‘Game of Thrones’ Star Reveals How The Show Saved Her From Prostitution

GoT fans tuning in tonight for the latest episode will see the return of the red-headed prostitute Marei.

In case you need your memory jogging, when we first met her she was being taught how to believably fake an orgasm - and she’s become a staple character since, and has now even been signed up for the seventh series. She’s pretty lucky that her character is still alive!

Josephine Gillan is now an in-demand actress despite having no formal training after her part in the hit show, and recently spoke out about how she ended up on the show, and how it saved her.

She said, “Game Of Thrones saved me from a life of prostitution, and has made me a much stronger person.”

Josephine explained that she was working as a ‘whore’ and was also making adult films under the name Sophie O’Brien before she saw an advert for film actresses.

“They were looking for young women with natural breasts and no tattoos, who didn’t mind being filmed naked. So I immediately sent in a picture. They wrote back that they wanted me and I was thrilled because it was an amazing opportunity to do some proper acting. But I had no idea how much it would change my life.”

She’s spoken out about her difficult start, explaining she went to 24 different primary schools as her mother fled a violent relationship, and was taken into care at 12 and then fostered.

Sadly, a trusted family friend groomed her while she was in care, she was given cannabis and alcohol when she was 12, and hooked on cocaine by the time she was 14. She was sexually abused by him for two years and then ‘pimped out’ to his friends.

 

“I was too frightened to tell anyone because he threatened to bury me in the garden if I did. He said he’d done it before and I believed him”, she says.

By the time she arrived on the set she was (understandably) nervous about the experience, but she’s revealed that the men were more nervous

“People ask me all the time if we are at it for real and I reply, ‘Are dragons or zombies real?’ The reality is that the male actors are so uncomfortable doing sex scenes that I can usually feel them shaking nervously under me. I think they suffer from performance anxiety, because they are almost naked and there are usually about 30 crew members on set.”

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