‘Game Of Thrones’ Q&A: Sophie Turner On Sansa’s Escape

Thanks to a scheming Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, the last Stark in King’s Landing – Sophie Turner’s Sansa – has left the capitol.

She’s “sailing home,” as Littlefinger put it in last Sunday’s episode, as they began to travel far away from the chaos that erupted following King Joffrey Baratheon’s wedding day murder.

But nothing is that simple or that easy in “Game of Thrones.”

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With her flame haired character heading off on a new journey, Sophie shared with Access Hollywood her thoughts on recent events — like finding out Ser Dontos was (going to be) paid to help Sansa flee the city. She also discussed how Sansa’s ability to adapt in dangerous situations has kept her alive in brutal Westeros. And, she also explained what it has been like to have such a close friend – Maisie Williams (Arya) – to share the “GoT” ride with.

AccessHollywood.com: Do you think Sansa is relieved at all by Joffrey’s death?
Sophie Turner: I mean, she’s definitely relieved. The thing is, is that he was the main kind of factor that was keeping her in King’s Landing, but then there’s all the other people like Cersei and Jaime and she’s still in a marriage to Tyrion. I mean, everyone still wants her to be kept prisoner, so there was definite relief, but she knows that there’s no way that she can escape them – and she does!

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Access: With the help of Ser Dontos. How do you think she feels when she finds out Ser Dontos was full of baloney?
Sophie: Well, I think the thing about Ser Dontos is he has like a genuinely good heart. He’s a drunk and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He didn’t do anything really to offend Sansa. He’s just doing what he thinks is right because he knows in the end that she’s gonna get out, and I think Sansa knows that and she feels a lot of compassion towards him, especially because of like at the beginning of Season 2, when he had to drink all that wine. Poor guy.

Access: To see Littlefinger is behind [her rescue] and to see him – how does she feel when all that happens? She wants to trust somebody and he’s the one telling her don’t trust anybody and yet putting himself forward as the one she can trust.
Sophie: I know. … I don’t know really how she feels about Littlefinger. I mean, she’s very wary about everyone and he’s made it super clear that he is not really the one to be trusted. We all know that Ned put his trust in Littlefinger and Littlefinger betrayed it, so Sansa’s not going to be too quick to jump into trusting him or anyone for that matter.

Access: A lot of people are excited about this new ‘fighter’ Arya, but Sansa is a survivor and that’s just as meaningful in a world like this to be a survivor. Can you talk a little bit about how you see her? There’s so many things that could have happened to her and she’s managed to ride out the storms.
Sophie: I think Sansa is one of the strongest people because the thing about this world that people don’t realize is that, yeah, there are these cool fighting badasses like Brienne and Arya, but the real easiest way to survive is to keep your mouth shut and do what people want you to do and Sansa’s like clicked on to this and that’s why she’s gone on for so long. People aren’t scared of her, people don’t suspect her. I think it’s a very brave and very intelligent thing to do.

Access: And if you think about it, Arya, if she had stayed in King’s Landing, she might not be alive, because she wouldn’t have been able to keep her mouth shut.
Sophie: No.

Access: So Sansa is really the best person to have been in that situation if you had to have one of the Starks there.
Sophie: Yeah 100 percent, because she’s like a sponge. She just adapts so well and then she’s soaking up all this information from all these different people and it’s just – it’s just gonna come back and bite the rest of them in the arse.

Access: Sophie, one of the things I noticed this season is the sleeves keep getting longer on the costumes.
Sophie: Oh my God, I know. I keep walking along like in my trailer and stuff and [I] get the sleeves caught in my doors. It’s really annoying.

Access: Can you hide things in there when you’re working, so if you’re hungry…
Sophie: They all slip out. It’s the stockings. I put like used tissues down — they’re gross — blow my nose, put it down the stockings. Lollipops, anything. Anything goes.

Access: Your executive producers, David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], are known as pranksters. Have you been pranked yet?
Sophie: I haven’t been pranked. I know they will prank me, though, because I’m very gullible. Who have they done that to? I think that they’ve done it to Kit [Harington] and Alfie [Allen].

Access: And Gwen.
Sophie: Nikolaj and Gwen… they’d gone out for dinner in Croatia and then, they were on set the next day and I was on set the next day as well. And David and Dan – Gwen was saying she got approached by a fan and she kind of like politely declined and David and Dan made up this whole [fake story] that it was like all over the internet that she had [rudely] dismissed this fan and they were freaking her out. She was like freaking out on set. It was so funny. They’re so mean. They’re so cruel.

Access: Did Jack Gleeson get one as a parting gift?
Sophie: No, Jack didn’t get one. I’m sure they’re plotting a lot of things for next season. It’s so believable though because they send you like a whole script and it all makes sense.

READ: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Q&A: Maisie Williams On Her Bond With Rory McCann

Access: You and Maisie are close friends. Do you think having Maisie along with you on this journey has helped out because you two have been able to grow up together and share your experiences?
Sophie: Definitely. It gives you a friend that you can like relate things to and be like, ‘Is this normal?’ You kind of learn together and grow together and your friends don’t understand it and you kind of need someone to talk to about it. I think we keep each other kind of grounded.

Access: Have you had any of those moments where you’ve had to go to her and say, ‘OMG, this just happened. I met so and so…’?
Sophie: Definitely. When we were at the SAG Awards – Maisie and I are obsessed with Jennifer Lawrence, and Jennifer came up and I don’t think Maisie was there and she said, ‘I love your show,’ and then she like hugged me and I turned around to Maisie and I was like, ‘I can’t. I can’t speak.’ And Maisie was like crying with me. It was crazy. We’re such fangirls.

“Game of Thrones” airs Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on HBO.

Jolie Lash

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