Sansa and Jon Snow
Credit: HBO
Kissing one’s sibling is hardly outside the realm of possibility when it comes to Game Of Thrones. Not only is this a time-honored tradition for House Targaryen—the incest-riddled House Of The Dragon hammers that point home—it’s a habit picked up by two of our favorite Lannisters, Cersei and Jaime, in the main storyline.
But not all siblings in Westeros would agree. According to Sansa Stark actress, Sophie Turner, kissing her former Thrones co-star, Kit Harington, in their new horror film, The Dreadful, was rather dreadful itself. Or “vile” in Turner’s words.
When Turner appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers, she explained their predicament.
“So, I sent the script to Kit, and he kind of sent me a message back going like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to, but this is going to be really … weird, Soph,’” Turner said. “And I was like, ‘What is he talking about?’ Then I was reading [the script] and it’s like, ‘Kiss, kiss, sex, kiss, sex…’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot, that’s my brother.’”
Harington played Sophie’s bastard brother, Jon Snow, though as we learn during the course of the series (spoilers) he’s actually not quite that closely related. In reality, he’s the son of her aunt, Lyanna Stark, making them cousins. Nevertheless, the two co-stars share a sibling-like relationship even years after Game Of Thrones came to an end. Of course, Jon Snow is actually a Targaryen and ends up in a romantic relationship with his aunt, Daenerys Targaryen, in the final seasons of HBO’s hit fantasy drama. That was always a bit awkward, given Snow was raised as a Stark with no experience in Targaryen familial relationships.
“We put it out of our minds,” Turner continued, “and then we get on set and it’s the first kissing scene, and we are both retching. Like, really, it is vile. It was the worst.”
The Dreadful sounds like an interesting horror period film that has some interesting parallels to Game Of Thrones. The film takes place in the 15th century during the War of the Roses, which author George R.R. Martin loosely based his series A Song Of Ice And Fire on. Turner’s character, Anne, and her mother-in-law, Morwen, “exist on the outskirts of society when someone from their past re-enters their life.” Who that someone is remains a mystery, buy Harington plays a character named Jago—not to be confused with Jhaqo the Dothraki.