Dark Phoenix's Jessica Chastain Told Sophie Turner To Stand Up For Herself To Co-Star

Sophie Turner as Jean Grey in X-Men: Dark Phoenix
(Image credit: (Fox))

Sophie Turner will soon reprise her badass roles as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones in the highly-anticipated final season and as an ultra-powerful Jean Grey in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The 23-year-old actress isn’t immune to moments of timidity, and recently spoke of a time when she was lifted up by one of her co-stars on the Dark Phoenix set. One actor apparently "walked off set" just as it became time for her to say her lines and a writer had to stand in for him for the scene. Here's what Turner said of the situation:

I actually have a really big problem with not being able to stand up for myself. Especially if I’m arguing against a man. Jessica Chastain is the one that said it to me, ‘You need to stand up for yourself more!’ She said, ‘Just go and talk to him, go and say something to him!’ I’m a bit of a shy, pushover person, but I’m getting there, I’m working on it.

Jessica Chastain, who also stars in Dark Phoenix, must have witnessed the awkward and disrespectful exchange between Sophie Turner and an undisclosed male actor and encouraged her to engage in a discussion with him about it.

In Sophie Turner’s cover interview with Glamour, the actress expressed that she sometimes struggles with speaking up for herself, but thanks to amazing co-workers such as Jessica Chastain, she is starting to improve. While we’re of course wondering who had the nerve to walk out on Turner in the middle of a scene, what’s important here is the moment of encouragement between her and Chastain.

As the interview notes, she really is getting better at speaking up for herself. Back in January, Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan agreed with a statement about celebrities trying to make mental health "fashionable." Sophie Turner took to Twitter to fiercely respond to his comments. Check it out:

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Not so much of a pushover now! She not only clapped back, she did so with some alarming mental health statistics, and ended with a simple burn of "twat." The young actress is having a strong character arc of her own from the on-set incident to this Twitter call out – though face-to-face confrontation and typing out a tweet aren’t quite the same.

In Dark Phoenix, Jessica Chastain will play an alien shapeshifter who will be the sort of "devil on Jean’s shoulder" as Jean is faced with incredible new power she doesn’t know what to do with or control. From the footage we’ve seen thus far, the pair seem to share quite a few scenes together as Professor X, Magneto, and the mutants try to figure out how to stop their dangerous friend.

Sophie Turner will first return as her iconic Game of Thrones character on April 14 in a six-episode finale that’s sure to get the world talking. X-Men: Dark Phoenix comes to theaters on June 7, 2019.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.