Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams admits she thought Arya’s love scene ‘was a prank’ when she first read the script for season eight
Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams first thought her love scene in Sunday night’s episode “was a prank” when she first read the script.
The actress, 22, shocked fans when her character Arya got intimate with lifelong friend Gendry (Joe Dempsie) in an unexpected twist on the HBO show’s latest episode.
Maisie has now admitted she thought the script for the episode contained a fake scene when the intimate act was pointed out by her co-star and close friend Sophie Turner.
She told Entertainment Weekly: “At first I thought it was a prank.” I was like “Yo, good”, and [the showrunners] were like “No, we haven’t done that this year.” Oh fuck !’
The Doctor Who star explained that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had played similar casting jokes in the past – and she was shocked to learn that wasn’t the case.
She said: “I came to the reading and I read the scene and I thought, ‘Oh, we’re really going to do this. When should I shoot this? I have to go to the gym”. A whole list of things.
The actress said David and Dan let her decide exactly what she wanted to show and chose to keep it “pretty private”.
Maisie added: “I kept myself pretty private. I don’t think it’s important for Arya to flash. This beat isn’t really about that. And everyone else on the show has done that before, so…’
Arya and Gendry – who is the unacknowledged son of the late Robert Baratheon – acted on their flirtations as Winterfell prepared to do battle with the Night King in Sunday night’s episode.
After asking her friend about her past lovers, Arya revealed that she was a virgin and told the skilled blacksmith, “We are going to die soon. I would like to know how it is before it happens”.
The pair were then seen in bed together as the camera caught the characters in their last peaceful moments before the White Walkers arrived at Winterfell.
The coupling dates back to a point in the Game Of Thrones pilot – when then-king Robert Baratheon told Arya’s father, Nedd Stark, “I have a son, you have a daughter. We will return to our homes’.
At the time, the pair were talking about Arya’s older sister Sansa (Sophie Turner) and heir Joffrey, but it seems the scene instead hinted at another relationship.
The episode continued the series’ emotional reunion flow when Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) arrived at Winterfell and reunited with Sansa.
Tensions also rose between the Starks and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) as the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms discovered that her lover, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), was her nephew – and Targaryen’s last living male heir.
