Sophie Turner hits back at Game Of Thrones critics who threatened to boycott show over controversial rape scenes

GAME of Thrones star Sophie Turner has hit back at viewers who complained over the controversial rape scenes.

The actress - who plays Sansa Stark in the HBO fantasy epic series - isn't a fan of the people who complained about the depiction of her character's horrific rape ordeal in the show.

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"Sexual assault wasn't something that had affected me or anybody I knew, so I was pretty blase about the whole thing," she told the Times' magazine.

"Naively so. And then I shot the scene, and in the aftermath there was this huge uproar that we would depict something like that on television.

"My first response was like, maybe we shouldn't have put that on screen at all."

The benefits to shooting the scenes and portraying it in a realistic and horrific way have been to increase conversation about it, she added.

"The more we talk about sexual assault the better, and screw the people who are saying we shouldn't be putting this on TV and screw the people who are saying they're going to boycott the show because of it," she said.

"This sort of thing used to happen and it continues to happen now, and if we treat it as such a taboo and precious subject, then how are people going to have the strength to come out and feel comfortable saying that this has happened to them?"

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Sophie also revealed that the other explicit scenes led to her getting her own version of "sex education" on set.

"The first time I ever found out about oral sex was from reading the script. I was like... 'Wow! People do that? That's fascinating!'" she added.

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"I guess that was my sex education.

"Being on Game of Thrones."

The penultimate series of the show will air later this month and promises to deliver winter after beginning with the tagline "winter is coming."

• Game of Thrones season 7 will begin on July 17th at 9pm, but will also simulcast with the US broadcast at 2am

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