Sophie Turner stars in a new movie called Trust, which follows her character, Lauren Lane, a child star turned superstar, who becomes the subject of a heated scandal. With all of the negative attention and pressure, she decides she wants to get away, which leads her to an isolated cabin where things somehow only get worse.
The Direct spoke with Trust producers Miles and Oren Koules (a filmmaker previously responsible for the Saw films), who spoke about why Sophie Turner was the perfect fit for the role and the story they were aiming to tell.
Miles Koules called Sophie Turner "such a tremendous actress," noting how she fit this role for a few reasons. "She was a child actress." She has recently faced lots of negative energy from the wider world, from unfair criticism of her mothering skills (Koules was sure to call her "the best mom [he] know[s]") to "going through a very public divorce."
Oren Koules noted that due to that "very well-followed divorce" happening right as they started this movie, "art was imitating life a little bit."
Oren added that they even had "real cockoachs... a real rat [and] real water," and Turner was completely down to do all of her stunts and big moments with each of them. Because of it, Oren boasted that they finished "basically half a day early," something that is unheard of for a movie this size.
The full conversation can be read below. Trust hits theaters on August 22, 2025.
'Trust' Producers on Why Sophie Turner Was the Perfect Choice, Spotlighting Important Issues, and More
"She's Just Such a Tremendous Actress..."
- The Direct: "Sophie [Turner] is a great actress, obviously. But I'm curious for both of you guys, in your own words, why did you feel like she was just the perfect fit for this role?"
Miles Koules: First and foremost, she's just such a tremendous actress that when she responded to the material, we were really excited from the get-go with that, and then with it being something that A, she was a child actress.
B, She's a mom who gets a lot of criticism online for not posting her kids. Meanwhile, she's the best mom I know as someone who's around my age. And then also, she's going through a very public divorce at the time, and I think she felt like she needed to get away in real life.
And in a sense, it's almost art imitated life, where she got to do it and then bring that performance out onto the big screen. And so it's just a perfect cocktail of, we're immediately just like, yes, you get it.
Oren Koules: I mean, going through a high-profile, you know, unfortunate for her and her husband, a very high-profile, very well-followed divorce, is right when we started this movie, in the midst of it, so art was imitating life a little bit.
- The Direct: "One of the first things that stuck out to me, just from the opening scenes, is the key underlying story in this is the struggles that child actors can go through in the horror stories that can come out of situations like that. Can you talk about making that central to this narrative, and why it's so important to shine the spotlight on that?"
Miles Koules: For us, I think we'd like to tell stories with some layers to them and some depth. And I think if you just do your stereotypical girl getting chased in the cabin, it's fun, but there's no real meaning. And there aren't people who aren't leaving the theater with a sense of feeling and learning from something like that.
And we just felt like, whether it be female empowerment, child actresses or actors, all of these kind of stories that we're talking about, hackers into your cell phone, invading your privacy, all these things, I think they just add up to a way better film, and also B, actually having a message in there. And it's not just scary and fun.
Oren Koules: One of the things that was cool was that Gigi Levangie wrote the script. And she was married to Brian Grazer for a very long time. So she had an incredible insight into what Hollywood is, in all the machinations of Hollywood. So it was her adding her own observations... She had a lot to draw on.
- The Direct: "When it comes to the antagonist, there are actually a few angles that these things appear from. Can you talk about creating these various characters and just developing how their choices eventually affect Lauren's story and how it all culminates?"
Oren Koules: First of all, we're so lucky to have a guy like Billy Campbell playing such a bad, despicable guy, and having someone of the quality of Peter Mensah playing his tool to eliminate her. The speech Peter Mensah gives, you know, about Marilyn Monroe and things, is tremendous. It was tremendous writing.
In part, I think the antagonist is a little bit the business too, so... There's a line in there I think that Billy Campbell says, 'It's TV money!' You know, and it's like, he can't lose it. It's tremendously well written and unbelievably well acted...
Koules went on to talk about the other antagonists in the film as well, which include three incredibly dumb thieves that end up making Lauren's life even harder—but not thanks to any smart choices on their part:
Oren: By the way, all three of them are, and I'm not just saying this, trying to be like one of those producers, but all three of them, in their own right, are insanely good actors. So, trying to figure out the three musketeers, in a weird way, who was going to do what good writing. But also, you know, Rhys [Coiro], Forest [Goodluck], and Gianni [Paolp] all brought exactly—they knew exactly their dynamic. They worked on their dynamic.
And with [director] Carlson [Young], it came through really clear. There was no Blurred Lines. All three of them were very different, and they did a great job.
- The Direct: "There's a lot of one location DNA [in the movie], you know, you really had to work out of this one spot [as] a lot of Sophie's performance is just from [her being stuck in the one room]. What was it like balancing that and then figuring out, okay, this is the location we're going to spend the majority of the movie in? We want it to be engaging and interesting, give Sophie things to do, and still have audiences on the edge of their seats?"
Miles Koules: I think it's really tipping your hat to Carlson [Young] and our editors, because, well, we'll start with Sophie. Being in a room where you're not acting with someone else is so hard to do. It's someone in the audience watching. They don't realize how impossible that is to make it captivating and actually enjoy her scenes.
And I felt like in the film, they do the perfect amount of staying on her for just long enough, and then showing activity outside of the room for just long enough, and not going too long without one or the other. And it's balanced and paced beautifully to keep both things that are happening really entertaining.
Oren Koules: And something to add that, Sophie, we had real cockroaches. We had a real rat and we had real water. Those are all her. We had different people standing by, but she somehow did them all, and she did it. And I'm not just—she did such a great job.
And, I mean, we finished basically a half a day early, where you're in a lower budget movie with that many stunts, finishing a half day early is is impossible, and she—It's all because she just said, Screw it. I'm just going to do it myself. She did the cockroach. I mean, any one of those three things would freak out most actresses, let alone all three.
- The Direct: "Now, at the end of the day, with this film, for audiences, if they just want a good double feature, what's a good film to pair it with?"
Miles Koules: I think if you really enjoy watching Sophie act in this room, then you might as well watch 'Room' after it.
Oren Koules: 'Panic room.' 'Panic Room' always gets me because the girl, it's Kristian Stewart. So, I love 'Panic Room.' So, you know, as in to kind of shift off that, you know, in doing 'Saw' movies, we try to have two things going on. We're in the room with the traps, or different traps, and a whole world outside of where you are.
And so we kind of took that formula a little bit, and there's, you know, whether it's Katie Seagal and all these different things going on outside of this room. And we try to do a good balance. You're not bored in either place. And, you know, I think Carlson did a great job. But so 'Panic Room' would be great.
Miles: And then you watch 'Mulholland Drive' right after. And then you can touch on everything.
Recently, The Direct also spoke with Nobody 2 director Timo Tjahjanto, who helped explain how Hutch Mansell is different than John Wick.
