Sophie Turner faces backlash for playing Princess Charlotte in HBO royal parody

Sophie Turner is being criticized for her latest project, voicing Princess Charlotte in an animated series parodying the British royal family.

The British actress, 25, shared an image of her character in The Prince to social media on Thursday, calling for her fans to tune in to the new HBO Max series. However, her followers quickly replied with criticism, saying the project centers around mocking Prince William and Kate Middleton's eldest child, who is 8, and is "bullying toward children." And many view her spoofing the 6-year-old princess as "hypocritical," as she's been vocal in calling for privacy for her own child with husband Joe Jonas.

HBO Max shared the trailer for the show, created by Gary Janetti (Family Guy), and it wasn't well-received in its attempt to humorously imagine Prince George's world.

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One tweet reacted to the video — which sees the future king (voiced by Janetti) demanding tea that "doesn't taste like piss" — by saying the show is "exploiting a small boy to prop up a TV show and make money." Another called it, "Inappropriate. And disrespectful. The children are all innocent and should be off limits! This should be pulled and never viewed."

And while there a number of big stars with voice roles in the 12-episode series — like Orlando Bloom as his friend Prince Harry, Alan Cumming as the prince's butler and Dan Stevens as Prince Charles — the Game of Thrones alum is taking a lot of heat for playing young Charlotte.

On Turner's Instagram post, commenter @miaelizabethx replied, "I like you but this isn’t it… George, Charlotte and Louis are literally children." And that was a constant thread throughout the reactions, in various forms, as with @jenny_boyes writing, "Really disappointing. Not cool to mock children," and @paulagb138 putting, "THIS IS BULLYING TOWARDS CHILDREN."

One person, @andrabloughman, also didn't understand: "Can't understand how we can mock kids!!! KIDS!!! And people are ok with it! Satire on adults is fine but kids should be a limit not to cross." And people were putting themselves in the shoes of the kids, with @_irushha_lachicaloca writing, "I would be traumatized to know this as a 8 year old."

But some of the criticism stemmed from Turner recently and rightfully advocating for her infant daughter Willa's privacy — and commenters wanted to know why her child should be off-limits when the royal kids aren't.

Some called it "hypocritical." Other Instagram comments included, "So, I guess it’s fine as long as it’s not your child?" (via @cat.glue), "How would you feel if your daughter was mocked like this??!" (via @olivia__desiderio) and "As a mother would you be okay with [a] similar show being about your child?" (via @kwiechnik).

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And one commenter (@anmerroyal) directly referenced a May incident in which Turner called out a paparazzo taking unauthorized photos of his child and selling them, writing, "Isn’t it just that children who rightfully deserve privacy from paparazzi also deserve the right for their image not to be used this way? This is a huge violation of privacy for these children and should be called out. Very disappointing."

Bloom, who similarly does not share images of his children (with Katy Perry and ex Miranda Kerr) on social media, was also called out for participating in the project. He plays an adult, and one he's friendly with, a role he said he took with Perry's encouragement.

So ironic that Sophie Turner & Orlando Bloom have asked for privacy for their own children but are part of a show making fun of & ridiculing other children of famous people. Y’all are hypocrites. https://t.co/L3NekwsnLR

— Stephanie Meidas Mighty (@Islandgirlpixie) July 29, 2021

In May, Turner used Instagram to call out paparazzo over the unauthorized photos.

"It's f**king creepy that grown old men taking pictures of a baby without their permission," she said on Instagram. "I'm sickened, I'm disgusted and I'm respectfully asking everyone to stop following us around and stop trying to take pictures of our daughter and especially printing them."

She continued, "The reason that I am not posting pictures of my daughter " on social media "and making sure that we can avoid paparazzi at all costs is because I explicitly do not want those photos out there… She did not ask for this life, to be photographed. It's disgusting."

A rep for Turner has not yet responded to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment.

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