Sophie Turner Defends Controversial Rape Scene In Game Of Thrones

While appearing on the cover of Flaunt Magazine, the mother of two opened up about the shocking scene where her character -- Sansa Stark -- is raped by her new husband Ramsay Bolton (played by Iwan Rheon) on their wedding night.

"I did feel -- and still do -- that Game of Thrones shone a light on things that many people were like , 'Oh god, you can't show that kind of thing' -- and I understand it can be triggering -- I totally understand that point of view," Turner told the publication.

While the scene did cause controversy among some viewers at the time, Turner believed the scene showed how women were treated at the time and initiated important conversations.

"But I did feel we were actually doing a lot of justice to women and the fight women have had to fight for hundreds of thousands of years," she continued -- the patriarchy, being treated as objects and being constantly sexually assaulted -- I don't think there's one woman I know who hasn't had a form of that," she added.

Turner -- who was 19-years-old at the time of the episode airing -- shared that men don't believe her when she shares this detail about what women go through.

"And that’s because we don't [talk about] it enough -- we shy away from it," she said. "I think if Game of Thrones came out today, we'd definitely put some trigger warnings on there."

"But I'm really proud to have been a part of Game of Thrones where they didn't shy away from showing atrocities that happened to women back then. I feel proud to have been part of the conversation," she added.  

As for Rheon, he has previously described filming the tense scene as "the worst day" of his career.

"That was horrible," he said of the rape scene with Turner. "Nobody wanted to be there. Nobody wants to do that, but if it's telling a story then you have to tell it truthfully," he told Metro in 2020.

"They didn't sensationalize it or anything. It was very, very hard watching. It's a horrible thing that happens, unfortunately."

"Chopping someone's finger off, you don't really see it, and when you're doing like a close up, it's a piece of plastic. We're just acting, it's not real. Then something like that where you're in the actual reality of the situation is very difficult to deal with," he continued.

"It was a horrible, horrible day. This is something that we shouldn't even have to worry about, because it's something that shouldn't exist in this world, but unfortunately it does," he added.