Maisie Williams on Saying Goodbye to Arya
Last week, Game of Thrones co-stars Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner got matching tattoos in Ireland, where the pair have been filming the final season of the show. The duo, who play sisters Arya and Sansa Stark on the HBO series, got a date emblazoned on their bodies: 07.08.09. It all seemed a bit mysterious until this Emmys weekend, when Williams revealed to reporters at the BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles that the numbers represent the date August 7, 2009.
"It's the 7th of August and not the 9th of July, because in the U.K. we put our date the other way around," Williams confirmed before heading into the party on Saturday afternoon. "It was the day I found out I got the part in Game of Thrones." The date has the same meaning for Turner. "She found out as well, but we didn't know each other then so it's quite a prominent date for both of us," Williams laughed. "It's a day that both of our lives changed forever."
For Williams, who brought Arya to a startling and powerful place at the end of last season, Game of Thrones has been notably life-changing. The actress has essentially grown up on the show, in front of millions of devoted fans, and she is now in the process of saying goodbye to her character.
"I'm both excited for the future and very nervous," Williams said. "Up until this point, [if] there's ever been a role that I have not landed and it's been upsetting, we've had a safety blanket. But we still have another year of Thrones and there will be something still keeping my face current and spurring my career. With that coming to an end, it's both exciting, because there's more opportunity to do other projects, but also scary, because maybe people won't want me." The actress says she would be open to a Game of Thrones film-after all, there are rumors-once the series wraps. "As long as the story is believable and not overdrawn, I'm happy to be a part of anything that HBO decides," Williams confirmed.
Arya has consistently been an audience favorite, especially as she's come into her own as a young woman. Watching her kick ass at the end of the last season was truly inspiring, which is how Williams hopes Arya comes across; the character has had a vast impact for her personally.
"It's really shaped the sort of person I've become," Williams said of spending so much time as Arya. "Being in this industry, I've had to learn quite quickly the sort of person that I am. People always say Don't change, and so to not change, you have to figure out the kind of girl you are, who you want to be, and how you want to be perceived by others. Playing Arya has definitely helped with that and been a massive inspiration for me and for a lot of girls around the world."
Does that mean she's not worried about attending the Emmys with a fresh-and potentially painful-tattoo? "It's not burning," she grinned. Sounds like something Arya would say.
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