Sophie Turner Defends Harrowing ‘Game of Thrones’ Rape Scene for ‘Doing a Lot of Justice to Women’

Sophie Turner looked back on “Game of Thrones” as part of a lengthy interview with Flaunt Magazine — specifically on the scene in which her new husband Ramsay Bolton (played by Iwan Rheon) raped her character on their wedding night. The scene stirred up plenty of controversy, but Turner said she still believes the show was “actually doing a lot of justice to women.”

“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 began.

“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—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.”

Rheon, for his part, previously described filming the tense scene as “the worst day of my career.”

“That was horrible. 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 back in 2020. “They didn’t sensationalize it or anything. It was very, very hard watching. It’s a horrible thing that happens, unfortunately … It was the worst day of my career.”

“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.”

Turner also told Flaunt that when she shares her perspective with men about how prevalent sexual assault is, many of them don’t believe her.

“And that’s because we don’t [talk about] it enough—we shy away from it,” she said.

Turner added, “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.”

You can read the full interview with Flaunt here.