Press Roundup: Sophie Turner on Sansa’s surprising fifth season, John Bradley on sex scenes and more

3Several new Game of Thrones interviews have turned up this week, with insight from and peeks into the future of the show courtesy of Sophie Turner, John Bradley, and director Neil Marshall.

While promoting her new film Another Me, Sophie Turner took a moment to talk season 5 of the show.

Game of Thrones is so unpredictable and it was a big surprise what is happening to her this season,” Turner tells Hitfix. “I am so excited because it gives me the opportunity to work with new people and it goes in a completely different direction. I think the fans will really like where her storyline is going this season.”

In an interview with ComingSoon.net, Sophie jokes about sucking up to George R.R. Martin to keep Sansa alive in future books, and teases her future, now that Sansa’s taking charge of her life. She confirms that she will, of course, be working with Aidan Gillen this year, since we last saw her with Littlefinger.

It’s so fun to finally play her as she truly is as an adult version of herself, it’s very exciting. It’s such a breath of fresh air, I love playing Sansa the way she was the past 14 years, but it’s refreshing to bring her out of her shell a bit.

Another cast member discussed a more specific subject in his latest interview. John Bradley spoke with The Daily Record, and talked about the idea of Samwell Tarly sex scenes:

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.index

We trust writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss to deal with it sensitively and make sure it’s not gratuitous and will happen at a time most suitable for character.

If it should happen I’m willing to take it on board. I’ve never had to do it before. It will be a completely new experience and it’s a bit like the measles. I’m looking forward to getting it out the way.

He also goes on to talk about how Thrones has paved the way for new fantasy shows like Outlander:

I think the fact the success of Game Of Thrones is inspiring new shows and new projects in a similar vein is great news and shows how we’ve captured public imagination.

We should feel proud we can give other shows a platform and helped them to get a little leg up.

As far as Game of Thrones related tidbits, that’s about everything, though the rest of the interview is a pretty good read if you want to know more about Scotland!

Next up, director Neil Marshall talking some more about his Emmy-nominated episode, “The Watchers on the Wall,” with Vanity Fair:

VF Hollywood: Did you see a big difference in what you were allowed to get away with this time, after your first episode, “Blackwater,” was so successful?

game-thrones-mammoth.0_standard_730.0Neil Marshall: Certainly the budget will have gone up, but they don’t tell me what it is. They only tell me when I can’t do something. The only time that came into play was early on, in that the first draft of the script involved 12 mammoths and 12 giants. At some point that got downgraded to one mammoth and two giants.

Did you try to haggle for more mammoths?

No, there was no haggling for it. But we thought, O.K., if we have one mammoth, we better make it really impressive. It certainly saved us a huge amount of time and money not having as many giants. Just because the way we have to film them, it would have been ten times as much work. Other than that, there were no limitations, really.

He also hints at where he’s hoping the story goes in future seasons:

Would you want to do a big dragon battle?

Oh, I would definitely like to unleash the dragons on somebody.

Lots more good stuff in the interview including what it was like to kill three characters in one episode, and whether or not he’s been clued into the series’ conclusion. Check out the full Vanity Fair article at their website.

42 Comments

  1. Hodor

    Samwell Tarley = The Man

    Sex Scene = Measles, I guess it is contagious. Everyone on the show seems to be getting it.

  2. I’m planning to see Another Me this weekend! Looking forward to seeing Sophie in a starring role.

  3. “it’s a bit like the measles. I’m looking forward to getting it out the way.”

    Well then.. he’s no bleeding poet either! lol

    deekan,

    Every time (hopefully).

  4. Is it just me, or does John Bradley always come off as a genuinely nice and smart guy? I’m not the biggest fan of Samwell, but he does a great job. I hope he manages to secure some good highprofile roles in the future. If any NW-member has the chops, than it’s him.

  5. deekan:
    The fat pink mast will rise!

    Your name isn’t a reference to Neverwinter Nights by chance?

    Bookpuristhater:
    A Man Grown,

    It’s kinda funny that Jonathan Rhys Meyers who plays her father in that movie also was Natalie Dormer’s husband in the Tudors .

    Kinky.

  6. We trust writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss to deal with it sensitively and make sure it’s not gratuitous and will happen at a time most suitable for character.

    … really? What show have they been watching?

  7. OT: Found a long GoT panel with Mike Lombardo, (head of programming at HBO GO) Robert Sterne, (casting), John Bradley-West and Zai Bennett (incoming head of Sky Atlantic). Apparently it only has spoilers up to season 4, but I haven’t watched it yet, so I can#t be sure.

  8. I can’t wait to watch Sansa’s story play out next season. Concerned about them potentially taking advantage of her being ‘legal’ now, but hopefully they won’t go too far. Really want to see her come into her own and make some non-Petyr allies,!

    I love Samwell and Gilly to death, but I imagine their sex scene would be so awkward. Then again, it would be consensual (and loving!) for once, so I’d rather they show that than their usual fare.

  9. wallofice:
    I can’t wait to watch Sansa’s story play out next season. Concerned about them potentially taking advantage of her being ‘legal’ now, but hopefully they won’t go too far.

    They can’t, actually, even if they want to, because the character is, at most, 15. According to the UK laws, you can’t show someone nude on screen if the character is underage, no matter how old the actor is. Sophie has been “legal” in UK for 2 years, but Sansa is not.

  10. wallofice,
    It doesn’t matter that Sophie is legal now. The character is still under age and if I remember correctly, than there is a law that forbids nudity for underage characters, even if they are played by actors older than 18.

    And even if the law didn’t exist, Sansa would never get a nude scene. I mean D&D cast her when she was like 13 or so, she grew up on set. I think a lot of people would find it downright creepy if they asked her to show some skin.

  11. Annara Snow,

    Thank goodness for that. I remember hearing that before, but I wasn’t sure if it was true. More than showing her nude, though (which I agree with Veltigar that everyone would find creepy), I don’t want them to go too far with this whole “using her sexuality” thing that Sophie’s mentioned a few times.

  12. wallofice,

    I think most people can agree that Sansa will use Littlefinger’s desire to control. She’s already begun to walk that path in the books and on screen. That’s probably what Sophie means.

    Amon:
    Any news on Victarion?

    Cut. The Iron Islands suck anyway.

  13. Abyss,

    O.K., I have watched it now. No spoilers. They talk about pretty much everything, but here are a few points I personally found interesting.

    – 1 episode costs between 5 and 10 million dollars now
    – GoT is the most cost effective show on HBO
    – They thought about shooting in Canada
    – Robert Sterne talks about high profile actors “who have been announced so far”, so they could be more
    – The scene between John Bradley-West and Kit Harington about “were to put it” was written in at a later to use the light-hearted relationship the to actors were evolving.

  14. Biscotti Knight:
    wallofice,

    Cut. The Iron Islands suck anyway.

    That’s your opinion. I’d much rather have the Greyjoy uncles and the Kingsmoot than sand snake #3 running around being sexy and Jaime doing random shit in the desert.
    Regarding Sansa, I still wonder why they sped up her storyline that much. Like, we’ll probably have some big tWoW spoilers for her quite early on, and at the same time look at Jon’s story. He’s so far behind. They really had the opportunity to end her s4 plot on Lysa’s death too. Everybody on the old site expected that too when speculating about s4 “Only Cat into LSH reveal”. Instead we had excellent material rushed, changed, or worse, cut.
    If only D&D read a little bit more of what the
    fans want (though the jaime/jetpack thing leads me to believe they spend more time reading fans comments on the internet than they’re willing to admit).

  15. Abyss,

    Damn you and your high profile actors. Now I have to watch it!
    IAN MCNEICE AS WYMAN MANDERLY- PLEASE AND THANK YOU

  16. jentario,

    Just to be clear, he doesn’t name any new ones. It could just be that it is a poor choice of phrasing, and what he actually meant was, that there will be more casting announcements in general. 😉

  17. Abyss,

    “One of the bigger parts with the high profile names that we’ve announced so far is Jonathan Pryce…”
    Interesting wording indeed

  18. Abyss,

    The lady doing the panel was really going for some low-hanging fruit with her questions. I stopped watching it actually because of the cheapness of her attempted “gotcha” moments. Like when she brought up race in the casting or the unsubstantiated Emilia Clarke nudity rumours (which were entirely based on conjecture and nothing that Clarke ever said). I understand the need to not have a sycophantic interviewer, but when someone lazily rehashes and recycles these critiques using false info and skewed interpretations of the show, the result is more annoying than interesting.

    Good answers by Sterne and Bradley of course. Lombardo’s answers seem too much like rich guy double-talk for my taste.

  19. Greenjones,

    Yeah, she tried a bit too hard to be the tough interviewer. That said, leading a panel isn’t easy. You have to find the balance between “light” and “tough” questions to make it more than “just” a fan panel, which wouldn’t suit the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, I think, because it seems to be very much about the business side of things. All in all she did all right.
    In the same vein Lombardo gave the “business answers”, which basically means he played it save (trusting D&D and such). I would say that is (necessarily) double-talk.

  20. m8,
    I’m with you on this one. I can safely say I would not feel the least bit creeped out by seeing Sophie nude.

  21. wallofice

    Then again, it would be consensual (and loving!) for once, so I’d rather they show that than their usual fare.

    True. That’s such rarity in a GOT…

    A consensual sex scene between two people, not involving rape, payment, incest, politics, or giving birth to vaginal shadow assassins.

  22. Lord Hugh Ryvenholt,

    Oh I certainly hope we see that One of my top 10 favorite scenes in the book. I reread that section several times when I first read the book. I hope that his arc includes that journey, and that scene (tho I promise not to scream and whine if they don’t; I can always relive it by rereading).

  23. It seems the comments here are a bit England-centric about laws regarding the possible nudity of underage characters. I don’t care if Sophie Turner does a nude scene or not, but whatever laws you have in England do not apply to SHOWTIME ( a premium American network). What’s really funny is that the character of Daenerys Targaryen was 15 in season 1, and was naked plenty of time on screen so that question has already been answered.
    Annara Snow,

  24. Ed Kline,

    Since the show is produced in Ireland, it’s subject to their filming laws, even if it’s an American production… a HBO production, specifically —not Showtime. I don’t know how you confused the two.

    Also, Dany wasn’t 15 in season 1. She was considerably aged up in the show (to 18), precisely because of this issue. Hence the timeline differences —all characters are older; Robert’s rebellion happened 17 years before Season 1, instead of 14 years before Book 1, etc.

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