Maisie Williams as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones (above) and with Florence Pugh in The Falling (right). Photographs: Helen Sloan\/HBO; Alamy<\/p>\n
Williams says she hasn\u2019t always been a sceptic regarding magic. \u201cI used to indulge in the whimsy of the patterns of the universe and think, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s a sign that everything\u2019s going to work out.\u2019\u201d She says, taking a sip of Diet Coke. But after reading Murray\u2019s book, Williams decided that searching for symbols in daily life might not be so wholesome after all. \u201cI realised it leaves your mind slightly malleable to seeing a sign because you think it\u2019s a divine intervention, and not just a good, fun coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old actor is probably still best known as Arya Stark from Game of Thrones, the baby-faced assassin who shot her to stratospheric levels of fame at age 12. I remember first seeing her in Carol Morley\u2019s The\u00a0Falling<\/a>, in which she stood out as a prickly, stiff\u2011backed schoolgirl opposite a then unknown Florence Pugh. In the seven years since Game of Thrones ended, Williams has landed roles in Marvel spin-off The New Mutants<\/a>, in Danny Boyle\u2019s miniseries Pistol<\/a> as punk icon Jordan, and in Apple TV\u2019s The New Look<\/a>, a glossy drama about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in Nazi-occupied Paris. She has started her own production company, and co-hosts the Frank Film Club<\/a> podcast with two of her friends. It has been a period of trying different things, of searching for light relief, after a long stretch dealing with some much darker stuff. Last year, she even got a new agent. \u201cHe was bringing me fun things and was calling me every day,\u201d she says. One of those fun, unexpected things was Practical Magic 2.<\/p>\n Williams had seen the original once or twice, but rewatched it before her audition. \u201cThe first movie has a\u00a0lot of different beats to it,\u201d she says diplomatically. That\u2019s one way to put it: tonally, the film is all over the place. Based on an Alice Hoffman novel, it tells the story of the Owens sisters, two witches doomed by an ancestral curse: any man who falls in love with an Owens woman is destined to die. It is a cult classic, with fabulous 90s costumes, Bullock and Kidman drunkenly dancing around their kitchen<\/a> to Harry Nilsson\u2019s Coconut and a jarringly dark domestic violence subplot. The sequel is much slicker. Directed by Susanne Bier, it sends Sally\u2019s more rebellious eldest daughter Kylie (Joey King) to England as she tries to break the family curse. Bullock and Kidman go after her, bickering the whole way, while Williams\u2019s character, a trainee neurosurgeon, holds the fort at home.<\/p>\n Maisie Williams as Jordan in Danny Boyle\u2019s Pistol. Photograph: Miya Mizuno\/FX<\/p>\n \u201cSandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are real movie stars \u2013 from a time in cinema that is escaping us,\u201d says Williams matter-of-factly. \u201cI went into this film seeing them as otherworldly.\u201d She recalls meeting the actors for the first time at the read-through. Later that day she was heading to Glastonbury festival. \u201cI got back in my car, and I wound the windows up, and I was just like \u2026 \u201d Williams claps both French-manicured hands to her face and lets out a high-pitched shriek. \u201cI had my dog in the car. He was probably thinking, \u2018What is going on?!\u2019 And then I drove to Glastonbury.\u201d On set, in between takes, the veteran Hollywood actors imparted important wisdom to their younger co-stars. But it wasn\u2019t about the industry. \u201cWe spoke about how being friends with your ex is a fallacy,\u201d she says. Who said that? Was it Kidman, who is recently divorced? \u201cWe all said that!\u201d Williams demurs.<\/p>\n In the film, Williams and King are an inseparable sister duo, snuggled under the covers at their mum\u2019s house and whispering as if they\u2019re at a sleepover. In real life, Williams has three siblings, including one sister who is five years her senior. \u201cWhen we\u2019re together it\u2019s like no time has passed but we\u2019re not \u2026 \u201d She pauses. \u201cWe don\u2019t call every day,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve had waves in our life when we\u2019re a lot closer, but a lot of our connection now comes through the kids.\u201d Williams takes her niece and nephew on camping trips. \u201cWe never went out partying together,\u201d she says. And, anyway, when she would have been the right age, Williams was busy filming Game of Thrones<\/a>. \u201cI was away most of the time, and I\u2019d moved out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams\u2019s route to child stardom came via a\u00a0curiously X Factor-themed school nativity play. \u201cI\u00a0played Sharon Osbourne, and had done such a\u00a0good job that my friend\u2019s mum felt compelled to tell my mum, \u2018You should put her\u00a0into classes.\u2019 That was when I\u00a0started taking it seriously, because they were taking me seriously.\u201d Then things got very serious, with Williams barely in secondary school when she landed a\u00a0role on Game of Thrones. The speed at which her career took off shaped her expectations of the film industry, she says. \u201cI thought, oh! Whatever you want, you can get. Like that,\u201d she says, snapping her fingers. \u201cThat was how I thought the industry was.\u201d Her naivety, she reckons, was a good thing. \u201cIt informed the way I see life, and the way I threw myself into what turned out to be a huge responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Those early positive experiences, she says, gave her the confidence to pursue her dreams. \u201cI wasn\u2019t knocked down as a child. I wasn\u2019t knocked down by my mum. I wasn\u2019t knocked down by teachers at drama school, and I wasn\u2019t knocked down by the industry when I did start auditioning.\u201d Williams wonders if she would have still been resilient if she hadn\u2019t enjoyed early success. \u201cI\u00a0think that a lot of people have a gift, but they just don\u2019t get cast in a huge TV show when they\u2019re 12.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markI could access anger and fear because I\u00a0felt them myself, every one of them, for really\u00a0extended periods of time<\/p>\n Williams claims not to know about an Arya Stark spin-off movie that is reportedly in development with HBO. \u201cI saw that, too! I was like, huh?\u201d Would she be interested in returning to that character? \u201cI don\u2019t know, really. She would have to be developed in some way because I feel like I\u2019ve changed so much, and I feel like what people loved about Arya is that she was always a\u00a0child doing things that were quite grownup.\u201d<\/p>\n In person, Williams is warm but somewhat guarded; she sits next to me on the leather banquette but maintains a cautious distance. She is good company, with a beaming smile and a glorious, trilling laugh, but several times in our conversation I sense her weighing up her words. When asked about her early life growing up between Bristol and Somerset she becomes visibly uncomfortable. She settles on an honest, abridged answer. \u201cMy mum and my siblings and I spent a lot of time with my auntie,\u201d she says, adding that she was mostly raised by the two women. \u201cMy auntie was a\u00a0childminder with loads of other kids, so my life was vibrant and silly and fun and playful.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams describes herself as \u201cnot coming from a\u00a0hugely privileged background\u201d. I wonder how, on the brink of 30, she reflects on growing up with less. \u201cWhen I reflect on myself as a child, I wish I could just tell her it\u2019s going to be fine. It\u2019s going to work out. I think the fear that I felt at that time was so defining for many years of my childhood. I didn\u2019t know. I was so ambitious as a small child, and I think maybe that did come from wanting my life to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, Williams spoke about the difficulties she faced back then on the Diary of a CEO<\/a> podcast. Her parents split up when she was a baby, and her father is\u00a0no\u00a0longer in her life. \u201cI had a traumatic relationship with my dad, and ever since I can remember I have struggled sleeping,\u201d she told host Steven Bartlett. She described a teacher noticing her struggling at school and asking if she ate breakfast in the mornings. Williams said she didn\u2019t. She was eight. The teacher called her mum. \u201cI would look around at other kids and be, like, \u2018Why don\u2019t they seem to understand this pain or dread or fear? Joy \u2013 when does that come for me?\u201d she said on the podcast.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n double quotation markMy\u00a0relationship to success\u00a0was hugely defined by my childhood experience, and so that being explored in such a public\u00a0setting now feels a little bit \u2026 terrifying?<\/p>\n \u201cI have very close friends that I had not told,\u201d Williams says today. \u201cWhat I said on that podcast was all\u00a0I\u2019ve said about it to a lot of people, other than my family and my therapist. I even had boyfriends who didn\u2019t know. So my reluctance to want to talk about it again is because my relationship to fame, and\u00a0my\u00a0relationship to success,\u00a0was hugely defined by\u00a0my childhood experience, and so that being explored in such a public\u00a0setting now feels a little bit \u2026 terrifying?\u201d She winces.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it reached a lot of people who were in the same position, and I\u2019m really happy that it did.\u201d I\u2019m\u00a0curious to know why she chose that moment to finally speak about what had happened to her. \u201cI always wanted to,\u201d she says. \u201cI think part of the reason why I was so good at playing Arya was because of how I\u2019d\u00a0grown up.\u201d<\/p>\n She says journalists would often ask her how she was able to access such difficult emotions as a\u00a0younger, less\u00a0experienced actor. \u201cI always felt like it was something I couldn\u2019t say. I could access these emotions because I\u00a0felt them myself, every one of them, for really\u00a0extended periods of time.\u201d What emotions? \u201cAnger and fear.\u201d She lets out a bitter laugh. \u201cStonewalling. I know that feeling of shutting down. These things that you don\u2019t really start to understand about yourself until a lot later.\u201d Being a teenager, she says, is already so fraught with emotion.<\/p>\n By the time she recorded that podcast, \u201cI had done a lot of therapy,\u201d she says, \u201cand so was feeling a lot clearer about a lot of things.\u201d It was Bartlett\u2019s initial question that cracked them open for her. \u201cHe said, \u2018What happened to you as a child that defines how you are?\u2019 or something. It\u2019s literally the only question that someone would have to ask me for me to answer honestly.\u201d I was struck by her candour and vulnerability in that interview, I tell her. \u201cI just thought that by releasing it, it was the last step in being free from it. Which kind of turned out to be true,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n I wonder what she makes of Bartlett now. \u201cMmm,\u201d she says, eyebrows raising, her mouth tightening into a horizontal line. In recent years, Bartlett has become a controversial figure, who has been criticised for amplifying medical misinformation and platforming manosphere-adjacent guests such as fellow podcaster Chris Williamson, who blamed declining birthrates on \u201cwomen\u2019s socioeconomic emancipation into the workforce\u201d. Bartlett has aired the views of \u201cexperts\u201d who claimed that Covid vaccines were \u201ca net negative for society<\/a>\u201d and that cancer could be treated by a keto diet. It\u2019s not a show that seems particularly aligned with liberal values.<\/p>\n Styling: Magdalena Bryk at Art Dept, assisted by Vienna Divens. Hair: Clayton Hawkins at Frame Agency. Makeup: Kindra Mann at Frame Agency. Dress and shoes: Alexander McQueen. Tights: Los Angeles Apparel. Knit: Shushu Tong. Headpiece: Piers Atkinson. Blazer, skirt and shoes: Shushu Tong. Coat: Marc Jacobs<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, it felt like he had a podcast that felt fresh and different,\u201d Williams says. \u201cAfter, I felt slightly like I had been part of a podcast that gets a lot of views based on uprooting trauma. When I saw the trailer to the episode, I felt slightly icked out by how he had clipped it. But ultimately I can\u2019t control that. Now I just feel like it\u2019s quite dangerous, some of these conversations that are being had and taken out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, speaking about her experiences publicly was \u201ca\u00a0huge, defining moment of change\u201d for Williams. \u201cThe\u00a0first half of my 20s was just hell, but I think maybe\u00a0it is for a lot of people,\u201d she says. \u201cI think that has more to do with the fact that Game of Thrones was ending, and I didn\u2019t know what I was going to do next, and I\u00a0just needed a break, to be honest with you. And then it also has to do with delayed teenage awkward years, and figuring a lot of things out that I felt like maybe I couldn\u2019t do much earlier than that. And also Covid, and also an industry strike,\u201d she adds with a\u00a0shrug. The pub is getting noisy, filling up with finance bros who have just finished work.<\/p>\n \u201cBut post-2023, every day has been getting better,\u201d she says. What happened in 2023? \u201cI started seeing my\u00a0friends again. I moved out of London. I was living alone. I was back with my dog. Everything was different,\u201d she says. Williams is too discreet to confirm\u00a0whether this change was sparked by the breakup of her long\u2011term relationship with fashion designer Reuben Selby. \u201cAt\u00a0that point, it was time to \u2026 \u201d She smiles as if she\u2019s got a\u00a0secret. \u201cJust choose myself,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat always comes into my mind is Kim\u00a0Cattrall,\u201d she adds, paraphrasing a quote the actor gave to the Guardian<\/a> that became a popular meme. \u201c\u2018I\u00a0don\u2019t want to be anywhere, not even for an hour, where I\u2019m not enjoying myself.\u2019 That\u2019s truly how I\u2019ve\u00a0been the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n For Williams, choosing herself means \u201ca lot of quiet, a lot of reading, and writing, and yoga, and running, and exercise, and swimming, and cycling, and walking the dog. Walking the dog for, like, hours a day.\u201d In other words, being in her body. \u201cExactly, because then I\u00a0know what I want. And that can be going out with my friends all weekend, or it can be a fun dinner in London where\u00a0you miss your last train home, or it can be going\u00a0to\u00a0the cinema alone.\u201d This summer, it has meant going to Primavera Sound and seeing singer Ethel Cain play, having barbecues with her friends and watching the World Cup in her local pub.<\/p>\n When I ask Williams what her career ambitions are now, a misty, faraway look comes over her. She does say her dreams out loud, but she\u2019d rather not say them in print, she says. \u201cMy ambition is to work with people who have proven themselves to be really talented,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve worked in the industry for quite a long time, and even though I love working with debut directors, there\u2019s a stark difference in our experience now, which is noticeable. Working with people who are more experienced brings a different atmosphere on set.\u201d\u00a0She\u2019s also been pouring her time into her production company, Rapt. It has meant reading a lot\u00a0of\u00a0scripts. \u201cI cannot tell you the amount of postpartum horrors that people are making,\u201d she says. \u201cWhenever there\u2019s one great movie, you\u2019ll get seven scripts like that on your desk.\u201d She and her co-founder, Lowri Roberts, are having fun writing their own feature film, too. \u201cIt\u2019s a dark comedy. It\u2019s a satire about the end\u00a0of the world,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Williams has frequently been cast in dark, dramatic roles: \u201cBut I don\u2019t really think that\u2019s how I am most of the time,\u201d she says. \u201cI think when I\u2019m in bad situations, I\u2019d be more likely to laugh than to cry. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m\u00a0really in the camp of \u2018plan for the worst\u2019. I\u2019ve had periods of my life where I\u2019ve been so overcome by the fear of what could go wrong that, particularly now, I\u2019m\u00a0more in a phase of \u2018anything can be fixed\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Not that there\u2019s much that needs fixing. She is dating and \u201cso happy\u201d about it, though she is coy when pressed about the details. Has she been enjoying playing the field? \u201cNo! I\u2019m in love,\u201d she says, smirking. \u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019ll\u00a0say.\u201d Does it feel different from other times she\u2019s been in love? \u201cYes, which is good. There\u2019s lots of laughter,\u201d she\u00a0says, giggling. The vibe this summer, she says, has been \u201chot, in all senses of the word\u201d. She\u00a0grins.\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0got\u00a0myself a fan. I am a late adopter of the fan.\u201d Before that, she says, she was \u201cjust sweating\u201d. These days, she\u2019s too busy enjoying herself a la Kim\u00a0Cattrall to be constantly bracing for the worst. \u201cLife is actually quite fun, but we all torture ourselves over the agony of what could be.\u201d<\/p>\n Practical Magic 2 is out in cinemas on 11 September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maisie Williams has dabbled in witchcraft exactly once. The actor was getting ready to audition for a\u00a0part in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-607416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788676571_47_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n