“I’m the serial killer everyone’s rooting for,” says Maisie Williams, talking about Arya Stark, the character who made her famous. And she’s not wrong. When Arya murdered a roomful of Frey family members in the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere premiere, we all cheered…although if we thought about it, maybe we shouldn’t have. As crowd-pleasing as Arya’s quest for revenge can be, it has a pretty damn dark side, as Williams explains in an interview with Elle. “I think until last season, Arya was always killing the baddies. But then we saw her start to use those manipulative powers. It’s not until she had that whole dialogue with her sister Sansa in the last season that you realize what she’s become, that she’s being awful to someone who we love.”
For me, it was a really great moment as an actor to be able to play the character you love as a baddie. It felt so amazing, even though it’s an awful scene. But she rights her wrongs in the end. Also, Sophie [Turner, who plays Sansa] is my best friend. Who gets to be on set with their best friend? Me! We lift each other up.
Elle also asked Williams about the accusations that Game of Thrones is a sexist show. “For me, [Game of Thrones] is a medieval world in which women don’t have a lot of rights, and yet they still prevail,” she responded. “But I do think that as the seasons have gone on, it’s become more and more amazing for women. And this final season is going to be incredible. It just feels great, being on set with all these girls. They’re all ruling, you know, they’re all back on top – it’s pretty impressive.”
Does that mean that a woman will win the Iron Throne in the end? With Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) at loggerheads and Sansa in the wings, there are a few contenders. And we can’t count out and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) or Arya herself, although the both of them are more warriors than leaders.
Early on, Williams identified with Arya. “When I was younger, the similarities between us were quite black and white,” she said. “I was a tomboy who liked to climb trees. But now, I’ve changed and I realize they’re more subtle. Like, we’re both hot-headed and I jump the gun.”
“My kill count is nowhere near hers, though,” she added. We should hope so.
Obviously, playing Arya has given Williams opportunities not afforded to most people her age, but she hasn’t forgotten her roots, and used her money from acting to pay back her mother all the money she spent on her and her siblings. “She’s such a strong woman,” Williams said of her mom, “an amazing mother who let us follow our dreams, so we went for every opportunity we got…We don’t come from a place of much financial security.”
Back to Arya, Williams said she has to go to some dark places to play her. “I find it very helpful, but it’s horrible. You have to draw on things from your own life. So sometimes, to get inside Arya’s head, I’m thinking about some awful things. It’s hard to just drop that and let it go.” Thank goodness she has that stable family life.
Looking past Thrones, Williams is currently entertaining offers for new kinds of parts. “I’m still young, but I could play a 21-year-old with their own family – getting offered that sort of part is very intriguing,” she said. “More recently, I’ve been reading scripts of 16-year-old characters and thinking, these are complex girls I couldn’t have played when I was 16, but now I can really get into their psyche.”
Still, what we want to know is: does Arya make it to the end? “Season one to eight, that’s what I wanted. I was in the first episode and I want to be in the last,” Williams said. We’ll see if she gets her wish when the final season airs in 2019.
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