Sophie Turner opens up on playing a glamorous diamond thief in ‘Joan’

LOS ANGELES — Actress Sophie Turner makes her return to the small screen with quite a meaty role in ‘Joan’. The British drama is about a jewellery thief, who was so prolific that she became known as “the Godmother” in Britain’s criminal underworld.

However, despite her aptitude for pilfering wigs, diamonds and fake accents, ‘Joan’ is as much a story about the lengths a mother will go to for her child (played by Mia Millichamp-Long) as it is a heist caper, reports ‘Variety’.

The actress shared that it was the maternal love that she most strongly identified with when she was first approached about the project.

Turner has two young daughters of her own, and the mother in her connected very well with the character.

Ahead of the series dropping in the UK and the US, the actress sat down to talk about the most challenging aspect of filming ‘Joan’, meeting the real diamond thief who inspired the series and whether she’d ever return to the ‘Game of Thrones’ universe.

Sharing her experience of meeting the real Joan, she told ‘Variety’, “That was probably like a week before shooting started. She was just phenomenal and such a force of nature. She brings such life into a room. I loved meeting her.”

As per ‘Variety’, the show also explores the balance of being a mother and continuing to be a woman in her own right with her own identity.

When asked how that resonated with her, the actress said, “It was interesting because there was talk of ‘maybe she’s just excellent at compartmentalising’. Maybe that’s her thing. And then the more I thought about it and the longer I had been a mother, from the time I got the job to the time I started, it’s kind of this… I find that allowing yourself to be a 20-something year old, and to meet people, go out, work is so important in general for the child.”

“So it’s all for the wellbeing of this person. I’m so glad that they’re gonna grow up and go: “Oh look, Mommy’s gonna go out and do this” and it’s so that she can come home and we can spend more time together at the end of the day… I think it’s important for them to see that I’m going out and seeing friends and not isolating. I used to be a big isolator. I had mental health struggles, and now I know the importance of them seeing me curate friendships, because they learn all their attachment styles from you. And so, of course, Joan’s work isn’t necessarily the best form of work, but it all boils back down to Kelly,” she added.