WGTC: With the remaining time, I’d like to switch over to a few Game of Thrones questions. First off, major congratulations on a fantastic season four. It was everything I was hoping for and more.
Maisie Williams: Thank you!
WGTC: One of the most fascinating things about Arya, not just for this season, but for the entire show, has been this massive change she’s gone through throughout all four seasons, from the sweet, innocent, Tom-boyish girl we first meet at Winterfell, all the way up to the vengeful girl we find in season four. How has your approach to the character changed over these four years as the character has changed?
Maisie Williams: It happened gradually. Each year there’s been a little arc that has added up to this really big circle that she’s made. A lot of it is portrayed through the script as well, so it’s not like she’s just doing the same stuff in every season and you have to change her yourself. She’s put in very different situations which make it a lot easier for me as an actress to show that change in her.
WGTC: Another great element of this season that I think everyone enjoyed was the continued odd couple pairing of Arya and the Hound, but what was particularly interesting about it to me was how you could tell how a little bit of each character was rubbing off on the other as the season went along. Arya becomes a lot more vengeful, killing people without much of a second thought, while the Hound loosened up a little, right up to that point where he “defends” Arya from Brienne. Who do you think ended up changing more from being in the company of the other and why?
Maisie Williams: I feel like they both went through their own… they didn’t change. I feel like they both had that buried underneath, this big layer that they’ve worn for a long time. It’s not like they changed and warmed up to each other. They both had that loving and caring spirit inside them, but it was just so very deep that they didn’t show it, and as the season went on, it was sort of chipped away from them.
WGTC: Obviously anyone who’s read A Feast for Crows knows what Arya does when she gets to Bravos, but in terms of the characters herself, how do you see her continuing to change and to grow as we head into season five?
Maisie Williams: I like to think in the coming season that she’s still going to be influenced by people, but not people who are fighting for the throne, which will be a lot more helpful I think. I think she’s trying to get away from this world that she’s lived in for so long and get away to something new. I think she’s going to realize that there are a lot more important things in life.
WGTC: As for season four, we saw that Arya’s storyline followed the rest of A Storm of Swords pretty closely. They changed “how” certain things happened, but it didn’t ultimately effect “what” happened. As we head into season five, and I’m not sure if this is something you can answer just for your storyline or the season in its entirety, but as we head into season five, should we expect a straight-up adaptation of A Feast for Crows, despite it being a somewhat uneventful book in terms of major plot developments, or should we expect to see more of A Dance with Dragons folded in?
Maisie Williams: Honestly, I have no idea because we don’t have the scripts yet, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you.
WGTC: Oh, really? I thought you were heading off to start filming this month, right?
Maisie Williams: Yeah, we are, but we don’t have the scripts. They send them out as late as possible.
WGTC: Oh, wow. It’s THAT top secret?
Maisie Williams: (laughs) Yeah, exactly.
That concludes our interview but I’d like to thank Maisie Williams very much for her time. You can check out her latest project, Heatstroke, now on VOD and in limited release.