What it’s like to spend your teen years on ‘Game of Thrones’

When it comes to your teenage years, things can be pretty awkward. You’re just starting to grow up and figure out what the world is really like, not to mention all the crazy business going on with your hormones. Try doing all of that in the middle of filming a hit TV series halfway around the world! That’s exactly what Sophie Turner did when she was cast to play Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones when she was only 14 years old. Now, five years later, she’s coming clean in an interview with The Telegraph about what it was really like spending her adolescence on set and how she dealt with some of the more uncomfortable scenes as a young adult.

She first found out about the role on Game of Thrones when she was only 12 years old.

Though she knew she wanted to be an actress her entire life, Sophie hadn’t had much success in auditioning up until that point. “This was the first audition that I didn’t try really hard for,” she admitted in an interview with The Telegraph. It actually took four auditions before she finally heard back and got the good news. While she says her mom was a little hesitant at first to let her take the role, she added that her parents are really supportive of her today. “Now they just treat it like a job, which it is,” she said.

She had a tutor on set until the age of 16.

Even though she was busy bringing the role of Sansa to life, she still had to do her homework! Even though she was in the middle of Croatia filming Game of Thrones, she found time to email her assignments to her teachers  — and was a pretty good student, all things considered. “I got a B in drama,” she told The Telegraph. Consider the irony!

She told her parents she didn’t need a birds and the bees talk, thanks to the Game of Thrones scripts.

When her mother attempted to have a conversation with her about sex ed at the age of 16, Sophie told her she already knew plenty of information. “I said, ‘This isn’t necessary, I know everything. I know every single thing that a person can do — and more’. The show is very inventive,” she told Stellar magazine in an interview. While she says her parents were a little nervous about her participating in some of the more graphic scenes at first, they eventually came around because they knew she was a part of something big.

The Game of Thrones cast are like her family.

According to Sophie, fellow star Kit Harington as well as Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss are more like extended family than co-workers. Maisie Williams, who plays her sister Arya, is a best friend and a sister all wrapped up into one. She did say that she’s learned the most about acting from Cersei Lannister herself, Lena Headey. “She’s so fascinating to watch. She can convey so much with just her eyes.”

At the end of the day, she’s just a normal teenage girl.

If you’re not sure whether Sophie’s managed to adjust to being in the spotlight, look no further than her Instagram feed. She posts pictures of herself hanging out with friends, clowning around in selfies and generally just being wild and wacky. If you didn’t know she was on Game of Thrones, you definitely wouldn’t be able to spot the differences between her and the average teenager.

While Sansa’s ultimate fate on Game of Thrones is still up in the air, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that she’ll be sticking around for a long time. She’s starting to come into her own, and it’s been awesome to watch Sophie grow up on screen as much as Sansa has. When asked if she would be sad if Sansa was killed off, Sophie had the perfect answer. “I would miss Sansa. I love her. She’s half of me and I’m half of her.”

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