Why Maisie Williams once “resented” playing Arya Stark on ‘Game of Thrones’

L-R: Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Sophie Turner — HBO/Macall B. Polay

For eight seasons Maisie Williams played Arya Stark on the hit HBO show Game of Thrones and now she’s opening up about a time she “resented” the role. 

In a recent interview with GQ UK, the 24-year-old actress got candid about her time on the fantasy drama, which spanned from 2011 until its finale in 2019, and revealed that growing up while on the show was a tough time. 

“I think that when I started becoming a woman, I resented Arya because I couldn’t express who I was becoming,” she shared. “And then I also resented my body, because it wasn’t aligned with the piece of me that the world celebrated.”

With GoT now three years in the rearview mirror, is there anything Maisie misses?

“I don’t think it’s healthy [to miss it], because I loved it,” she said. “I look at it so fondly, and I look at it with such 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.”

But, that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to doing a reboot or spin-off of some sort, adding, “I’m not saying [a revival] would never happen, but I’m also not saying it in this interview so that everyone goes, ‘The spinoff! It’s coming!’ Because it’s not.”

“It has to be the right time and the right people. It has to be right in the context of all the other spinoffs and the universe of Game of Thrones,” she said. “It has to be the right time for me.”

 

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