Actress Maisie Williams is known for her role as Arya Stark in the phenomenal fantasy series Game of Thrones. She began playing the role at age 12 and grew up during the eight-year run of the HBO series. Williams earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations and was acclaimed worldwide for her role as Arya, the unconventional hero of the show.
Though life for Williams became all about showbiz when she entered the industry at age 12, life could have been very different for the actress had she not decided to attend the Game of Thrones audition. Williams once revealed that she was about to miss the audition as she had a school trip to a pig farm on the day, and she wanted to go to that.
Also read: George R.R. Martin’s Wife Threatened To Leave Author Over 2 Major Game of Thrones Characters
Maisie Williams Wanted to Go To A Pig Farm Instead of the Game of Thrones Audition
Maisie Williams hailed from the village of Clutton and was going to the Norton Hill School in Norton before being cast as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones. Born in Bristol, Williams moved to Clutton when she was four months old after her parents’ divorce. Her mother and stepfather reportedly raised her in the village in Somerset, UK.
Williams came back to Clutton to promote the village in 2014 and mentioned in a BBC interview that life would have been very different for her and all it took was a split-second decision to attend the Game of Thrones audition instead of a school trip. She said,
“I know I had a school trip on the day of my audition actually at Norton Hill School. I really wanted to go because we were going to a pig farm. Who doesn’t want to go to a pig farm when you are twelve years old? I remember my mom said, ‘You should go. Because you did not have anything to lose.’”
Maisie Williams mentioned that she found it odd that she was a twelve-year-old girl wanting to go to a pig farm, and then years later, she was a celebrity returning to her home village to promote it.
Maisie Williams As Arya Stark
Maisie Williams began her career at the age of 12 when she was cast as Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. The character was already a hit among fans of George RR Martin’s novel series A Song of Ice and Fire and Wiliams’ portrayal of the warrior Stark gained a large fandom. Her growth from being a naughty, tom-boyish girl to a feared assassin was lauded by fans.
In an interview with The Guardian, Maisie Wiliams called Arya Stark, a serial killer everyone was rooting for, and that she killed only those who deserved it. The character had 56 kills through seven seasons, which increased to 213,310 in the eighth and final season of the show as she shattered the Night King and subsequent White Walkers.
Maisie Williams earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her role as Arya Stark. She was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series once in 2016 and again in 2019. Williams mentioned how starring in Game of Thrones changed her life as she was just a child when she began. She left school at the age of fourteen as she did not have enough time between shoots and school.
Williams mentioned how she had only been living the pretend life of an actor without doing things she wanted. She said,
“Recently, I’ve had a chance to just live my life rather than living my life in front of people, and then telling them about it, you know? I feel like that’s basically how I spent my adolescence. I was living the life of an actor and then talking about it, but not actually ever feeling like I had lived a day in my life.”
Since the end of Game of Thrones, Maisie Williams worked on smaller films and shows such as The Owners and iBoy. She had a guest role in four episodes of the BBC show Doctor Who and made her Marvel (not MCU) debut in The New Mutants.
