. “I don’t think Sansa has ever fully trusted anyone, not even in her family,” she says. “She didn’t trust Arya [Maisie Williams] in the beginning of Season 7 and as we saw in Episode 1 [this season], she was not really fully trusting Jon [Kit Harington], definitely not Daenerys [Emilia Clarke] and I don’t think she ever trusted Littlefinger [Aidan Gillen]. She trusted Cersei [Lena Headey] and she trusted Joffrey [Jack Gleeson] and she trusted everyone, and now she trusts, I think, herself and only herself. And as I have grown up I have learned to trust less and less people, too.”
Obviously, one person Turner trusts implicitly is her husband, singer and former The Voice coach Joe Jonas. They married in front of a few friends, family members and celebrities – including music stars Khalid and Diplo – in Las Vegas on May 1, after the Billboard Music awards, much to the surprise of fans. The two share a love of music – Turner says she used to sit “in the back of my dad’s car listening to all his old ’70s music”.
“So being with a musician who sings all the time, that’s a really nice gig,” she gushes. However, she bravely concedes she was – gulp – never a Jonas Brothers fan. “I hope he doesn’t kill me for that!”
Thankfully, the newlyweds are in safer territory when it comes to their shared love of GoT. “He used to have Game of Thrones viewing parties with themed drinks, which I think is pretty cool,” Turner says. Too right. Such viewing parties will, of course, be a thing of the past after the final episode airs on May 20.
For Turner, it’s time to move on. Next, we’ll see her on the big screen as Jean Grey in the upcoming superhero flick X-Men: Dark Phoenix (in cinemas on June 6). Yet the actress is bittersweet about the transition to life after GoT. Her character’s family, the Starks, famously preached “winter is coming”. Such doom and gloom is clearly hard to shake.
“I’m definitely worrying, because the world is a balance,” she says. “When something great happens to you, something bad is bound to happen! I am living where I want to live and with the person I love and it’s a good time. But I am sure there will be something bad coming my way. There always is!” A Stark to the very end.
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