Clearly, by this point, Game of Thrones fans aren’t strangers to shocking moments. The beloved fantasy series delivers them almost weekly and already, season 8 has had a few of its own. But last night’s episode, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” really got people talking thanks to a major scene between Arya Stark and Gendry.
Indeed, if you’ve seen the latest outing of the show, you’ll know what we’re referring to. After all, it’s been all over Twitter and the reactions to it just keep pouring in. Yes, Arya and Gendry did the deed and now, Maisie Williams has opened up about her character’s big sex scene and why she was excited to tackle it.
Speaking to EW, the Arya Stark actress explained that it was actually her co-star Sophie Turner who told her about it at first.
“Sophie called me and said, ‘Whatever you do, you have to skip to this episode, this scene first.’ So I just read that script and it was practically all I knew about the entire season. At first, I thought it was a prank. I was like, ‘Yo, good one.’ And [the showrunners were] like, ‘No, we haven’t done that this year.’ Oh f—k!”
Continuing on, Williams explained that the Thrones team was very accommodating and told her she could show as much or as little as she wanted.
“David and Dan were like: ‘You can show as much or as little as you want,’” Williams said. “So I kept myself pretty private. I don’t think it’s important for Arya to flash. This beat isn’t really about that. And everybody else has already done it on the show, so…”
The actress also said that the scene helped her character embrace her humanity, with Arya wanting to know what it feels like to have sex before she dies.
“It was really interesting because it’s a very human relationship for Arya,” Williams said. “This is something she’s stayed away from, an emotion we’ve never really seen her engage with. David and Dan were like, ‘It’s the end of the world, what else would you have her do?’ This may be is a moment where Arya accepts death tomorrow, which she never does — ‘Not Today.’ So it was that moment where she says, ‘We’re probably going to die tomorrow, I want to know what this feels like before that happens.’ It’s interesting to see Arya be a bit more human, speak more normally about things people are scared of.”
Finally, Williams opened up on shooting the scene itself, saying that everyone was very respectful on set and things were pretty rushed while filming.
“In the beginning, everyone was really respectful,” she says. “No one wants to make you feel uncomfortable which kind of makes you feel more uncomfortable, because no one wants to look at anything that they shouldn’t look at, which in turn makes you feel like you look awful because everyone is kind of like—“ [Williams averts her eyes]. “You want people to act more normal.”
“Then [the scene] was rushed. We were [directed by] David Nutter, who has a habit of speaking fast anyway. By the end we’re rushing to finish the scene and David is going, ‘Okay, you’re going to come in and do this and do that and, great, take your top off’ — and then walked off. And I’m like … ’Okay. Let’s do it.’”
Of course, Arya’s sex scene surely won’t be the last shocking moment that this season of Game of Thrones delivers, but after watching Maisie grow up on the show for so long now, it’s got a lot of people talking. And understandably so.
What did you think of the young Stark’s big moment last night, though? As always, you can take to the comments section down below to share your thoughts.