Sophie Turner Gags After Kissing Former ‘Game of Thrones’ Brother Kit Harington
Former Game of Thrones siblings Sophie Turner and Kit Harington reunite as on-screen lovers in a Gothic horror film — and behind-the-scenes footage shows just how awkward that transition was.
KEY FACTS:
- Turner (Sansa Stark) and Harington (Jon Snow) star as lovers in The Dreadful, a Gothic horror film that hits theaters and digital platforms on February 20.
- Behind-the-scenes footage released Feb. 18 by Entertainment Tonight shows the two gagging simultaneously after filming a kiss that lasted about seven seconds.
- Turner is an executive producer on the film and personally sent the script to Harington — without initially realizing how many intimate scenes their characters shared.
- Harington said in an interview with E! News he had to stand on an apple box to kiss Turner because “she’s about a foot taller than me.”
A Decade of Sibling Energy Doesn’t Just Switch Off
Turner, 29, and Harington played characters raised as half-siblings across HBO’s Game of Thrones from 2011 to 2019 — both presented as children of Ned Stark.
The series later revealed Jon was actually the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, making Jon and Sansa cousins. Either way, the sibling dynamic ran deep for nearly a decade of filming.
Now, nearly seven years after the GoT finale, the two are sharing the screen again — but in a very different capacity.
Sophie Turner Sent the Script Without Clocking the Romance
Turner first discussed the awkwardness during an Aug. 15 appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
As an executive producer on the film, she was asked if she had thoughts on who should co-star. She immediately thought of Harington.
“I sent the script to Kit,” she recalled. “He kind of sent me a message back, like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to, but this is gonna be really f***ing weird.’”
Turner didn’t understand what he meant at first. Then she read the script more carefully and saw just how many intimate scenes their characters shared.
“And then I’m like, ‘Oh shoot, that’s my brother,’” she told host Seth Meyers. “But it’s such a good script that he was like, ‘We kind of have to do it.’”
“So, then we put it out our minds and then we get on set and it’s the first kissing scene. And we are both retching,” she added. “Like, really, it is vile. It was the worst — another really bad moment in my career.”
Kit Harington Clocked the Problem Immediately
Harington addressed the dynamic in a Nov. 17 interview with E! News.
“She was the one that sent that movie to me and somehow didn’t see what I saw in it. I was like, ‘These guys, these are lovers, right?’ I felt very odd about that. But it was a good chance to be with her again and work together,” he told the outlet.
“It was slightly embarrassing, having to get on an apple box to kiss her because she’s about a foot taller than me. But other than that, my dignity was pretty intact,” he added.
So he spotted the romance angle right away. She did not.
What ‘The Dreadful’ Is About
The Dreadful is a Gothic horror film set in 15th-century England during the Wars of the Roses.
It follows Anne (Turner) and her mother-in-law, Morwen (Marcia Gay Harden) living in poverty-stricken isolation.
The plot kicks into gear when a man from their past, Jago (Harington), returns, disrupting their lives and setting off a tense, romantic, and violent chain of events.
The film was written and directed by Natasha Kermani and also stars Laurence O’Fuarain and Jonathan Howard.
Why ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans Should Care
Both Turner and Harington have been refreshingly candid about how uncomfortable the transition from on-screen siblings to on-screen lovers was.
The behind-the-scenes footage from Entertainment Tonight delivers exactly the kind of unfiltered, genuine reaction fans would expect from two people who spent their formative years pretending to be Starks.
For fans who spent years invested in these performers and the world of Westeros, this reunion is a chance to see two GoT alumni share the screen again in a project they both clearly believed in — mutual retching and all.
BOTTOM LINE: “The Dreadful” hits theaters and digital platforms on February 20, giving Game of Thrones fans their first chance to see the former Stark siblings reunited on screen since the 2019 finale.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
