Photo credit: Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com

All eyes are on Sophie Turner and the rest of her Game of Thrones cast-mates right now, as the show is on its epic eighth and final season.

The 23-year-old actress appeared on Dr. Phil’s Phil in the Blanks podcast this week and opened up about the pressures associated with being on one of the biggest and most talked-about television shows in the world.

She spoke to Dr. Phil about the anxiety and depression that she faced during filming, including hating the way she looked, and begging the costume department to make her corsets as tight as possible so she could appear thinner…

“I would say, ‘Yeah, I am spotty. I am fat. I am a bad actress.’ I would just believe it,” she confessed, adding that it stemmed from negative comments on social media.

“It was just a lot of weight comments, or I would have spotty skin, because I was a teenager, and that’s normal, and I used to get a lot of comments about my skin and my weight and how I wasn’t a good actress.

“I just got very, very self-conscious. I had no motivation to do anything or go out.

“Even with my best friends, I wouldn’t want to see them. I would cry and cry and cry. Just having to change and put on clothes, I said, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t go outside. I have nothing that I want to do.’”

Sophie added that her co-star Maisie Williams – who plays her younger sister on the show – was the only one that could relate to her struggles…

“I think being friends with each other was quite destructive because we were going through the same thing,” she said.

“We would get home from set, go to a little supermarket across the road and just buy food. We’d go back to our room and eat it in bed. We never socialised for a couple of years.”

The Sansa Stark actress continued to say that a combination of medication and therapy, as well as the love from her fiancé Joe Jonas, helped her eventually love and accept herself…

“I’m now with someone that makes me realise, you know, that I do have some redeeming qualities, I suppose.

“When someone tells you they love you every day, it makes you realise why that is. I think it makes you love yourself a bit more.

“So yeah, I love myself!”

And we love her too – especially now that she has opened up about her struggles. Let’s hope that it makes people think twice about posting hateful comments on social media…

Click here to listen to the podcast in full.