Modern Education
Game of Thrones is to fantasy TV what The Wire was to cop shows, and Maisie Williams is the HBO series sword-wielding, cross-dressing star. Not That he 15 years-old Birtish actress is officially old enough to watch the programme. Maisie acquired an agent when she auditioned for Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang in 2008 and has since become the thinking teenager’s action heroine, upstaging a stellar cast as Game of Thrones fencer princess Arya. Still committed to dance over acting, Maisie took part last year in a flash mob dance-off in a shopping centre in her hometown of Bath.
Rebecca: Your character, Arya is the most excting role in Game of Thrones and there are a lot to choose from.
Maisie: Lots of people like her. I think it’s because she’s believable. There are fantasy elements to her story, but if you strip all of that away. she still feels like a real person. She makes really good decisions, and she’s got fantastic lines. In the first book, she’s 9, and I know that a 9 years-old killing someone doesn’t sound very likely, but somehow it works.
R: You’ve now finished filming series three.
M: Yes, and it’s my favourite. A lot happens to Arya.
R: But she can always fight herself out of any situation?
M: Yeah, there’s lots of sword-fighting… I started that in season one. It’s a bit like dancing. I thought I’d have to learn to fight, but it’s more like chorcography. I did couple of fencing lessons between seasons one and two so I could look a bit more natural with the sword. I think the man was baffled that I was learning it with my left hand.
R: Are you left-handed?
M: No, but Arya is. There are some really die-hard fans out there, and I wanted to stay true to the books that George R. R. Martin had written. I didn’t realise how much I’d end up doing with my left arm – even little things like holding jugs opening doors and so on. Everyone plans it as thoughI’m going to be holding it with my right hand, then I come in and go, “Ooh, sorry, I’m going to be doing it with my left hand”, and they have to change it all around.
R: Game of Thrones has one of the longest pre-broadcast warnings I’ve ever heard, alerting the audience to strong bloody violence, sex, nudity and gory images.
M: I know! it does make me laugh.
R: Have you always been allowed to watch it?
M: Yeah. We’d seen episodes one and two at a little private screening. All my family came round to ours – young relatives, aunties, uncles, Nan – and I sat in the corner knowing what was coming. That was embarrassing. When my mum watches it, she gets quite nervous for my bits – not that she’s embarrassed, just that she’s nervous because her daughter’s on a big TV show. So she watches […]
Source: The Gentlewoman Magazine | Interview by Rebecca Nicholson
