An Irish student who worked as Sophie Turner’s stand-in on Game of Thrones has revealed that pop superstar Joe Jonas mistook her for his fiancé.
Laura Butler, 22, worked as the actress’ stand-in while filming the show’s final series in October 2017 – and said they regularly got mixed up on set.
Speaking about meeting Sophie for the first time, the Laois native told the Mail Online: “The first day I met her was her first day back on set.”
“It was just brief because there was a lot of work to do. It was a quick hello and saying how strange it was because of how alike we looked.”
She continued: “As we went on we chatted a bit more and I got to know her a bit more. She was always really friendly and really nice and chatty to me.”
“At the start it was a quick hello, and I think she was in shock a little bit as well. A lot of the people working behind the scenes did a double-take at me and joked that I even walk like her.”
“It was maybe things I wouldn’t pick up or notice in her but other people were noticing in me. It was strange.”
“There was another time when I was on set and Maisie Williams came on and looked at me and then looked at Sophie and was shocked at how similar and alike we were,” she said.
Back in June, Sophie revealed in an interview that her then-fiancé Joe had accidentally tried to kiss her body double – which Laura didn’t even realise.
Laura said: “There were a few articles which went around a while ago about Joe Jonas having mistaken Sophie’s double on Game of Thrones but he was on set quite a few times.”
“I have said hello to him in passing and that was about it, for professional reasons, of course. I think those articles were about me. She mentioned how similar her Game of Thrones double was, which I presume was me.”
“It was then that she went on to say that Joe Jonas mistook me for her on set one day, which I thought was really funny because I didn’t realise that until I had read it,” she said.
“My first day on set was Sophie’s first day back too, and a lot of people were like I haven’t seen you in a long time and the breakfast tent that we used was the same as the cast and production tent.
“Someone came over and said, ‘congratulations on your engagement’ and I was like, ‘sorry?’. They didn’t realise.”
The 22-year-old has also revealed that she was once mistaken for Sophie at Disneyland, before she even worked on the HBO series.
“I’ve been stopped by strangers on the street a few times,” she revealed. “I was in Disneyland two years ago before I even worked on Game of Thrones and I was with some friends.”
“I wasn’t paying much attention to anyone else but they kept saying, ‘Laura, people are staring at you’. We got off one of the rollercoasters and there was a family and the dad waited for me until I got off to ask me if I was her.”
“I said I wasn’t, but a few people took pictures of me. I just thought it was quite funny and it didn’t bother me at all.
“Even when we were filming in Seville fans were aware the cast was there so a few people came over if myself and the other stand-ins were going to get food because we all look so like the cast.”
“For that week [the attention] was so constant I do feel really sorry for the cast in a way. They obviously have amazing lives but no privacy, so I do see how hard it must be for them.
“If anything it’s just an amazing compliment and has lead to such unbelievable opportunities for me,” Laura said.
“It has changed my life in a way, for being able to work on Game of Thrones for so long and having met such incredible and talented people who worked on there and even being good friends with the other stand-ins as well.”
