Perched on a tiny wooded island humming with African rainforest birds, Gorilla Kingdom is one of the main attractions at London Zoo. On this unseasonably mild Tuesday morning in late February, it’s a hive of activity: The lowland western primates who live here have two adorable newborns in their midst. “Look, there she is, with her little one!” says Sophie Turner, pointing toward Effie, the proud mama with her yet-to-be named two week old.

The actor had initially proposed a walk on Primrose Hill, but happily obliged when I suggested the nearby zoo—because who could resist the allure of baby gorillas? When she lived in New York, Turner, 28, would take her daughters, Willa, almost four, and Delphine, two in July, to the Central Park Zoo, and this morning she’s come from Willa’s new West London nursery school in an oversized camel-colored Maison Margiela coat. “The one coat I brought with me from America,” says Turner, who moved from Miami back to the UK last year. “If you can believe it, I only packed one suitcase.”

Her long blond hair tucked casually into her collar, Turner could easily be mistaken for a stylish Swedish au pair on her gap year. She reads aloud in her best thespian voice: “ ‘Effie is our most playful and cheeky female. She was born in 1993 at Copenhagen Zoo, and is well-known in the Zoo for her huge appetite.’  ” This attracts the attention of a nerdy but charming zookeeper, who proceeds to share the particulars of Effie’s birthing story: This baby was born wrapped in its umbilical cord and is lucky to be feeding normally. “Do you see how she’s dangling her baby by one arm? That’s actually not the best way to handle their newborns,” says the zookeeper. “They’re supposed to be wrapped around the body.” A crowd has begun to gather. “So you mean to say she’s a mother of four and she still hasn’t learnt how to carry her baby correctly?” asks a voice in a mock-accusatory tone. Turner looks at me, eyebrows raised. Are we mom-shaming animals now?

But it is, in fact, Turner who has been subjected to mom-shaming—of the most egregious kind. Following news last September that her husband Joe Jonas had filed for divorce after four years of marriage, rumors proliferated in the tabloids and online that she’d been somehow shirking her maternal responsibilities. It was the bad-mother trope, old as time, and it spread wide when images of Turner at a wrap party in Birmingham for Joan—the six-part drama coming to The CW network later this year, inspired by the true story of Joan Hannington, Britain’s most notorious jewel thief—began to circulate. “Sophie Turner Partied ‘Without a Care in the World,’  ” read one headline. Meanwhile, her pop-idol husband was portrayed as the doting dad, captured dutifully tending to his two daughters.

“I mean, those were the worst few days of my life,” says Turner with a sharp intake of breath, the memory still fresh. We’ve moved to a quiet corner in the zoo’s canteen, a vast light-filled space that’s mercifully empty now that the breakfast rush is over. “It hurt because I really do completely torture myself over every move I make as a mother—mum guilt is so real! I just kept having to say to myself, ‘None of this is true. You are a good mum and you’ve never been a partier.’  ”
Continue reading  »

The actress on what she’s learned from her role on HBO Max’s The Staircase.

Sophie Turner has always loved the true-crime genre. “I find myself completely drawn to it and utterly fascinated by it. I don’t know why it’s become such a thing, but I love it,” the actress shares with a soft chuckle. “I’m invested, I’m in it. Keep them coming!”

Turner, who grew up before millions of viewers as the tragic heroine Sansa Stark on the smash-hit series Game of Thrones, has returned home to HBO in The Staircase—a dramatized account of the Michael Peterson trial. Peterson, an American novelist, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. In a twist even stranger than fiction, it was revealed that Elizabeth Ratliff, a friend of the Peterson family, died from a similar fall down the stairs in 1985 in Germany.

Turner plays Margaret Ratliff, who Michael adopted after the death of her mother and father. She relished the first-time challenge of playing a nonfictional character. “That was a whole different kind of ball game for me. We were very, very, very lucky to be able to have our director in touch with quite a few members of people who were involved in the case, Margaret being one of them. She was kind of a point of information to do with the family, for (executive producer) Antonio Campos and for all of us.”

Though the real Margaret added nuance and context to her onscreen depiction, Turner had no personal contact with her. “She just wanted to keep it to herself and Antonio, and didn’t want to quite have those sit-down, in-depth discussions with me, which I completely understand and respect. I think this is, like, one of the most traumatic times in her life, and I was not going to push.”
Continue reading  »

The Staircase star talks to Jessica Chastain about growing up with the whole world watching.

“For ten years, I felt like I needed to be the person that everyone else saw because I was growing up and I didn’t know anything else,” Sophie Turner told Jessica Chastain about coming of age in public as the resilient daughter Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones and the telepathic mutant Jean Grey in X-Men. “I feel like I’m only on the beginning of my journey of evolving into a person I probably should have evolved into.”

Now, Turner is 26 with a husband (equally famous former child star Joe Jonas) and a second baby on the way and a new show, The Staircase, on HBO Max. (The miniseries, co-starring Toni Collette and Colin Firth, tells the true story of a wife’s suspicious death and the investigation that followed.) For the Cut’s May-June cover, the actor spoke with friend and former Marvel co-star Jessica Chastain about what they have in common — particularly how they manage their desire for people to know them more for their work than their private lives.

“I spent a lot of time making mistakes and failing and learning a lot about the industry and about developing characters. But my failures got to be in private,” Chastain said. “I find it so admirable but also unfair that everything is being watched.”

In the below conversation, Turner and Chastain also talk about finding some semblance of normality, the growth they’ve experienced, and their commitment to staying true to themselves.

Jessica Chastain: Do I have lipstick on my teeth? I put it on really quick. Where are you right now? Your backdrop is pretty cool.

Sophie Turner: No, you look great; I’m in Miami. I just moved here with Joe. When Joe was like, “Let’s move there,” I was like, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen myself as a Florida girl.” But it’s so family friendly, and the food is amazing here.

Jessica: Right now, the Florida bills aren’t so friendly —

Sophie: Yeah. There are a few things … That’s why I was like, “We’re really going to move to Florida?”
Continue reading  »

Life has been booked and busy for Sophie Turner. Since her days as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones ended back in 2019, the actor has gone on to star in the popular X-Men franchise, as well as a recurring role on the Quibi series Survive. This past summer, she also took a break from set life when she and husband Joe Jonas welcomed their first baby girl together. Now, Turner is ready to get back to work again. And where better to start than serving on a new Louis Vuitton campaign highlighting its Tambour Street Diver timepiece?

Having worn many of Nicolas Ghesquière’s designs on the red carpets over the years, Turner says she’s always been a big fan of Louis Vuitton. “The way that I dress is always aligned with the way Nicolas designs,” says Turner, adding that she loves how he juxtaposes “strength and femininity.” She says modeling the label’s new watch, which is unisex and water resistant, is perfect timing for her, given she’s recently gotten into collecting timepieces. “My husband [Joe] is into watches, so he leads the way and tells me which watches are cool and which ones aren’t,” Turner says. So far, she’s amassed around six styles, but she says the Tambour Street Diver is one of her favorites yet. “It’s big and it’s chunky, which I like,” she says. “I’ve always liked more masculine watches.”

Playing with watches and accessories isn’t the only thing on Turner’s mind this spring. Admitting that she’s spent much of the pandemic in “sweats and baggy clothes,” Turner shares that she’s now experimenting with new looks, and trying to find her fashion identity as a mom. “I’m excited about embracing fashion again; I’ve been dressing up for myself,” says Turner. “It’s actually really annoying though, because just as I’ve had a baby, everyone all of a sudden wants to wear low-rise jeans. It’s kind of offensive!” What will she be wearing? She has her eyes on the baggy jean trend. “Because I’m a mom, I’m desperate to be cool now. So I’m trying to go with baggy tops and baggy jeans,” she says. “I’m definitely excited to be putting my heels on, and doing my hair and makeup.” Continue reading  »

Sophie tells Conan how she and Joe Jonas are handling their quarantine, looks back at the time she slapped Conan, and talks about her new Quibi series, “Survive.”