Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner on X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and how Tye Sheridan is her ‘best on-screen boyfriend’

This year, British actress Sophie Turner begins the process of becoming a major star. We’ve already seen her epic arc as Sansa Stark in the eighth and concluding season of Game of Thrones, the HBO series that has been her training ground as an actress.

And now we see the statuesque Turner taking on the title role of Jean Grey/Phoenix in this summer’s Dark Phoenix, her first opportunity to carry a major motion picture. Is Sophie up for the challenge?

“It’s a dream to be able to take on this role,” Turner says. “Jean Grey not only stands at the heart of this story, but she is one of several important female characters and I think that’s very important.

“I loved being able to build this character and be able to show how she is dealing with a lot of suffering and psychological issues that will resonate with a lot of people.”

A retooling of the X-Men franchise, this film is an intensely personal and more female-centric exploration of the mutant saga.

Directed and written by Simon Kinberg, who wrote the screenplays for the previous X-Men movies, Dark Phoenix sees Turner’s Jean Grey drawn towards the dark side after an explosion takes place in space during an attempted X-Men rescue of Nasa astronauts.

Grey is no longer the same person after the accident and this creates havoc within the X-Men circle in ways we haven't seen before.

Tye Sheridan returns as Jean Grey’s love interest Scott Summers/Cyclops, alongside regular X-Men cast members James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, as well as a new member of the billion dollar film franchise, Jessica Chastain, taking on the role of the villain.

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Apart from her burgeoning career, Turner has also been turning up the heat in another way: she was married to American pop star Joe Jonas earlier this month.

The couple had been seeing each other for nearly three years and they finally tied the knot in a surprise ceremony in Las Vegas following the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.

Check out what Turner has to say about being elevated to a central place within the X-Men franchise.

1. Things get emotional

“[This] is a far more character-driven movie and far more emotional in the same way that Logan was very different in style from all the other Wolverine and X-Men movies and it’s the same with this. This is more of a family drama rather than a superhero movie.

“I wanted to show that [Jean] was a young woman who was really suffering – a very human presence dealing with psychological problems that could find an echo in all of us.

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“But it was fun to do. This story pushes the boundaries for all the X-Men. The stakes are higher and it was exciting to take the characters to a different place. “

2. Tye’s the ‘best on-screen boyfriend’ she’s ever had

“We’re such good friends, and I’ve always said to Tye that he’s the best on-screen boyfriend I’ve ever had. And it’s just so nice to have such a wonderful relationship with someone that you’re sharing such intimate scenes with. It’s really important to have that connection.”

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3. She had no idea she’d have a starring role in a later film

“When I was playing Grey in the previous movie, there were some very vague rumours that the Dark Phoenix story from the comics might be adapted for the next movie. It was only a year and half later that Simon Kinberg invited me to lunch and told me what he was planning.”

“I was frightened in a way because in the comic world, the Dark Phoenix plot line of the X-Men is a really big deal. So it meant that I would be under a lot of pressure. But at the same time, of course, it was a real honour to be given the task of taking up the challenge.”

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