Game of Thrones made household names out of a lot of young performers, as well as some well-established vets, even relatively obscure European art house film staples. No surprise that some of them have decent origin stories. Emilia Clarke once told a fun one about doing the “robot” during her audition. Now Sophie Turner has revealed this: She a) auditioned for Sansa Stark as a goof, and b) didn’t even tell her parents she was doing it.
Turner spilled the beans to her Dark Phoenix costar Jessica Chastain for Vogue Paris (via Entertainment Weekly), revealing that she didn’t take trying out for George R.R. Martin’s precious Queen in the North very seriously. She didn’t even tell anyone she was doing it. “I didn’t tell my parents I auditioned for Game of Thrones, they just kind of found out,” Turner said.
It all happened because one of the casting directors were visiting schools across England. “Me and all my friends auditioned,” she said. “We just thought it was kind of a fun, jokey thing to do. And then I just got call back, after call back.”
Turner — who had been acting she was three — said her parents didn’t even find out she was in the running till she was in the final seven. “[T]hen my mom kind of freaked out, and she called my dad and said, ‘I don’t know if we can do this,’” Turner continued. “But my dad said, ‘Shut up, this is what she has wanted her whole life. You have to let her give it a go.’”
When she finally got the part, they all celebrated. “[Her mom] jumped on me and said, ‘You got the part,’ and we both ran and jumped in the pool and ate loads of pizza that whole day,” Turner recalled. “It was the best day ever.”
You can watch the full video Turner and Chastain chatting here.
(Via Vogue Paris and EW)
