Whether she has spent the day as conflicted telepath Jean Grey in the upcoming film “Dark Phoenix” or the powerful Sansa Stark on “Game of Thrones,” actress Sophie Turner turns to reality television for a break.
“When you are filming movies that are really intense, you need light things to come home and watch and for me it’s a reality show called ‘90 Day Fiance’,” Turner told a crowd at New York Comic Con this weekend. “And it’s amazing.”
Turner, 22, talked about the emotional final days on the set of “Game of Thrones,” which recently wrapped up shooting its final season, and the hotly-anticipated X-Men movie during an hourlong interview hosted by Entertainment Weekly.
“It’s done,” she exclaimed, talking about the acclaimed HBO series where she has worked for almost a decade.
Turner said she was surrounded by cast members on her last day of filming and received a special gift from the showrunners.
“Whenever someone wraps, they bring out the storyboard of their favorite scene of your character [and] they write this really long note on the back,” she said. “I bawled my eyes out crying…I’m still very much processing it.”
She said the cast was like a family and even burst into tears after seeing her long-lost TV dad Sean Bean, who played Ned Stark, at a “behind-the-scenes” event for the final season.
Turner, who is engaged to musician Joe Jonas, also dished about girls night with on-screen sister and real-life BFF Maisie Williams. The two met during auditions and bonded quickly, having sleepovers during film shoots.
“We used to just sit there and eat and watch stupid videos and smoke weed,” Turner said, laughing. “We’d get high and sit in a bath together and we’d rub makeup brushes on our faces. It’s fun.”
Good luck finding out any spoilers on the final season. Turner said the scripts and call sheets used different names and aliases and the cast shot fake scenes to maintain secrecy. There’s even a “drone killer” to disable any unauthorized flying objects above set.
Turner said she reached out to actress Famke Janssen, who portrayed Jean Grey in earlier “X-Men” movies, after learning she got the role for the new films.
She praised Janssen for playing Jean in a “heartbreaking and beautiful way.” Janssen advised Turner to make the role her own.
“She’s very sweet and supportive,” Turner said.
Fans and audiences did not embrace earlier efforts to tell the Dark Phoenix saga, in “X-Men: The Last Stand.” Director Simon Kinberg, who wrote “Last Stand” and is at the helm of the upcoming “Dark Phoenix” has promised the new one will give the beloved storyline its due.
The story focuses on Grey, a member of the X-Men, who is overtaken by an evil cosmic force with almost unlimited power and her struggle to contain it.
Turner praised Kinberg for his collaborative efforts and said she is excited to “do the story justice.”
She said while some superhero movies are “far fetched” the X-Men films deal with people with very real problems such as segregation, racism and alienation because they are mutants with extraordinary powers.
Turner said she also appreciated that the script did not handle Jean’s mental health issues in a light or “gimmicky” way.
“It’s just a heart wrenching story about a girl who can’t control what’s in her head,” Turner said. “She falls apart because of it.”
