Through all her struggles, Sansa Stark rounded out Game of Thrones strong, becoming Queen in the North with her brother Bran on the Iron Throne (well, what’s left of it) down south.
Turner herself may round out the show in triumph, as well — she received her first-ever Emmy nomination for her work in the final season, alongside several of her Game of Thrones costars. Our loyalties will be seriously torn come September 22.
Getting here was a long road. Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, Turner reflected on where she and Sansa started, and how far they’ve come together. “I started when I was 13 and Sansa was 11, I think. She’s been my whole life.”
Sansa’s being thrown in the deep end in this world she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t have any perspective other than a [kid] looking through rose-tinted glasses. That was kind of me.
Then, being around Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey and all these incredible actors — Charles Dance — I started to find my footing. Sansa did the same thing, learning these politics and how to fit in, absorbing all this information from all these great manipulators. Sansa learns to hide her feelings, to absorb all this information from them but keep it hidden while they still think she’s innocent.
Turner agrees with the Times that the period where Sansa was imprisoned by Ramsay Bolton in Winterfell was a turning point for her. It was a situation where she had to either rise to the challenge or back off, and Sansa found herself ready and worthy. “I think she always had that strength, always, but [that’s] where she either decides to give up or get away,” Turner said. “The moment she does that, the resilience that has always been in her is kind of ignited again. It’s the first time the audience can really taste that. I don’t think she can hide it at this point.”
That brought on the Sansa we see in season 8, in control of herself and distrustful of others, including the Dragon Queen Daenerys Targaryen. “[Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] and I spoke about it a lot … the ways people are blinded by power,” Turner remembered. “[Sansa] can spy that in anyone. She’s seen too much; she can’t be [too] vigilant. We always thought she had her head screwed on maybe the best of all the characters.”
And how does Turner see the rest of Sansa’s reign playing out? She has very high hopes:
No wars, no battles. I see her leading until she’s very old. I don’t see her getting married or having children. I think it would be a democratic kind of kingdom. She’d die of old age, very happy.
That’s probably not the kind of thing that would make an exciting prequel series, but it would be a worthy end for Sansa.
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