The on-screen sisterly bond between Sansa Stark (played by Sophie Turner) and Arya Stark (played by Maisie Williams) on Game of Thrones was marked by tension and distance for much of the series. However, off-screen, the two young actors developed an incredibly close friendship, often referred to by fans by the affectionate portmanteau “Mophie.” Their genuine, intense connection led to hilarious, stress-relieving antics on set, including a playful running prank revealed by Sophie Turner: they would try to sneak a kiss into every scene they did together, a cheeky attempt to shock the cast and crew.
Turner and Williams grew up together on the set of the HBO epic, starting as teenagers. Their bond became so close that they were often mistaken for a couple by the public. During interviews promoting the final season, Sophie Turner confessed to the prank, explaining that they would “kind of do the scene, then try and kiss each other in the middle of the scene and see if anyone would react.” The spontaneous prank was intended to “freak everyone out a bit” and “kept them on their toes making sure they were following the script.” It was a way for the two friends to maintain their closeness and inject humor into long, stressful filming sessions, turning brutal filming days into laughter.
The hilarious failure of the prank, as Turner told Conan O’Brien, was that the production crew—desensitized by years of explicit content and family member relationships—barely batted an eye. Turner joked that the crew’s response was simply: “It’s Game of Thrones, so incest is so normal that they were like, ‘All right, that’s fine.’ It was probably the most tame thing that happened on the show, actually.”
The story provides key data points illustrating the strength of their friendship, which helped them navigate the pressures of childhood fame. The two share a famous matching tattoo of the date “07.08.09”—the day they were both officially cast in Game of Thrones, symbolizing the moment their careers and friendship began. Their friendship flourished despite their characters, Sansa and Arya, spending six seasons apart. This made their highly anticipated on-screen reunion in Winterfell one of the most powerful emotional highlights of the final seasons. Sophie Turner’s humorous revelation not only confirmed the special, lifelong bond she shares with Maisie Williams but also offered a lighthearted insight into how the actors coped with the dark, intense world of Westeros.