Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon for the eight seasons it aired on HBO, skyrocketing numerous actors to household name status for their performances in the George R. R. Martin book series adaptation. Maisie Williams was one of those actresses, as she spent her formative years playing Arya Stark — a role she was cast in at just 12 years old. Despite drawing critical praise immediately, and continuing to do so until Game of Thrones’ series finale in 2019, her career following the fantasy epic wasn't always easy, and Williams recently opened up about her struggles.
Maisie Williams struck gold with her first acting credit, famously beating out more than 300 other actresses to win the role of Arya Stark. Trying to transition out of that role as an assassin with epic knife skills wasn’t easy, however, and that’s something she’s only just now able to talk about. The actress told The Times (UK):
I think rejection at that point felt so personal, so painful. I’d solely compare myself to other actresses.
With fame coming so quick to the young actress — who couldn’t have been more adorable in a photo of her first day on set — rejection wasn’t something she’d had to face before, so she struggled with that, on top of the urge to compare her talents to those of the actors around her. She struggled with finding herself back then, she said, continuing:
I was so lost for so long and I knew that I was, and when I couldn’t pin down what I felt my identity was within that, it brought me a lot of discomfort. Now I feel a lot more comfortable in my own skin. It’s hard to even put myself back there and talk about how tough it was just because I think it’s done.
Now 26, Maisie Williams feels more comfortable in her identity, which likely came with age as well as possibly some distance from the beloved tomboy character she became so intrinsically associated with. Since Game of Thrones wrapped — with an ending that the Arya Stark actress had some brutal thoughts about — Williams has moved on to a number of projects.
She played Rahne Sinclair (aka Wolfsbane) in the X-Men series The New Mutants, starred in the revenge drama Two Weeks to Live (available to stream in the U.S.) in 2020, and joined the cast of Pistol, the biographical drama about the British punk band the Sex Pistols, where she played Pamela “Jordan” Rooke. Up next Maisie Williams will co-star in The New Look, a biographical drama about Christian Dior, alongside “Game of Thrones freak” Ben Mendelsohn on Apple TV+.
Despite Arya Stark’s fans hoping for a spinoff, no plans seem to be in the works for Maisie Williams to reprise that role, but Game of Thrones fans can still look forward to House of the Dragon Season 2, which is slated to hit the 2024 TV schedule sometime this summer. In the meantime, you can get caught up on Season 1 or relive Williams’ days as the badass warrior by streaming Game of Thrones with a Max subscription.
