'Game of Thrones' star Sophie Turner thinks she'll 'exhibit some symptoms of trauma' after filming the show

• "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner said she "developed a coping mechanism" on the show.
• Turner was 14 when she filmed the show's first season and her character had a journey full of abuse.

"Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner told her "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" co-star Jessica Chastain that she had to develop a "coping mechanism" to deal with the heavy subject matter of the show.

Turner, who was 14 when she started filming, starred in the hit HBO fantasy series for all eight seasons. Her character Sansa Stark had a difficult journey after her father Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) was executed and she was left at the mercy of numerous men.

In one controversial scene in season five, Sansa was raped in front of her close friend Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen).

In an interview with The Cut, carried out by Oscar winner Jessica Chastain, Turner said she thinks she didn't really "comprehend" the traumatic scenes when she was younger.

"I'm sure I'll exhibit some symptoms of trauma down the road," she said. "At that age, I don't think I could comprehend a lot of the scene matter. And the first few years, I had my mom with me because she was chaperoning me, so she would be very helpful and give me snacks."

Chastain also asked if Turner had any rituals to get out of character.

Turner replied: "It's so weird. I don't, but I kind of find it quite easy to go in and out. You saw on 'X-Men,' in between takes, singing and dancing together. It does help having people around that are also willing to step out of it as well."

The actress added: "And it's just something that growing up on a show like 'Game of Thrones,' the subject matter was so heavy that I just developed a coping mechanism of just having the most fun in between takes, so I wouldn't get traumatized."

Turner was not the only actor affected by the show's hard-hitting scenes. Iwan Rheon, who played the villainous character Ramsay Bolton, who raped Sansa, told Metro in 2020 that the scene was the "worst day" of his career.

"That was horrible," he said. "Nobody wanted to be there. Nobody wants to do that, but if it's telling a story then you have to tell it truthfully."

Hannah Waddingham, who played Septa Unella, also told Collider last year that the scene where her character was waterboarded was "the worst day of my life."

Turner stars in the miniseries "The Staircase," available now on HBO Max.