The low point of Game of Thrones is generally considered to be not the series finale, but “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” the season five episode where Ramsay rapes Sansa after she’s forced to marry him. As Joanna Robinson wrote for Vanity Fair, “I’d never advocate that Game of Thrones (or any work of fiction) shy away from edgy plots out of fear of pushback or controversy. But edgy plots should always accomplish something above pure titillation or shock value and what, exactly, was accomplished here?”
At the time, Sophie Turner, who played Sansa, described the scene as “super, super traumatic” and while she “love[d] doing those scenes,” it was “just really kind of horrible for everyone to be on set and watch.” Sansa’s trauma stayed with Turner, who told Jessica Chastain in a conversation for The Cut that she “developed a coping mechanism of just having the most fun in between takes, so I wouldn’t get traumatized.”
She continued:
“I’m sure I’ll exhibit some symptoms of trauma down the road. 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. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like a 10-year-old in a school play again when someone that I know comes and sees me on set. I feel so embarrassed.”
Turner went from playing arguably the most abused Game of Thrones character to the least-liked X-Men movie to an HBO Max series about a husband who’s accused of murdering his wife. Someone cast her in a buddy comedy with Channing Tatum, stat.
(Via The Cut)