Game of Thrones: the Final Season is coming. And I’m enjoying all of the press around the actors who survived for the final season. Sophie Turner plays Sansa Stark, and I could easily make the argument that Sophie has the most “heat” coming out of the series – Sophie is already part of another franchise, X-Men, and she’ll be able to easily transition to a post-GoT career. In fact, it seems like she’s covering Harper’s Bazaar UK to promote both Game of Thrones AND Dark Phoenix, the latest X-Men movie about Jean Grey’s shiz. Sophie is very chatty with Bazaar, and she talks about everything from her engagement (to Joe Jonas) to being paid less than Kit Harington and a lot more. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
She loved ballet & acting when she was a kid: “I have two older brothers who are highly academic and I’m not at all. I was always creative from the age of about two. My best friend and I used to put on plays every time we hung out. It became something my life revolved around.” She was a passionate ballet dancer, but turned down a place at White Lodge, the Royal Ballet School, because she couldn’t bear to give up her one-hour acting class at the weekend. “I think it was a good decision in the end. I’m a bit too tall and I like pasta too much, so I am not sure I would have gone all the way to prima ballerina.”
On Jean Grey in Dark Phoenix: “The biggest thing I took away from this movie is what mental-health problems can do to a family and friends, and how people can walk away from you because it’s too painful to see.” That experience, she says, “is everywhere. It’s just that we don’t talk about it. I have had a lot of people close to me who have struggled with their mental health, including myself, so it’s something I’m really passionate about. I have had people in my life who have been the lowest of the low, the bottom of this pit, and I’ve had to fly them out to America because they just can’t get the right help in the UK. In the US, they are more willing to talk about their emotions. Or at least, more willing to talk about mental health. In the UK, we have this mentality of ‘chin up, get on with it, you’ll be fine’.”
She doesn’t fake it for Instagram: “If I faked it on Instagram, people would just call me out. Everyone can see what I’m really like in Game of Thrones. I have a big nose and tiny little eyes and a double chin and that’s OK. I’m learning to love my bumpy nose.”
Her red hair for Sansa Stark: “People don’t seem to like me blonde. Maybe I look too much like an Instagram influencer. There are elements of dating a Jonas brother that mean you get photographed a lot, and so when people see me blonde, maybe they associate me with that rather than the characters I play. So they change up the hair.”
Joe Jonas DM’d her: “We had a lot of mutual friends and they’d been trying to introduce us for a long time. We were following each other on Instagram and he direct-messaged me one fine day, out of the blue…. He’s lovely. He’s just the funniest. You wouldn’t expect he’s about to turn 30 this year. He’s the most fun, energetic, positive person I’ve ever seen. I’m pessimistic, so we balance each other out.”
On equal pay: “[It’s] a little tricky. Kit [Harington, who plays her brother Jon Snow, the King in the North] got more money than me, but he had a bigger storyline. And for the last series, he had something crazy like 70 night shoots, and I didn’t have that many. I was like, ‘You know what… you keep that money.'”
I think what she says about mental health and how it’s dealt with in America versus Britain was interesting, especially given the high-profile mental health campaigns the royals are attached to. And I found the part about her red hair pretty interesting too – she has the coloring for red hair, I think, but in both the X-Men movies and Game of Thrones, I often feel like her red wig/dye job looks so cheap. Like, if she really committed to the red and got a good dye shade, it would work so well. Anyway, she seems like a really well-adjusted, normal young woman all things considered.
Cover and Instagram courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar UK.
She seems like such a cool gal. I know this is a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I really like Joe and her together. I think they’re the real, solid deal, and he seems to adore her.
Agreed.
I have such high hopes and the best wishes for her and Maisie with post GOT life!
Considering growing up in this crazy spotlight, they seem very cool and grounded
Kit’s role is so much more physically demanding and probably required months more filming time. Lena gets paid the same, and she just plots and walks around Kings Landing. So it’s not a gender thing. It seems like a grownup vs. kid thing.
precisely!
Rare instance where I understand the pay gap-it has less to do with gender and more to do with the fact that Sophie, Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead, while now young adults, started out as children They were paid less than their adult co-stars from the get go and everyone’s salaries were always renegoitated from the season 1 starting point. Now, i f she and Maisie were being paid less than Isaac I would pitch a fit but all three are paid the same.
“ Sophie is already part of another franchise, X-Men,“
You’re being very kind. That iteration of the XMen is dead as soon as the movie comes out. Total recast across the board except for Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool. I do think her film future will depend greatly on the reaction to the movie. Early buzz is absolutely toxic, but then again so was Venom’s. We will see.
The last two X Men movies were terrible. The opening date for Dark Phoenix has been pushed back so many times I wondered if was going straight to cable. Maybe GOT fans will show up to support Sophie.
kids will like the new xmen movie.
I’ve been done with comic movies since 2013. . .ready for a new trend.
I like her. It also reminds me that I’m so glad that Ramsey and Miranda are dead on the show. It was fun seeing that jack Gleason was at the premier party.
She’s gorgeous and I find her quite enjoyable. I’m rooting for Sansa this season!
With regards to Kit Harrington being paid more – I don’t watch GoT (watched the first episode, a wolf died, I cried, I was done), but I know who he is. I didn’t know who Sophie was until she started turning up on these gossip websites and Instagram in context of Joe Jonas and actually Priyanka and Nicks wedding. Obviously that doesn’t define her worth – but as a non GoT fan I can see that one is more famous than the other.
Now if she says that HIS work was more demanding, then that adds to why he’d be paid more.
Frankly, people ought to be paid based on their work and their value to a franchise/organisation- not gender. If that means sometimes men are paid more, then fine. As long as the pendulum also swings the other way.
I like her so much. She seems like a cool, relatively normal person. I like her and Joe together, too.
Side note: I find it weird when people openly say they’re pessimistic. But that’s coming from an optimist who likes fellow optimists and has a hard time dealing with pessimists, lol.
Ditto to your sidenote!
Kit is “THE main” character of the Game of Thrones series. His character was on the cover in the beginning. His role gets larger and larger onto the end. Sansa is a secondary main character and many of her parts are for her POV of King’s Landing. Her screen time is not equivalent to KIT’s. It’s ridiculous to pay her the same as Kit. Whomever did the interview apparently did not research the GOT series!
She been a literal child for at least half the show’s run. I’m sure that is why she is paid less than Kit Harrington as she was working child’s hours (and therefore earning a child’s salary) for the first 4 or 5 seasons. She earns the same as Maisie, the show’s other child-turned-young-adult-actress. Isaac only just turned 18 so he was still on a kid’s salary until the upcoming 8th and final season. A more fair comparison would be Emilia Clarke or Lena Headey, who I believe earn the same amount per episode as Kit and Peter Dinklage.
I really enjoy all the GOT actors. They seem down to earth, relatable and grateful.
Ok, she seems lovely.
On another note, I just started watching GoT and it’s super boring. I’m into the 3rd episode and I’m out if the dialogue continues to be as asinine as it is…
I’ve tried 3 times and can’t get past the first 4-5 episodes. Oh well. Most people I know love it, but it wasn’t for me.
I find it interesting that she attributes being photographed a lot to dating a Jonas bro. I think she’s being photographed a lot bc she has the higher profile. Am I wrong?
I think it’s really hilarious that she says you’d never guess her fiance is almost 30 because he’s so energetic. That just shows what a kid she is.
She talked about getting engaged recently and how she knows she is young but that she “feels older in spirit than in body. I’ve met enough guys, enough girls, to know that I don’t feel 22. I feel, like, 27, 28 mentally,” which is …. the most 22-year-old thing you could ever say.
I like her, she seems down to earth and I hope she finds success after the show. I used to love GoT but stopped watching a few years ago, after it got too rape-y. Now I’m wondering if it would be worthwhile to catch up and finish the show.