Sophie Turner.
Credit:Instagram@Sophie Turner
London: English actor Sophie Turner, known for her role as Sansa Stark in the HBO show "Game of Thrones", recently opened up about the show's controversial marital rape scene.
In an interview with Flaunt Magazine, Turner addressed the scene which appeared on the episode "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"of the fifth season where Sansa is assaulted by her husband Ramsay Bolton.
Turner, who was 19 when the episode aired, felt it brought a very important topic to light.
"I did feel—and still do—that Game of Thrones shone a light on things that many people were like 'Oh god, you can’t show that kind of thing'—and I understand it can be triggering—I totally understand that point of view. But I did feel we were actually doing a lot of justice to women and the fight women have had to fight for hundreds of thousands of years—the patriarchy, being treated as objects, and being constantly sexually assaulted—I don’t think there’s one woman I know who hasn’t had a form of that," she said.
The 29-year-old, who was merely 13 when she first featured on the epic fantasy, had faced a similar predicament in the earlier seasons.
"When I was younger, I think there was a scene in season one or two where my character narrowly escapes a rape. I didn’t fully understand it… I was trying to figure it out in my young little head." Turner added that the show would need to put out trigger warnings if it came out today "I think if Game of Thrones came out today, we’d definitely put some trigger warnings on there... But I’m really proud to have been a part of Game of Thrones where they didn’t shy away from showing atrocities that happened to women back then. I feel proud to have been part of the conversation," she added.
Going forward, the actor says that she wants to continue to address important topics in her work.
“I do like to make things that people can walk away from and they feel able to change something about themselves or feel inspired to do something...I want to do more unusual stories—I want to do more A24-type projects where they’re super unique and very niche,” Turner said.
The actor will next appear in the upcoming British Gothic horror film "The Dreadful" as well as Prime Video series "Steal".