Sophie Turner channels her Game of Thrones character's newfound fierceness in a gorgeous photo shoot for Town & Country magazine.
The actress, who turned 18 barely one year ago, graces the cover of the outlet's Spring 2015 issue ahead of the upcoming premiere of season 5 of the racy hit HBO series.
With her long, red mane flowing, Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, wears beautiful designs by Prada, Ralph Lauren Collection, Dior, Rochas and Erdem, Tiffany & Co jewelry and Laurence Dacade and Tabitha Simmons accessories, and strikes defiant poses in Beckley Park, the site of a Tudor hunting lodge. She holds white roses, a stark contrast to her character's recent transformation.
Turner spoke to the magazine about Sansa, who has been put through the wringer and underwent a dramatic transformation, physical and mental, during the most recent birth season.
So now that she's an adult, is she ready to cross that line? Yes, nudity. We're talking about nudity. Game of Thrones is known for its sex and other racy scenes, mostly involving naked or topless women, including main characters. Turner was asked by Town & Country if she is worried if she'll now be asked to bare it all in the name of art.
"I know that if they took me in that direction, it would only be because it was very necessary," she said, giggling and shrugging, according to the outlet. "David and Dan [executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss ] are like big brothers to me. I think if a scene like that was filmed with Sansa, it would make them feel very uncomfortable because they still see me as a 13-year-old girl."
Turner was 13 when she was cast as Sansa, the prissy daughter of Lord Ned Stark and one of his six children.
Spoiler alert!
The actress' character has been through some pretty traumatic experiences—she was a prisoner, witnessed the execution of her father and suffering the loss of other family members as well, was engaged to the psychopathic teenage King Joffrey and to his uncle, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister and survived an attempted gang rape. Town & Country said the latter scene was filmed the first time Turner's parents visited the Game of Thrones set together.
"I knew about sex before, of course," Turner told the magazine. "But we weren't shown the scripts in advance, and so my parents didn't have a chance to stop me doing it."
"Sansa and I have grown up together for the past five years, and so when I'm reading the script and something happens to her, I cry all the time," she added. "There is a real connection between us—I feel everything she feels. I'd come on set and see something like Ned's beheading, a heavy, heavy scene to shoot. Having my mum on set for the first three years was really important back then. Because if you get too wrapped up in that darkness, it can really damage you."
Sansa has also been hit on by creepy older men, including one she's currently living with.
But she managed to keep her cool and at one point last season, Sansa stopped feeling sorry for herself (kinda) and transformed from a spoiled, sheltered lord's daughter to a kick-ass player and manipulator who's finally ready to play the Game of Thrones.
Season 5 is set to premiere on April 12. The show has also been renewed for a sixth season, which will begin filming this summer. Turner does not know the fate of her character and told Town & Country that the executive producers will "write in fake death scenes just to freak us all out, which is really not fun." The show has killed off main characters before, including several at once.
"We're very much on the edge of our seat," she said. "They sign us up for all of the seasons, so we don't even know via contract if we're safe or not."
"Sansa had a very slow take-off," Turner added. "And I think if she was to die now, I'd be very disappointed. Because this is her moment."
The full interview with Sophie Turner will appear in the spring issue of Town & Country, on sale on Feb. 3.