This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 2.
To anyone who tuned in to watch the second episode of Game of Thrones season 8 on Sunday night, we need to talk about what happened between Arya and Gendry. They had hot, steamy, blacksmith, bastard-son-of-a-Baratheon S-E-X (I did warn you about spoilers before writing this, not sorry), and it was a lot to handle. But Maisie Williams wants you to know that, don’t worry, she found it pretty weird too, and didn’t even believe the script was real when she read it for the the first time.
It was actually her BFF Sophie Turner, aka Sansa Stark, who read the script first, and the actress did what any true friend would do in such a situation. She called Maisie immediately, and told her to skip forward in the script RIGHT NOW.
“I called Maisie and was like: ‘Have you read it yet?’” Turner recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “And she’s like, ‘I’m midway through episode one.’ And I’m like: This scene, this page, read it!”
Williams added: “Sophie said, ‘Whatever you do, you have to skip to this episode, this scene first.’ So I just read that and it was practically all I knew about the entire season.”
Arya and Gendry finally getting together I’ve been wanting this for YEARS this is my time #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/zlFK9By0VxApril 22, 2019
Arya and Gendry deserve an award for that slow burn. #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/wGJLLegpBxApril 22, 2019
Tonight's episode was sponsored by Gendry and Arya smiling at each other while they kiss. Thanks for tuning in. #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/MRhbYIMsvnApril 22, 2019
In the past, the Game of Thrones team have tricked the cast by sending over fake scripts, so 22-year-old Williams presumed that it was just another joke. “At first, I thought it was a prank,” she confessed. “I was like, ‘Yo, good one.’ And [the showrunners were] like, ‘No, we haven’t done that this year.’ Oh f—k!”
On getting naked for the world’s most watched TV show, she said: “I got to the read-through and I’m reading the scene and thought, ‘Oh, we’re actually going to do this. When do I shoot this? I need to go to the gym.’ A whole list of things.”
While many (many, many) Game of Thrones sex scenes don’t hold back on the nudity front, Maisie explained that the team gave her control when it came to how much was shown. “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…"
She continued: "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.”
Her co-star, Joe Dempsie, found the whole thing pretty weird, too. “It’s obviously slightly strange for me because I’ve known Maisie since she was 11, 12 years old,” Dempsie admitted. “At the same time, I don’t want to be patronizing toward Maisie — she’s a 20-year-old woman. So we just had a lot of fun with it.”
PSA to the Night King: Dude, whatever else you decide to do to Westeros this season, it's pretty much irrelevant now. This is all that matters.
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