Having rose to fame in her iconic role as Arya Stark from 2011 to 2019, Maisie Williams has now admitted she actually ‘resented’ her Game of Thrones character at one point.
The 24-year-old has opened up about her success in the hit HBO fantasy series, and how difficult it was going through puberty within the public eye.
She’s now taken a step away from her Arya image as she’s set to star as a punk icon Pamela Rooke – aka Jordan – in Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols TV drama, based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol.
Maisie admitted she doesn’t miss any part of Game of Thrones, saying: ‘I don’t think it’s healthy [to miss it], because I loved it, I look at it so fondly, and I look at it with such great pride.
‘But why would I want to make myself feel sad about the greatest thing that ever happened to me?
‘I don’t want to associate that with feelings of pain.’
Maisie starred as Arya at a very young age, thrust into the public eye at a difficult time, yet, she and the show’s other younger cast members were ‘protected’ from the public.
Speaking in British GQ Style’s Spring Summer 2022 issue, the actress admitted feeling ‘grateful’ that they were protected, revealing that if she had been thrust into the limelight at a younger age she’d be ‘[un]sure what would have happened to me mentally’.
She recalled one particular moment when she realised she was growing up during filming for Game of Thrones – being a handed a bra in the costume trailer.
‘I think that when I started becoming a woman, I resented Arya because I couldn’t express who I was becoming, and then I also resented my body, because I wasn’t aligned with the piece of me that the world celebrated,’ she revealed.
Now, Maisie will be starring in an entirely different role, where she’ll be going braless in nude scenes for the six-part Sex Pistols series.
Titled Pistol, the series follows the rock band – which consisted of Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious – and their rise to fame in the 70s.
1917 actor Anson Boon has been cast as Johnny Rotten, while Enola Holmes star Louis Partridge will portray bassist Sid Vicious and Jacob Slater will star as drummer Paul Cook.
Sydney Chandler will become Pretenders star Chrissie Hynde, who had an affair with Steve at the height of the Sex Pistols’ fame.
Meanwhile, The Witcher’s Emma Appleton will play Nancy Spungen, the American girlfriend of Sid, who died in mysterious circumstances in October 1978.
‘Imagine breaking into the world of The Crown and Downton Abbey with your mates and screaming your songs and your fury at all they represent,’ Danny said in the series announcement.
‘This is the moment that British society and culture changed forever. It is the detonation point for British street culture, where ordinary young people had the stage and vented their fury and their fashion and everyone had to watch and listen and everyone feared them or followed them.’
See the full feature in the GQ Style Spring/Summer 2022 issue available on newsstands Thursday April 14.
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