FRANK, FUNNY AND COMPLETELY HONEST: SOPHIE TURNER OPENS UP
HOW DID A QUIET SCHOOLGIRL FROM WARWICKSHIRE BECOME ONE OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST INTERESTING – AND OUTSPOKEN – PLAYERS? Mike Sager SPENDS AN EXPLETIVE-FILLED WEEKEND FINDING OUT
The Queen of THE NORTH
is sitting regally in a make-up chair on the ground floor of a vast poured-concrete house hunkered beside the boardwalk in Venice Beach, California – a radiant monarch on a makeshift throne, ready to set to work.
Outside the large front windows, a river of humanity streams past: walkers, joggers and riders of all manner of wheeled conveyance. Beyond them stretches a wide expanse of the finest white sand and, beyond that, you can see the curve of the earth, right where the dazzling Pacific Ocean sits against a Crayola-blue sky.
Inside the house, Sophie Turner, 24, submits to the ministrations of her attendants. Though her hair is back to its natural blonde, she is immediately recognisable as the English schoolgirl who first appeared on our screens nine years ago, at the age of 15, in the beloved and much-decorated HBO series Game of Thrones.
As the ginger-haired Sansa Stark, Turner portrayed with gathering skill the coming of age of a young woman who suffered greatly over the course of the show’s nine seasons, yet prevailed mightily in the end, leading her kingdom to independence. In 2O19, the show’s final year, Turner was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Between going to school and shooting Game of Thrones for five or more months every year, she somehow found time to cram in several films (the X-Men series, Barely Lethal and Josie – the latter two memorable only for Turner’s performances) and, of course, settle down with a pop superstar. Much has been made of her relationship with Joe Jonas, whom she married in May last year; even more of the triumvirate of Jonas wives she is now a part of, known as the J Sisters. It comprises actor and singer Priyanka Chopra Jonas (who is married to the youngest member of the group, Nick) and reality star Danielle ‘Dani’ Deleasa Jonas, wife of the eldest brother, Kevin. It is a long way from the small Warwickshire village where Turner grew up.
Suddenly, there is movement. The make-up artist paints a final coat of electric blue shadow across her lids, while the hairdresser holds out his hand to accept a final hank of silken blonde hair extension from his assistant.
Turner wears a relaxed dark grey suit, a colourful wool sleeveless jumper and a shirt with an oversized collar – all by Louis Vuitton, for whom she is a brand ambassador – the effect of which is to transform her into a young Twiggy right before our eyes.
Finally, it is time. We proceed in single file out of the side door – the production assistant in the lead, followed by Turner, her publicist, her make-up artist, her hairdresser, the hairdresser’s assistant and myself. At the back of the house, we reach an alley where a large black car is waiting. Six of us load in. Because it’s a little crowded, the assistant hairdresser volunteers to walk. Turner insists I take the front passenger seat. The production assistant turns the key and the vehicle purrs to life. Gingerly, we begin to roll forward.
‘How far are we going?’ Turner asks.
‘Just to the corner,’ indicates the production assistant, pointing through the windscreen to the knot of people and equipment at the end of the alley, no more than 2OOft away.
‘I think I could have walked,’ Turner deadpans. Everyone makes noises of agreement.
‘I feel like a such a dick…’ she says.
T”MY FRIENDS AND I WERE huge Busted fans.Then JONAS BROTHERS COVERED YEAR 3OOO AND BUSTED broke up. So we hated them”
he shoot wrapped, the next day we meet at Chateau Marmont. The Chateau is the Dorian Gray of hotels. The ghosts of infinite celebrity interviews inhabit its lobby, and yet it has somehow managed to maintain its shine and currency over the decades. We’re at a small round table with plush, high-backed chairs. The sun slants through the window from the garden restaurant, enveloping the Queen of the North in a haze of celestial light.
Sophie Belinda Jonas – her legal name – is in a comfortably worn pair of white Umbro sport shoes with a heather grey sweatshirt and jogging bottoms ensemble of the thick cotton, hanging-around-the-house variety. It’s emblazoned on both chest and leg with the word ‘Erewhon’, the name of a high-end organic grocery chain in LA. Only the sweats aren’t made by Erewhon. They’re made by a company called Pizzaslime. (‘Pizzaslime is a creative project by two idiot savants who fulfill your need to disappoint your parents,’ its website explains.)
‘It’s ironic, you know, like this would be a really douche-baggy thing to wear out, because Erewhon’s so expensive, and that’s kinda why I like it,’ she says.
And so it proceeds for the next 9O minutes: the wisecracks, the nimble comebacks, the laughter that ricochets across the room, the swearing that she worries may be a little less PC than most would like, ‘because English people are perhaps a little more OK than Americans with being sarcastic and rude to each other’.
The village of Chesterton is famous only for its windmill and its proximity to Leamington Spa, the Regency town south of Birmingham. But this is where Turner called home for most of her childhood. Her father Andrew was a manager at a company that distributed pallets for a shipping business. Her mother Sally was a special needs teacher. There are two brothers, both older – one a lawyer, the other a doctor. And Sophie had a twin, who sadly died before birth. (‘My therapist has come to this conclusion [that’s why] I constantly have to twin with people’, she says.)
”WITH JOE, I ALWAYS FELT like I was the one who WAS PUNCHING WAY above my weight. And I STILL FEEL LIKE THAT”
Turner says she was ‘really, really shy as a kid. I wouldn’t say hello, or goodbye or anything. I was cripplingly shy. So my mum sent me to this drama school, the Playbox Theatre Company. I started there when I was three and stayed until I was about 17 or 18. All my friends started going there – we were together all the time and it was like our church, we loved it. We did plays together and it was just… it was magical.’ I ask whether she was a Jonas Brothers fan growing up. She smiles. ‘My friends and I were not Jonas Brothers fans. We liked Busted. They had a hit called Year 3000, it was amazing. We were huge fans. Then the Jonas Brothers covered the song and made it massive, and Busted broke up. It was all the Jonas Brothers’ fault. So we hated them.’
Fast forward to 2O16, when Turner was working on a film and one of the producers, who had once lived next door to the Jonas Brothers, told her, ‘You should meet Joe Jonas, I feel like you would really get along with him.’
Not long afterwards, she says, ‘I went to a meeting and Joe’s agent was in the room. And he was like, “You remind me of one of my clients. I bet you two would really hit it off.”’
That same year, the Jonas Brothers were touring the UK, which is when Joe sent her a message.
‘I was living with friends in Camden, in a really rough flat – people were always climbing in and out of the windows. When I told my friends, they were like, “Yes! Joe Jonas! That’s hilarious. You have to do it. And you have to text us everything he says.”
‘I expected him to show up with security and everything. I thought he would be such a dick. I took all my guy friends with me to meet him, because in the back of my mind I was worried he could be a catfish, or… I don’t know what. I just wanted my guy friends with me. I had my rugby boys. I was safe.’
They met at a bar in Camden. ‘It was just this local shitty bar. It’s kind of the worst, but it’s also kind of the best – dirty with great music and people throwing up everywhere. It was that kind of place.
‘The best thing was that he didn’t bring security. He brought a friend and they drank just as hard as the rest of us. I remember us two spending only a couple of minutes on the dance floor, and then we found a space in the far corner and we just talked. We talked for hours, and hours, and hours. And I wasn’t bored. It wasn’t contrived, it wasn’t small talk – it was just so easy. Soon, we were inseparable. And then I went on tour with him.’
The couple were engaged on their first anniversary. She is wearing the ring as she speaks, a solitaire pear-cut diamond set on a double pavé band in white gold, with a matching pavé wedding ring. They were married twice. The first time, on 1 May 2O19, by an Elvis impersonator at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. Two months later, they had a second, more formal, ceremony in the south of France. (And their fairytale continues – as ELLE went to press, the internet was ablaze with rumours of Turner expecting the couple’s first child.) ‘With Joe, I always felt like I was the one who was punching way above my weight. And I still feel like that. He’s so handsome, he’s so talented, he’s so funny, he’s so charismatic. How am I with him? So… I don’t know. I’m really lucky to be with him and have someone like him want to be around me and spend time with me.’
How is being married different to a committed relationship? ‘I feel as though the only thing that’s changed for me is having this incredible sense of security. Just the word ‘husband’ and the word ‘wife’ – they solidify the relationship. I love being married. I think it’s wonderful. I’m sure we’ll have our hiccups, but right now the security and the safety are everything.
‘It’s also nice to have built-in friends,’ she adds, referencing the J Sisters. ‘They are actually really cool, and I can hang out with them. We can talk to each other about how crazy the boys’ lives are – we can relate on so many different things. It’s, like, thank god, because you never know about your in-laws.
‘With Pri, especially, it’s kind of crazy. You have to remind yourself that she’s had a 2O-year career in Bollywood already. She’s the biggest thing in India right now. When we went there for her and Nick’s wedding, we were treated like royalty. They worship her over there. It’s crazy. But she’s just the nicest person, and they only live 1O minutes away. And even though Kevin and Danielle live in New Jersey, we see them all the time. We’re all one big family because the boys are best friends.’
If the past year has focused more on Turner’s marriage than her acting career, then all that looks set to change as she takes on an ambitious new project, which premieres in April. Survive is a 12-part drama series based on the critically acclaimed novel by Alex Morel. In the show, Turner plays a suicidal young woman who becomes one of only two survivors (along with Corey Hawkins, from Straight Outta Compton) when their plane crashes into a remote, snow-covered mountain.
So far, so Hollywood. Except Survive will be featured on a radical new entertainment platform created by a tech and entertainment start-up called Quibi (the name is derived from the phrase ‘quick bites’). It’s a subscription-based service that will offer movie-quality shows lasting 1O minutes or less to