Sophie Turner: The power behind the Thrones
By BENJI WILSON
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As one of the stars of the world’s most talked-about TV drama, teenager SOPHIE TURNER has been catapulted into the spotlight – but, as she tells Benji Wilson, she wasn’t always such a favourite with the fans…
JUMPSUIT, Tata Naka. BANGLE, Alexander McQueen, from Harvey Nichols
Here’s a peek at Sophie Turner’s current schedule – next week New York, for the new-season premiere of Game of Thrones, HBO’s hit fantasy series in which she stars. Then further premieres all across Europe, to share the love with the worldwide audience who devour the show.
Today it’s the YOU photo shoot – complete with a rack full of Prada and Dolce and steepling Louboutins – then tomorrow she’s on the phone to Vanity Fair. She has only just turned 18, and yet she barely pauses as she takes us through her diary. Until it comes to next Monday: ‘I’ve got my driving test. So, so scared. I’ve got two hours of lessons tomorrow.’
For most people it would be the other parts of her life that are intimidating, not a three-point turn or a stuttering hill start. But life is strange when you are both extremely young and globally famous. Game of Thrones, the TV show that has made her name, is a worldwide phenomenon – the most expensive, most pirated and, with a fourth season about to begin, most talked-about series.
Sophie with screen husband Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones
Sophie’s character Sansa has already seen her father’s head chopped off, been engaged to a sadistic boy-king who makes Genghis Khan look like Mr Blobby, and latterly found herself a trophy wife to the king’s uncle in a powerplay between two warring clans. Westeros, the mythical medieval land where Game of Thrones is set, really is no place for a young girl.
'When you're 13 and you're getting a lot of hate... well it was difficult'
But then again you could say the same for the entertainment industry. Sophie was cast in the show at 13, while still at school in her home town of Warwick. The character she was asked to play was, as the show began, already widely disliked – Game of Thrones is based on a bestselling series of books by George R R Martin in which Sansa Stark is more selfish and scheming than she would turn out to be on the TV show. It meant that, quite often, random people would come up to 13-year-old Sophie and tell her that they hated her.
‘When I was younger it really sucked, because I think a lot of the other characters were fan favourites.’ As she began working on the show she became best friends with another child actress, Maisie Williams, who plays her sister Arya – a character already beloved from the books. ‘When you’re 13 and you don’t really understand the business and your best friend is getting a lot of love and you’re getting a lot of hate…well, it was difficult. I don’t know, I just kind of make Sansa my own, and I hope people understand her. That’s what I want – I want understanding rather than whether they like her or they hate her.’
Sophie with co-stars Isaac Hempstead Wright and Maisie Williams at an event in January
Sophie says she has always liked Sansa, and you can see why she feels for the character she plays. ‘Our lives share a lot of parallels: she came to King’s Landing [the capital of Westeros], she didn’t know what she was coming into and she had all these big important people around her. The same happened to me when I came on the Game of Thrones set – you had big-name actors there such as Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage, so in that sense I really related to her.
‘Since then I’ve just been on this – I know it sounds cheesy – journey with her. I’ve experienced everything that she experienced, so now I can switch into her like that. Half of me pretty much is Sansa, I think, because I’ve lived her for five years.’
It helps that as the show has progressed, Sansa has revealed new depths and strengths – going from girl to woman, innocence to experience. ‘This season she’ll get even more ballsy. In a lot of TV shows out there, the women are the weak ones and the men are the strong ones. In this show it flips – you see the women being the ones that you don’t really want to meddle with. Sansa’s one of the most intelligent characters on the show. She’s been plotting it all in her head from day one. She’s the dark horse.’
COAT, Prada
If Sophie has been something of a dark horse too, 2014 will be the year when she steps into the limelight beyond Game of Thrones. Last Christmas she co-starred with Olivia Colman and Vanessa Redgrave in the BBC’s ghost story The Thirteenth Tale; later this year she’ll appear in the movies Another Me (with Rhys Ifans and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Barely Lethal (with Jessica Alba and Hailee Steinfeld), and when we meet she has just returned from New York filming Alone, alongside Ray Liotta. (‘We had a lot of fun together because I think I’m the same age as his daughter.’) It’s striking that two of those productions are about twins, missing or dead, because Sophie also had a twin – one she never met.
'I don't like the thought of people pinning me down to a certain type of stereotype'
‘My mum had a miscarriage – my twin died and I lived. That definitely affected me in terms of I always felt as though – again, this sounds cheesy – something was missing. I have two older brothers who are close in age and I always felt as though I needed someone or should have had someone there. I guess there’s a sense of loss there that I have used to conjure emotions on screen, such as when it came to Sean dying [Bean, who played her father, was executed in Game of Thrones], or after the Red Wedding [when several other key characters were murdered, in a bloody coup de théâtre].’
Sophie’s on-set BFF is still Maisie Williams. Though they share little screen time together – their storylines are currently unfurling in separate parts of Westeros – they both film in Belfast, and Sophie describes Maisie, who is 16, as her rock. ‘She’s been one of my really close friends. If she’s around, I have dinner with her, and we have sleepovers in our hotel rooms. She probably leads me astray more than I lead her astray! I like to think that I’m the sensible one. We had this one trip to Nando’s where there was a big table of Game of Thrones fans. That was a bit weird. They either just point and say loudly, “It’s her!” so that we turn round, or they come up to us and ask for photos – there are a lot of photos, but that’s OK.’
Sophie with Gregg Sulkin in a scene from upcoming movie Another Me
In the BBC's ghost story The Thirteenth Tale
And that’s just it – amid all the glitz it’s easy to forget that Sophie is so young, one moment chowing down with a friend at Nando’s, the next working the camera at our shoot. She still lives at home with her mum Sally. And though her mum doesn’t have to accompany her on set any more (child performers must be chaperoned until they are 16), she is still a presence.
'I'm still at that stage where I'm like "Ugh! Boys!" I've never had a boyfriend'
Indeed, Sally is with Sophie at our photo shoot, and she tells me that her daughter wants to move to London. Mum is – as mums usually are – concerned: ‘She can’t operate a washing machine.’ Sophie is unconcerned: ‘I’ll just bring my laundry back home, right?’
Sophie is currently being home schooled. Just not that much at the moment, ‘because I haven’t been here. I really miss going to school and having a normal routine.’ She doesn’t have a boyfriend: ‘It would be nice but then sometimes boys really annoy me. I’m still at that stage where I’m like, “Ugh! Boys!” you know? I’ve never had a boyfriend so I don’t know what it would be like. Obviously I’ve had crushes and I’ve tried to make things work with people, but it doesn’t when you’re away so much. I like to think, “Don’t go looking for it; it’ll happen when it wants to happen.”’
Of course, like any teenage girl, she has had crushes on film stars. Unlike most teenage girls, however, some of those crushes have been on actors she’s ended up working with. ‘I used to fancy Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I didn’t tell him that when we worked together on Another Me. And now I’ve told you it’s all going to come out! I also worked with Gregg Sulkin on Another Me, and I used to fancy him a little bit, until I met him! He’s too much of a good friend now. And I have big crushes on people like Jack Nicholson.’
Top and skirt, both Peter Pilotto
Her girl crush is Jennifer Lawrence and in Sophie’s case that’s telling. ‘Obviously everyone loves Jennifer – she’s amazing – but I like her attitude. She takes everything with a pinch of salt, she’s not really too fussed about the whole business, she doesn’t take herself seriously, and I like that in a person.’
That’s the best thing about Sophie. Sure, the fame’s going great guns, but she’s also got the right attitude. Like Jennifer Lawrence, she doesn’t take herself too seriously: she struts for the camera as though she’s been doing it all her life (she has), then she heads over to the lunch table and piles up her plate.
'I want to wear more colour on red carpets. It's fun when you're young, why not?'
‘I feel the pressure to be toned, yeah, and everyone’s going on about the thigh gap, but I like food more than exercise so I’ll just carry on that way. All that’s changed is I’ve learnt about my body shape and what looks good on me – for instance, I have swimmer’s shoulders so I can’t wear halternecks, stuff like that.’
She turns up in a plaid shirt and biker jacket, but whoops with delight at the rainbow of designer delights laid on for her by the stylist. ‘I want to wear more colour on red carpets. It’s fun when you’re young, why not? You won’t be able to wear these colours in a few years’ time, so why not do it now? Yolo [you only live once]!’
That’s also why she’s thinking of changing that plush curtain of red hair (it’s naturally blonde but it’s stayed red ever since she was cast in Game of Thrones) for something more outré. ‘I want to have, like, a crazy hair change – I don’t like the thought of people pinning me down to a certain look or a certain stereotype.’
In other words, the woman about to be a major star is still a teenage girl with both feet firmly on the ground. Good luck to her in her driving test.
Game of Thrones will return on Monday 7 April at 9pm on Sky Atlantic HD – watch live or on demand on Sky or NOW TV
TURNER PRIZES
- BOOKS I generally like thrillers and I love Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson. They’ve made it into a film with Nicole Kidman.
- MUSIC I have everything on my iPod from Nirvana to REM to Cat Stevens to Justin Bieber. But right now I love Clean Bandit.
- FASHION ICON I really like Cara Delevingne because she’s kind of cool.
- DESIGNER Can I have two? Dolce & Gabbana and Peter Pilotto.
- ACCESSORY My classic black Louis Vuitton heels are the most precious things in the world – so precious that I haven’t worn them yet. They were a gift from me to me for doing such hard work!
- MAKE-UP No special creams or potions. The cheapest make-up I can find is the make-up that I put on my face.
- DRINK I like a good vodka and Coke. Or a Jägerbomb. Not at the same time. I’ve never tried that.
- SAVING FOR A nice bag – Miu Miu or something – and there’s this really cool Diesel denim jumpsuit that I want too.
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