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Game of Thrones Star Maisie Williams Talks About Season 6, Jon Snow, Feminism & More


Game of Thrones season 6 is arriving in a little over two weeks and over the past few weeks, stars have been going on interviews revealing tiny bits of info and spoilers on the highly anticipated season.

The latest star to be questioned is Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark in the hit HBO series.

The 18-year-old actress recently sat down for EW's annual chat and she revealed quite a lot of interesting details about the upcoming show, as well as her stance on feminism.

On the show's sixth season, Williams said:

Every year I think, "This is really cool." But this year, as I opened the scripts, it's so exciting because nobody knows what's happening. They're going to hate it, but love it, and I can't wait.
[People will hate it because]they don't know what's going to happen. I know the showrunners don't take [criticism] personally any more and that's nice. People are outraged by last season, but they secretly love it too – because they don't know what's really going on.

The actress was also asked about what happened to Arya in the last season and how she dealt with having to wear contacts:

I feel like I got a good one this time: Arya is being more physical again, but she's blind. So her training has progressed even more but it's on a more physical level and a more technical level because she's lost her eyes.
I was so up for the contacts. I love having something weird going on on the set. There's never a day where I just sat and did dialogue there's always something going on. Then I realized they were the most painful things ever. And I hate saying that because I hate hearing people complain about things like that, and I'm like "It's not that hard."
You hear about Jennifer Lawrence and her blue paint [inX-Men] and I remember thinking, "That can't hurt." Now I'm like, "Holy sh–, I'm sorry I ever felt like that because these little things in your eyes are so thick, they're the most painful things ever." I didn't anticipate they'd get so sore after such little time.

Unsurprisingly, we'll get too see Arya getting more physical in this year's season:

I love doing stunts. I'm so happy I've got some again. Last year, people have been like "Arya's sweeping floors!" And everything I tweet they're like, "Oysters, clams and cockles!" It's part of the training okay? It's what goes into that. And this year there is more of that, but it's also more exciting.

Of course, it can't be helped that Jon Snow's fate would pop up in the interview. Asked about people asking her about the fate of Kit Harrington's character, Williams said:

[I get asked] an unbelievable amount.
I've been just saying "No." I can say that with an honest heart.

On that ever-pressing feminism debate where Game of Thrones is concerned, Maisie had this perfect response:

I got asked in one of my first interviews: "Is Arya a feminist?" I didn't even know what a feminist was.
And then someone explained it to me. And I remember thinking, "Isn't that just like everyone?" And then I realized everyone is not a feminist, unfortunately. But I also feel like we should stop calling feminists "feminists" and just start calling people who aren'tfeminist "sexist" – and then everyone else is just a human.
You are either a normal person or a sexist. People get a label when they're bad. Because it works the other way, as well. A lot of men have it hard too. On the show specifically, it's always been a constant debate because women are treated badly on the show, and they're treated well on the show. But it's the same as the boys and the girls and the men and the animals. The themes are very dark.
I get it that people don't want to watch scenes like that. I understand, and you shouldn't have to. But that's the show that we've made, and I have no control over what's written. I think it's upsetting that so many people have found it upsetting. But I find a lot of things upsetting to watch. I get upset when animals get slaughtered. And lots of people are like, "Butthisis worse thanthat" – and I never understood that. I think everybody's allowed to be upset about what they're upset by. And once people are angry about something, you start worrying about saying the right thing instead of just saying what you mean.
It's very easy to have an opinion. Everyone's got one. But it's very difficult to speak up about difficult subjects when people are angry with you. People say: "Why don't you speak up!" [and I'm thinking], "Because you all got pitchforks and you're ready to kill us!" It's scary if you say something wrong.

She also shared how she's afraid of being bashed by women on social media:

I'm going to say this in this interview, but I wouldn't say it with anyone else: I sometimes really worry about speaking up about feminist subjects out of fear of being bashed by women on social media. And there's something not right there. Yeah, sometimes it's men too. But there are women who are just nasty. I'm trying to do the best I can. I got a voice.
I believe in equality and I know I have more power than the average person to reach people. And I just get petrified in case people are rude. You don't want to put yourself through that. If people are angry about [the Sansa Stark scene last year] you have to watch [the season 5 DVD] commentary because [writer-producer] Bryan Cogman speaks about it in depth and it's from the heart.

As for her final thoughts on season 6, Williams had this exciting tease:

This year is so great because we've whittled it down. You can see the final storylines forming. We lost a lot of people last year and that makes it really exciting. There are fewer people on Arya's list. But there's also fewer people to fight for the throne.

It's worth noting that while Williams' answers in the interview reflected her youthful enthusiasm, it also featured her maturity and open-minded view on societal issues at the same time. Overall, the interview looks fun and I wouldn't mind seeing more of Williams in the coming weeks.

You can check out the full interview here.

Game of Thrones season 6 will premiere on HBO on April 24.

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