Sophie Turner talks through career highlights and obstacles: How I Got Here | Bazaar UK

Hi, I'm Sophie Turner, and I will be playing How I Got Here with Harper's Bazaar. What was your first job? My first job ever was Game of Thrones. I was too young to have another job, although I would have loved my dream job when I was a kid was to work in W.H. Smith, but it didn't quite work out, so wow, wow. But Game of Thrones was my first job. I was 13, and it lasted 10 years. Good job. How did you decide which career to pursue? I mean, I'd always wanted to be an actor since before I can remember. I mean, my mom put me in acting classes when I was about three years old, so she could just basically have a break, and I just fell in love with it. I knew that's what I wanted to do, and I remember saying to my mom when I was like 10, I said, I need to break into the industry at around 11, I think, if I want a good career. But I did it at 13, so that was another failure on my part. Was there ever a time when you thought about giving up or changing career paths? Yes, definitely. I mean, I love acting. That's my passion, but there have been moments in the industry where I've found myself challenged somewhat. I think there was a moment probably like three or four years ago where I felt like this isn't for me. And really, that was just because we were shooting something in the time of COVID, and our lead actor had a hard out, which means he had to stop by a certain date, but he got COVID. So we had to play catch-up, and we ended up doing 18-hour days for six-day weeks. I thought, that's not for me. I like to sleep too much. And I also really wanted to be a ballerina, and so there was a moment when I was like 15 where it was either ballet or acting, but I chose acting because I was already doing it, and I thought, that should do. What was the moment when you thought, I've made it? I don't think I've had that moment. I don't think, if anyone says they've had that moment, they're a narcissist, but you steer clear. I don't know, I don't think I have made it. I think the moment you're satisfied is the moment that your career starts to slowly go downhill because you need to always be striving for better, always improving. That's what I think. Or maybe, actually, the moment I made it was when I got the cover of, oh, it's bizarre. What has been your most life-changing role and why? I mean, my most life-changing was probably Game of Thrones just because it was my, A, my first job, but, B, it kind of shaped me in every way. I never went to drama school, and so I learned everything on the job, on Game of Thrones, which is both amazing and devastating all at once because everyone essentially got to see me learn how to act, which is not great. But it taught me so much, so probably Game of Thrones. It set me up for life. How has your confidence grown throughout your career, and do you have any tips for boosting confidence? I don't think my confidence has grown throughout my career. I think my confidence lessened over the course of my career. I think I started off very excited, feeling like I was gonna be amazing, and then the more reviews you read and the more social media followers you get, the more it chips away at your confidence slowly. So I actually think my confidence has diminished over my career. Do I have any tips for boosting confidence? If I had them, I'd use them. What does success look like to you? I think success looks like doing what you love and being happy in your job and in your life, and that's really kind of it. I don't think it means accolades. I don't think it means wealth. I think it's true happiness in the job that you love. That would be my definition of success. And so in that way, I think I am successful because I love what I do and I get to do it every day, and that's the best. Waking up and knowing I'm gonna get to play and act and dress up, hell yeah. What's been the biggest obstacle or setback you've ever had to face in your career and how did you overcome it? I mean, I suppose I took a lot, I took a big kind of chunk of time off after Game of Thrones finished. I felt like I needed a reset in my life. I had a family, and I wouldn't call that an obstacle or a setback, but I put my career on pause essentially for a few years. And so I don't think of it as something that I really had to overcome, but it was something where I needed to get the momentum back in my career. But it actually was very good for me, I think, because it made me fall in love again with acting. To take that time away and then come back to it, I just felt harder and harder in love with acting than I ever did. Do you have any advice for coping with rejection? Rejection is one of the hardest things about the film industry, the TV industry, the acting industry, because it happens to every single person almost daily. And whether you're like the biggest actor in the world, you still don't always get the roles that you want. And it's something where I kind of, and most of the time when you're rejected, it's because you're just not right for the role. It's not down to your talent. It's not down to the hard work that you put in. It's down to maybe your look, your height, your something that you cannot change. And so that's how I cope with it. It's just something that you kind of have to brush off because it's nothing that you can improve on unless you can grow a few feet. But you can only do that as a kid, so good luck. What motivates you? Movies motivate me. Watching brilliant, talented actors. I love to sit down and watch movies. It's one of my favorite things to do is just to sit and watch movies. And the minute I've watched an incredible movie, I know I can go in and audition for something and give a far better audition than I could have done had I not watched an incredible actor put on an incredible performance. And so my peers motivate me just by their sheer talent. And I think, God, I want to do that. I want to be as good as that. What's the best piece of career advice you've been given? I got a piece of advice from Jessica Chastain when talking about kind of script work. And it was really don't read the directions because often in a script, you know, you'll have in brackets before your line, like, oh, and then she cries or telling you where to go and what scene. And that can be really stunting to your performance. So my advice is to be loose, don't read the script directions and just kind of follow your instincts because your instincts are always, always, always right. What's the most rewarding thing about working in your industry? I would say the most rewarding thing would be when you get to kind of play these characters like Joan, I'm playing a character called Joan now for a series on ITV. There are some characters that you get to play where there's people who don't necessarily have a voice that have an incredible story that I think will affect so many people if it's told. And so you get to be the one to tell it and give those people a voice and also let the viewers at home, you know, we often hold a mirror up to society as actors and let the viewers know at home, you know, if you're going through the same thing, maybe you're not so alone, you know, or give them some sort of inspiring story about someone's life that looks very similar to yours. I think it can give people ambition and purpose and yeah, that feeling of not being so alone. So that's probably my favorite part, the most rewarding part. Do you ever experience self-doubt and how do you combat that? Yes, I think the people I speak to in this industry, even the most talented, the best, the top of their game, each and every person seems to have imposter syndrome. No one really feels like they belong. How do you combat that? A lot of therapy, a lot of therapy. What is something you still want to check off your professional bucket list? I want to do a comedy. I really want to do a comedy. I did like a cameo in a comedy to kind of test it out and I just absolutely loved it. I was allowed to kind of improvise and ad-lib a lot of lines. And I think with comedy, you feel the pressure's off slightly with comedy. That's something that I'm desperate to do. And I think had I not started in such a serious show when I was 13, I think that would have been my kind of first choices to do a comedy. So that would be it. I also want to work with Martin Scorsese. What is the career highlight that you feel proudest of and why? Maybe Joan. I think Joan might be my career highlight. I mean, Game of Thrones is an obvious answer because it was such a success and playing that character was, I mean, she was my childhood. But the career highlight would probably be playing Joan. I think this is a real woman who had to battle a lot of trauma in her life, but she ended up with this incredible career in stealing diamonds. First off, it's an amazing true story. And secondly, it was my first time leading a series and I absolutely loved every minute. Who do you credit for helping you get to where you are today? Did you ever have a mentor? Yes. I mean, I've had many mentors, not just one. First off, David and Dan, who were the showrunners of Game of Thrones. They picked me out of the crowd when I was 13 and I don't know what they saw in me because my tape was atrocious, but they kind of helped me get me to where I am today. I also went to this youth theater when I was young. These are the classes my mom put me in when I was three. And the family there that kind of ran this youth theater, they really shaped me as well. And my love and my passion of acting, their motto is energy, enthusiasm, passion, and I'll never forget that. Also, Jessica Chastain, who I mentioned earlier, she became quite like a mentor to me in many ways and really helping me through a very transitional time in my life. And she's just an inspiration in acting, in life, in how to present yourself on set in a kind and considerate way. She's a huge mentor. And then my acting coach is Lancey Banks because I never got to go to a drama school, as I said. So she's taught me everything that I needed to know that I would have learned at drama school, script analysis, all sorts, that I've only learned practically on set. And so she taught me kind of the behind the scenes part, which has been incredibly helpful. I love that room to death. Have you ever had a moment where you felt like a failure? Yes, every day of my life, I feel like at some point there's a hurdle that I don't quite make it over. I think that's how you grow. I think that's how you want to do better the next day and the next day and the next day and you just get better and better and better. And if I didn't feel like a failure on a day on set, I think I'd be worried. Because if I came off set thinking I nailed that, I think later on down the line, that's going to be rubbish. What advice would you give to anyone wanting to get into acting? Don't do it. No, don't do it until your frontal lobe is formed. A, because not acting, but everything that comes with getting into acting can be so overwhelming and really can take a toll on your mental health. So you have to kind of get into it when you can process those emotions. And then B, what I've learned is the more experience you have in life, the more you can bring to a character. And so when I was 13, doing all these scenes on Game of Thrones, I hadn't had any life experience. I'd just grown up in the countryside and I feel like my performance would have been so much better had I had a little bit more life experience. I mean, even kind of doing a romantic role and not having fallen in love before, that's really hard. And then once I'd fallen in love for the first time, I felt like I could bring so much more. It's all about life experience. And so as an actor, I think part of the job is to go out and live a life separate from acting so that you can bring so much more into it when you get on the set. Thank you so much, Harper's, for letting me play how I got here. And don't take any of my advice. Thank you.