Kuba: Hi! It’s great that you’ve found some time to talk to us. I imagine you are very busy at the moment? What are you working on right now?
Maisie: Hello, I am happy too I am currently shooting series 4 of Game of Thrones. I’m in between at the moment. I go back again on Sunday, and I’ve really got few more days left now so there’s not much left to do.
Our project aims at making young people realize, what their talents are and help them develop them. Do you think that such an awareness is important?
Yeah, I think so. I remember when I was quite young, being in a classroom full of kids, and our teacher asked us what we wanted to do when we are older. People went around and said “I wanna be a footballer”, “I wanna do this”, “I wanna do that”. And I remember her turning around to us and saying “Yeah, but these are not real plans, are they?” And I was just a bit like “You can’t say that to a seven year old!” You can’t give up on your dreams that early. And I think, if you’ve really found something that you enjoy, then you know, why not give it a shot? And even with all the sacrifice that you have to make, but if you really do wanna do something, and you really have a talent, then it should be number one on your priorities list.
How did you career start?
I always enjoyed performing in general. I used to do all the school plays and things like that. I enjoyed making people laugh, pretending to be someone I’m not and dressing up. Just things like that. I always enjoyed it. And then started a dance school where I started a proper training in performing. I did a talent show and I tried to get recognized and show to the world what I can do and I wanted to go further in my training. And then I met my agent, Louise, and I went to auditions to films and other things and I did the audition for the Game of Thrones. And then that kinda happened and it got bigger and bigger from there really. But I think it all started from having a passion for it and my mom being just like “We’ll try and do this, we’ll try and do that!”, and all the other people, you know, putting things in and saying “oh yeah, maybe you should try this”, seeing what I enjoyed really. You know, like I was singing for a while. I never really thought I’d enjoy singing, but I do! I think it’s all just about testing, trying out things. You might realize that’s not what you wanna do, but then it narrows that out and then you can move on.
So do you think some day maybe you will go back to singing?
Umm… I don’t know (śmieje się). Maybe, I mean, I did really enjoy it. If I was gonna do singing it would probably be more like musical theatre. I’d like to incorporate all of the arts. But, yeah, I did really enjoy it.
What was the role of your parents in your career?
I was with my mom and my step dad. And they both were very supportive of what I wanted to do. And my step dad used to always say that I should do standup comedy. (śmieje się) That’s because I liked to make him laugh and stuff like that. So he always believed in me and wanted me to do this and suggested little things. And my mom paid for a lot of my lessons when I was younger, and it’s really a kind of a base and it just pushed me off into this world and helped me
out so much. I recently moved out, I don’t live at home anymore. But I see my family all the time and we’re really, really close and my mom used to chaperon me when I went away filming. So she was with me all the time. It’s lovely to have a supportive family, because it’s not always that way. Sometimes you have to be on your own. So I’m very glad and very lucky to have a family who supports me in what I do.
What is your biggest achievement, one that has a very special meaning for you?
You mean Arya?
Not necessarily, just a thing, an achievement that has a special, personal meaning for you?
I don’t know… I think it’s just working with so many experienced and fantastic actors. You know, people from my generation do not necessarily know who these people are. Say I went “Oh, I work with Sean Bean” and they go like “Who?” (śmieje się) They don’t have the clue who I’m talking about. But it’s really nice, when I get to go to a family party and my aunties and uncles know who I’m talking about and they appreciate how amazing this is. The opportunity I’ve got is not something that comes up for people like me very often. When I started working with Game of Thrones. I hadn’t done much acting before and I was stronger at dance so I didn’t really know what I was doing. Just to have this opportunity to work with these fantastic people and learn from them and be inspired by them, I think it’s just helped me an awful lot. And it’s been fantastic.
Who supports you most in your work?
I think it was fantastic working with Charles Dance. That was brilliant. I get along with everyone, it’s just these scenes were just beautify written. I felt kinda intimidated when I got on set and I was a little bit nervous and I wanted to prove, more to him really, that I’m not just a stage school kid. I wanted to prove to him that I can do this. I’ve learned so much from him. The way he incorporated props and movement into his acting, I’ve picked up on that now. I used to just stand or sit on the stage, and now I’m not afraid to move around and make things look more natural. And he’s just a really inspirational guy, he gave me a lot of talks, he told me about things that he’d
done and funny stories throughout his career. And I just got on really, really well with him. I don’t know what I’d expected, but he was just so much nicer that I’d imagined. And I don’t even know why, it’s probably because I’d seen him on TV as Tywin and thought he was horrible… (śmieje się) But he’s really nice, he’s the nicest guy ever. And now I’m sad that we don’t get to work together anymore.
You mentioned that apart from acting, you enjoy singing, do you have any other passions, hobbies?
That’s the thing… Apart from acting I dance as well, I kinda touched that earlier. But everything that I do is in with performing arts really. It’s what my passion is. I always wanted to perform, now I got a chance and I want to extend it further and not just do screen acting, I would like to dance on stage, be in musicals. You know, now that I’ve got the door I think it will be easier to open up to all those aspects of performing arts. Now I’m in a performing arts college, where I study mainly dance and we do singing and acting through song. And then when I’m not dancing, I’m
sleeping, I’m eating, an talking up (śmieje się). And I’m packing and unpacking again and it’s kinda my whole world now. And it kind of got bigger and bigger now, and I live off a suitcase most of the time. But that the life I’ve chosen and that’s what I was saying earlier, that its about making sacrifices. I’m not a normal teenager anymore, but that’s ok, cause I’ve got this other life now. I do that instead, and then when I come home I try to be as normal as possible and you know, see friends and chill out a bit. But you know, it’s different, and that’s ok.
