If you can’t wait until the next season of Game of Thrones for your Sansa fix, Sophie Turner has a solution for you. (Or perhaps two). Her first film, Another Me, based on the book by Catherine MacPhail, features the actress in multiple roles, as a teenage girl named Fay who feels like she’s being stalked by someone who looks just like her, and who is slowly taking over her life. Neighbors spot this other girl in the stairwell — even though Fay only takes the elevator. Teachers and fellow students say they interacted with her on the day Fay stays home sick. Could the look-alike be Fay’s mean-girl rival who is her understudy in the school play? Or someone more sinister? It’s enough to make someone go a little crazy — prompting a moment where Fay chops off her long locks just so people can tell the two of them apart. Turner chatted with Vulture about doppelgängers, Kit Harington’s hair, and why she wants Sansa to go on a killing spree.
How different was the experience of shooting Another Me than what you’re used to on Game of Thrones? And you’re back in Belfast for the show, right?
We’re already midway through the whole of the fifth season! We’re nearly halfway through. It’s a six-month shoot, so it’s not exactly luxurious. And it was very strange going from something that takes a whole six months, going to something that takes a month or so. But the great thing was, I went from this huge, huge crew to this tiny, tiny crew of like 30 people, and you just bonded so easily with everyone because it was just this 30 of you, for a month and a half, stuck together in Wales and Barcelona. It was amazing! It was so much fun. And the thing was, Game of Thrones, yes, it’s a TV series, but it’s shot like a feature film, so I think the transition from Game of Thrones to Another Me wasn’t that difficult.
How upset would they have been on Game of Thrones if you’d actually cut your hair for this movie the way your character does?
Oh my god! When I found out I got the movie, I was in the hair and makeup truck on Game of Thrones, and I had my agent on loudspeaker and she was talking about Another Me, and she was like, “So what are you going to do about cutting your hair?†And Candice [Banks], my hairstylist, she just, like, flipped! “What?! You can’t cut your hair! There’s no way in hell!†[Laughs.] It would have been a bit too Arya, I think, for Sansa! So, yeah, we got a wig for it, thank god.
It looks like Kit Harington might have gotten away with getting a trim recently, though.
Oh, really?
Yeah, for a film. The internet kind of exploded about that: “Oh, no, Jon Snow’s hair is gone!â€
Yeah, he looks like a baby in those photos! [Laughs.] But no, that’s a wig.
Oh, okay. Because you know how he is about his hair.
Everyone he meets knows how he is about his hair! [Laughs.] I mean, Kit is, like, obsessed with his hair. He’s always talking about it. Like before premieres and stuff, you’ll see him in the mirror curling his hair, putting ringlets in his hair. He’s going to kill me for saying this. [Laughs.] He’s very protective about his hair. Understandably! It should be insured, I swear.
When you have stunt doubles — or in this case, a cast member who resembles you — do you feel like you actually have a doppelgänger?
It was quite funny — Charlotte Vega, who plays Monica, my enemy in the film, every time we would go on set, people would go up to her and say, “Sophie, can we just get you over here?†And she’d be like, “No, no, no. I’m Charlotte!“ Everyone always got us mixed up. It was really strange. Very weird.
She should have taken advantage of it! She could have messed with people, and given them fake Game of Thrones spoilers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah! That would have been funny! She could have just been like, “So, Jon Snow dies. Sansa kills him.†[Laughs.]
Well, there are people who are speculating that Sansa will kill somebody in the next book, The Winds of Winter…
Really? People are speculating that?! Cool!
Yeah, it’s because someone who got a sneak peek said there was a Sansa chapter that is sure to be controversial.
Oh my god! That’s so exciting! I had not heard that! That’s really exciting!
So people are trying to figure out what it could be. Is she going to kill Robin? Is she going to marry or have sex with Littlefinger to manipulate him?
Well! That could be cool. Not the sex, but the marriage. I’d be down for that. [Laughs.]
That would fit for how the show presented her towards the end of last season. She was like Sansa’s doppelgänger. She was a darker, more manipulative force.
Yeah, she’s like the evil twin of Sansa! Actually, that’s the real Sansa, to be honest. That’s how I look at her. The Sansa who’s been lurking in the shadows. She’s like Gollum and Sméagol. [Chuckles.]
That’s a good one! As long as you don’t have to do the different voices.
You know, I was considering it. I was considering being like … [lapses into Gollum noises]. Just put that in. [Laughs.] But she’s the real Sansa. The Sansa you saw up until season four… I mean, in season one, that’s who she was. But in seasons two, three, and four, she was kind of using the facade of her season one self, to deceive. So I think what we’ve done, you missed seeing the progression into the dark Sansa, and we’re just seeing it suddenly emerge, because she’s been deceiving people with this mask. Or at least that’s how I see it!
If you could pick whatever controversial thing it might be that she does in Winds of Winter, what would it be?
I would love for her to go on a massive killing spree! But not like with a sword. Poison, or something. Like a huge, huge killing spree. A mass murder. I think that would be kind of fun to play. I think I’m starting to have a dark side as well! After all this …
So, up next for you is playing Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Monster.
Clearly I’m really attracted to parts where there’s a dark, sinister feel about them! [Laughs.] But I’m a surprisingly happy person, considering my life on Game of Thrones, my character. I’m surprisingly happy. I don’t know — maybe that’s why I’m drawn to the dark places that these films take me, because I need to take a break from smiling, need to cry a bit. The thing about the Mary Shelley thing is that not only is it going to be kind of Gothic and very dark, but it’s also going to be the romance between Percy [Shelley] and Mary as well, so maybe I’ll get a few happy scenes! Maybe you’ll see me smile. Once every lunar eclipse, you should be able to see me smile!