Hollywood actress Sophie Turner has revealed she experienced a 'mini breakdown' during her twenties, describing the decade as a period of turbulence she was 'very ready' to leave behind. The 30-year-old actress, best known for playing Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, made the candid admission in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

A Decade of Struggle and Solidarity

Turner, who shares daughters Willa, aged five, and Delphine, aged three, with ex-husband Joe Jonas, said her close-knit school friend group — all turning 30 around the same time — shared similarly difficult experiences. 'All my best friends are my age and we went to school together and we're having a year of 30th birthdays, we're just so happy to be out of the mess of our 20s,' she said. 'Each of us has had a mini breakdown but we all feel really positive now. I was very ready to leave that decade of my life behind.'

The Identity Crisis After Game of Thrones

Turner shot to global fame at just 13 years old when she was cast as Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, a role she inhabited across eight seasons until the show concluded in May 2019. She described the aftermath as a deeply unsettling period of self-questioning. 'I didn't know who was Sansa and who was Sophie, and I was too young to read the books so I kind of just developed her over time,' she said. 'I had a big identity crisis when I let her go, I didn't really know who I was or what I was doing. It was a strange, hard time.'

This kind of post-franchise identity struggle is not uncommon among actors who take on defining roles in adolescence — a pattern seen across major long-running productions. For Turner, the challenge was compounded by the sheer cultural weight of the series and the global scrutiny that followed it.

Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider Role

Turner is currently working on Tomb Raider, a new television series based on the iconic video game franchise, in which she plays Lara Croft. She described the character as markedly different from her own personality. 'There is an element of her that can be fairly toxic, but there is also an element of her that is so focused and determined, whereas I have ADHD and can't complete a task without forgetting about it and doing something else,' she said. 'I am a total worrier and neurotic which she obviously isn't, but we're both obsessed with history.'

On Method Acting and Parenthood

Turner also dismissed the concept of method acting, noting that motherhood makes full immersion in a role impractical. She cited actress Kristen Stewart, quoting her as having said that 'only men are method actors' — a remark Turner appeared to endorse. The actress said being a parent fundamentally changes one's relationship to a character, drawing a clear boundary between performance and personal life.

What's Next

With the Tomb Raider series in production and a milestone birthday behind her, Turner appears to be entering her thirties with a clearer sense of self. Her openness about mental health and identity is likely to resonate with audiences who grew up watching her on screen — and who are navigating similar transitions of their own.