London-born English actress Sophie Turner, star of HBO's Game of Thrones as Sansa Stark, recently had some words for the show's controversial marital rape scene.
Speaking with Flaunt Magazine, Turner addressed the episode "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" from season five, in which Sansa is raped by her husband Ramsay Bolton.
Turner, who was 19 during the airing of the episode, stated the scene brought attention to an important topic.
"I did feel—and still do—that Game of Thrones highlighted things that many people were like 'Oh god, you can't show that kind of thing'—and I get it, it can be triggering—I completely get that perspective. But I did feel we were really doing a lot of service to women and the struggle women have had to struggle with for hundreds of thousands of years—the patriarchy, being treated as objects, and being constantly sexually attacked—I don't think there's one woman I know who hasn't experienced some kind of that," she said.
The actress, now 29, was just 13 years old when she first appeared on the show and remembered having a similar plotline in the show's previous seasons.
"When I was a teenager, I believe there was a moment in season one or season two when my character very nearly was raped. I didn't really get it… I was attempting to work it out in my little teenage brain," Turner said.
She went on to state that if today the series were released, trigger warnings would probably be added.
"I do think if Game of Thrones released now, we would put some trigger warnings on that. But I am very proud to have been a part of Game of Thrones where they did not hold back from depicting atrocities that were done to women at the time. I feel great to have been a part of the conversation," she added.
Speaking about future work, Turner stated she wishes to keep pushing the boundaries with work that has a depth to it.
"I do enjoy creating things that people can walk away from and they feel like they can change something about themselves or get inspired to do something.I want to do more out-of-left-field stories—I want to do more A24-type projects where they're really unlike anything else and really niche," she stated.
Turner's future projects also consist of the British Gothic horror film The Dreadful and the Prime Video series Steal.
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