The actress who plays Sansa says she and actor Iwan Rheon understood the gravity of the moment
Sansa Stark may soon confront Ramsay Bolton in this season of Game of Thrones. It’s a moment fans have been waiting for since the sadistic Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) raped Sansa (Sophie Turner) in a brutal scene last year. In a recent interview with TIME about Thrones and her role as Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse (out May 27), Sophie Turner, now 20, said it was the hardest scene she’s ever filmed.
“To have to do a really intense scene, like the rape scene last season, we couldn’t really sleep beforehand, Iwan and I,” she says. “During the day, it was a bit awkward. But afterwards you just go to Safe Haven, which is the hotel bar, and sort yourselves out.”
The scene caused an uproar when it aired last year, causing some fans to declare they were done with the show. Turner has had to field questions about the controversial plot point ever since, alternately defending it and suggesting that perhaps there is a reason that Sansa didn’t fight back then.