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Exclusive Interview With Maisie Williams On Heatstroke

Actress Maisie Williams has been garnering recognition and critical acclaim for her role of Arya Stark on HBO's hit fantasy show Game of Thrones, but despite being incredibly busy with the show for a large part of the year, she has also found time to take on roles in a few small films, including Heatstroke, which was just given a limited release on July 4th.

Maisie Williams in Heatstroke

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WGTC: I wanted to talk to you a little about your character in Heatsroke. The oh-so-charming and loveable Jo. To be honest, she’s not the most likeable of people, at least in the first 30 minutes or so. I don’t want to go throwing the “B word” at her or anything, but she does begin to test people’s patience. Knowing what type of character she was going to be, was that something that attracted you to the role, or was it perhaps something completely different?

Maisie Williams: Well, I’d be lying if I said I was trying to find the next role for me, because when this all came about, I wasn’t in any position to be picking and choosing roles, and I’m still not in any position to be picking and choosing roles. For every three scripts that you get through, one will be made, and that doesn’t even necessarily mean that they’re going to cast you in it. I feel like this industry, for people my age, there’s not a lot happening at the moment. You’ve kinda gotta take what you’ve got.

She was a fantastic character, and it turns out she was a great role in a really great little film, but yeah, I’d be lying if I said I thought about it for ages or anything like that, because I really wasn’t. But I guess knowing that she evolved into something a lot more appealing was nice and that people don’t just think she’s a bitch. I feel like anyone in that situation, at that age would play up… I like the fact that when you’re put into a really extreme situation, you put everything else aside. You put your ego aside and get on with it, and I quite like that.

SPOILER WARNING

WGTC: The film also pulls what I would call a “Psycho maneuver,” where they kill off one of the main characters in the first 30 minutes. That really surprised me. I thought Stephen Dorff would at least make it to the end, and perhaps make a heroic sacrifice. What was your reaction when you read that in the script?

Maisie Williams: It’s very different when you’re reading a script to when you’re watching a movie for the first time. There are little things, like you’d be given a synopsis that talks about two female characters that put their egos aside and so on… So you immediately wipe this man out of the picture. It’s very different when you read a script, because you already have a bit of information about it, so you kind of already know the end. It’s not like you’re reading it for the first time, like watching a film. I guess now, when I think back on it, it is pretty drastic to kill off a main character, but it’s not like that when you first read the script. It doesn’t hit you. It’s not like a big surprise, because you kind of already know a little bit about it anyway.

WGTC: Did it make you a little apprehensive know that the last hour or so of the film would be concentrating primarily on your and Svetlana’s characters?

Maisie Williams: No, I mean, I don’t know. I read it when I was 12. I didn’t read scripts seriously like that. I’m still very new to all that. I’d be lying if I made out that I thought about any of that when I first started. It was just an exciting role on a new project.

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