Mother, lover, liar, thief: Why Joan is Sophie Turner’s best role yet

Sophie Turner’s new role is her best yet. As a mother herself, the Game of Thrones star knows the drive of doing anything for the good of your child.

Sophie Turner is an emotional Pisces – and a mother herself – so any acting role to do with children and the magic just flows.

The Games of Thrones star is talking about her latest role in new Stan drama Joan, a powerful story inspired by the fascinating life of notorious jewel thief Joan Hannington.

Turner, 28, plays Joan in the series set in 1980s London – a place she’s familiar with, if only through her favourite music or posters of Debbie Harry. But at the heart of it is the story of a woman doing everything in her power to help her daughter. To save her daughter.

“Her daughter Kelly is the crux of everything in this story, and when we were filming scenes that didn’t involve her, (director) Richard (Laxton) would always come up to me and go ‘And where’s Kelly?’ It was this constant reminder of ‘This is why she’s doing it’,” explains Turner at a recent press conference in London ahead of the show’s anticipated release.

“I think sometimes when you’re doing a show like this, and it’s heist-y and there’s diamonds and glamour, you get swept away by it all and you have to remember that this is to provide a solid and stable life for her daughter so she can get her back.

Sophie Turner as Joan Hannington.

“It’s a heartbreaking story, so we had to constantly be reminding ourselves of that to keep it grounded and to not get too excited.”

So how does she prepare for the emotion involved in a mother being separated from her child? Well, that’s easy.

“I’m a Pisces. Very emotional!” she continues.

“But I do listen to music and things like that, and I’m a mother, so with anything to do with children, it just kind of flows out of me.

“I think that with strength and resilience you can pretty much do anything, but also there’s always an opportunity to be found.”

The series tackles themes of domestic violence, and subsequently, doing anything to survive. Like swallowing diamonds – which Turner says is harder than it looks.

“I was given gummy diamonds to swallow because they didn’t want me swallowing the real ones, but they were so sticky they didn’t come off the paper, so I ended up just putting the real ones in the paper,” Turner explains.

Sophie Turner says swallowing diamonds is harder than it looks.

“But they were cubic zirconia so I didn’t swallow them.

“It is a very important scene because it’s that gateway into the life that she leads, so we needed it to be an obsession and a fascination with this sparkling thing that’s been so unattainable her whole life, and now it’s right there in front of her.

“What do you do in that moment? You swallow diamonds!”

She and fellow co-stars got to meet the real Joan Hannington, an experience that lifted the show, says Harry Potter and Fear of the Walking Dead star Frank Dillane, who plays fellow criminal Benny Boisie.

“I did get to know Joan … we talked a lot,’ he says.

“I was constantly running things past her and it was just an endless wealth of information and love, and she’s just a great friend.

“When you’re portraying someone who actually existed, I felt great responsibility for the real Joan to sort of sign off on me doing the part.

“He’s a really interesting character and a really interesting bloke.

Frank Dillane and Sophie Turner in Joan.

“I saw him as introverted, intelligent, focused and kind of obsessed with what he does, and particular and meticulous.”

Turner says working alongside Dillane was another highlight of the experience, and one that made their performances as strong as they were.

“We became really close during this,” Turner says.

“It was imperative that we had a good relationship and I kind of artistically fell in love with Frank a little bit, because the way he works is so fascinating and he dives so deep into his characters.

“Just to watch him on set was really fascinating for me because I think we work in different ways.

“I really found myself relying on him for a lot of it, the emotional stuff, and we became quite close.”

“Absolutely,” agrees Dillane.

“Sophie is so easy to love and I found it just such a pleasure.”

Joan creator and writer Anna Symon. Picture: Instagram

I Am What I Am by Joan Hannington.

Series creator and writer Anna Symon says the series came about after director Ruth Kenley-Letts sent her a book by Joan Hannington, a memoir of her life in the ’80s, that she wrote in 2002.

“I read it and instantly I was captivated by the character of Joan – she’s such a complex and extraordinary woman, both vulnerable and strong, who makes some terrible choices, unfortunately,” Symon says, also at the press conference.

“But I think she’s someone that a lot of people can relate to, and I just wanted to read more and more about her.

“There was a line very early on in the book where she says ‘Diamonds are my life, my buzz, my art’ and I just thought: ‘Who is this woman? Why haven’t I heard her story? Why hasn’t her story been told on television?’ All of that just really made me want to write it.

“The first thing I did after talking to my fellow creatives, and us deciding that we wanted to go ahead and try and make this show, was to meet Joan Hannington herself. We met in a cafe in North London. I was quite nervous, having read her book and hearing about some of the crimes that she’d done, as well as wanting her approval and wanting to talk to her about it.

“The first thing she said was ‘I don’t want you to do this unless you’re going to tell the warts and all’ ... I think she wanted people to know this behaviour came from somewhere and I would have done that anyway, because I wanted to tell the true story of Joan.”

Turner says playing Joan has been the highlight of her career.

“It was amazing,” she says.

“It was the thrill of my career, I feel, to be able to play someone like Joan, who’s so multifaceted and is so funny, who’s gone through so much trauma and is so ambitious.

“She’s all these things: Mother, lover, liar, thief. There really is so much to her.

“She is so much in one person and I just felt it would be the biggest treat to be able to play her.

“It’s just remarkable that it’s all a true story, or is inspired by one.”

Sophie Turner with ex-husband, singer Joe Jonas. Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

She read Joan’s book nine times in preparation – but meeting her was when it all clicked.

“The minute Joan walks into a room, she is the star of that room,” Turner says.

“She’s the diamond.

“And when I finally met her I saw this magnetic woman. I really, truly understood why Boisie and so many people were drawn to her the way she was drawn to the jewels.”
And Joan, herself, says Turner was the perfect choice to tell her story.

“They couldn’t have got anyone better,” she says.

“I’ve been retired for 40 years and to be sitting here at 68 – I’m not a showbiz-y person, I’m a very private person – and I just find it amazing.

“From the day we all met, all of us just clicked – the crew, the lighting, the engineers. “Everyone always thinks ‘Oh, it’s just the actors’ but to make a program you’ve got the directors, the writers, the producers, the lighting men, the catering team. All these people need to be lifted up.

“But kudos to Sophie because she’s done an amazing job. I hope they get all the recognition they deserve.”

Joan is screening now on Stan