By Anand Holla
 

Under a flood of bright lights and extended bursts of flashes of cameras, Maisie Williams breathes easy, wearing her fame as effortlessly as her character Arya Stark wears the heroine-warped-in-anti-heroine persona in the ridiculously popular Game of Thrones (GoT).
For a grand gala event hosted by OSN – the region’s leading pay-TV network – to announce its exciting new programming line-up for 2016, a long red carpet leads a bevy of top Arab celebrities and even Antonio Banderas into The Music Hall at the plush Jumierah Zabeel Saray, in Dubai. As she saunters across the red carpet, Williams’ easy sway belies her on-screen experience of a mere seven years – six-and-a-half years of which was, as a minor.
The British actress, who turned 18 in April, halts past the end of the entourage of video cameras tracking her every movement, and confesses. “It’s been very difficult,” Williams tells Community, her deep grey eyes relaying her emotions as much as her words. “It’s been kind of strange, and very different to the life that I used to live. I have become a role model very quickly which I was not expecting to happen at all. I now realise that a lot of people find me very influential and I have that responsibility to do a good job,” she says.
Although Williams feels that she has grown up rather quickly acting in GoT as much for the demanding nature of her extremely complex role as for working in an adults’ world through her teens, she is wise beyond her age to draw the good out of it all.
“It is stressful but it’s thoroughly enjoyable. It’s the most humbling feeling,” she says, “I feel so grateful when I realise that there are people, all over the world, who listen to the things that I have to say. It’s so nice to know you have people who are backing you like that and are rooting for you. I am grateful but it’s also strange.”
Gratitude, in fact, keeps springing up in her talk. “I am so grateful and feel so wonderful to come to such foreign parts of the world and have people who know who I am, who are so supportive and lovely,” she says, “Everywhere I go, I can’t thank people enough. This success is amazing and it wouldn’t be possible without the viewers,” she says, as the fantasy drama TV series that has won 26 Emmy awards is set to enter its sixth season next year.
As Ned Stark’s rebellious young daughter Arya, who makes her way despite stumbling deeper into darkness, Williams has won the hearts of her legions of fans by adapting to her character’s interesting dualities and coming-of-age subtleties as she herself has come of age as a performer.
“Arya is a breath of fresh air on the show. She is a young character who makes a lot of grown-up decisions; they aren’t always correct, but hey, that’s the way it goes and no-one’s perfect,” Williams explains, “It’s very refreshing to see a child character who isn’t just someone’s daughter, or just bringing a cute element to the series. It’s nice to see a real young person who is portrayed in a way that we can all kind of relate to.”
Like Arya, Williams, too, is a tomboy who grew up climbing trees, but the similarities are slim. Playing such a feisty character certainly allowed young Williams to live another life, so early on. “I am so thrilled to be able to play Arya,” she says, “I am so lucky to have such a wonderful female role at such a young age. I intend to keep it that way for the rest of my career.”
Earlier in the day, as OSN’s senior executives joined by Banderas and Williams unveiled its premier roster of new programming for 2016 and the launch of three new dedicated movie and entertainment channels, the GoT star offered a simple explanation for the show’s incredible success.
“We are all human and there are a lot of characters in Game of Thrones that we can all relate to,” Williams said, “I feel like the relationships and struggles that are portrayed are something that, no matter where you are, is very real. It comes across in such a way that you feel like you can escape into a fantasy world.”
When asked about how it feels to be such a huge star – she has 1.6 million followers on Instagram and 1.09 million followers on Twitter – Williams said, “I think now the show is growing to a size that’s really overwhelming but I have been lucky enough to have had this experience grow very gradually. The success has come over time.”
In the UK, Williams points out, GoT has grown a lot slower than the US and around the world. “So now that it has reached such a scale, it’s totally amazing. But it hasn’t always been like this. I had some time to get used to it, so it hasn’t made me insane,” she said, laughing.
Later, at the glittering OSN gala night, Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef asked Williams how old she was when she was cast as Arya. “I was 11. And I still look 11, but I am 18 now,” Williams said, to a wave of applause in a hall filled with more than 300 people.
Homeschooled since the age of 14, Williams has been dancing for four years and does musical theatre, ballet, pointe, tap, street and freestyle as well as gymnastics and trampolining, when she isn’t acting, rehearsing or just busy being a social media maverick.
But it’s her commitment for her character’s needs that has taken precedence over everything, right from the start. Although she is right-handed, Williams learned to wield a weapon with her left hand because that’s how Arya fights in George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire source novels, swiftly wielding her tiny but effective sword Needle.
When Youssef asked her about it, she said, “An 11-year-old me thought it was a great idea to try being left-handed and thought it would be easy. I figured out rather quickly that it wasn’t easy at all. However, once I started, the continuity of the show has to carry on. We are now in Season Six. So now, I am still fighting with my left hand, wondering why I decided to do this in the first place.”
Of course, she didn’t have to worry about any of that when she went out to enjoy Dubai. “I can’t wait to get out and hit the sand dunes. There are so many activities that you have got to come back for a holiday,” she says, standing at the red carpet, seemingly unaffected by the glare of the lights still bearing down on her. “I did a lot of watersports here (on the first day). I love the ocean but the water in the UK is freezing. So it’s been lovely to go and swim in nice, warm water,” she says.
As she is nudged and cued to head into the hall, there’s just enough seconds left to ask her a final question – How much of Arya Stark has Maisie Williams become?
“I feel like I try and be as hard as Arya,” she says, “I take things very personally and Arya just brushes things off. So I need to learn to have a thicker skin like her.”
For a rising star as her, that reel-to-real lesson is a necessity to remain seated on stardom’s throne.