There are few members of the Stark family left on “Game of Thrones” as the fourth season approaches, and one of them is growing up real quick.
Since being separated from her family, Arya Stark has slowly come to resemble the fearlessly violent adults she’s been surrounded by. She killed her first man last season and now that (spoiler alert if you haven’t finished Season 3) half of her family has been slaughtered, things are only going to get more intense and challenging.
Maisie Williams, who plays Arya, sat down with HuffPost TV at the “Game of Thrones” fan event in Brooklyn last month to discuss Arya’s transition into a dark, emotionless character this season. Say goodbye to the sweet, funny Stark girl we once knew.
This seems like a really big season for Arya. What can we expect to see? What is she going to go through?
In the season Arya’s character darkens a lot and we see her slowly start to spiral down a scarier path. I don’t know how people are going to react to that. It’s not the Arya that we kind of knew before, not the Arya that I auditioned for, she’s now changing. I hope people like it, but I think it’s going to be less of the kind of funny, sarcastic lines that she has and now a lot of the stuff that she says will be with a very different tone.
She seems to be getting so much more aggressive, and last season she just killed her first man. Is she going to kill more?
Yeah. She’s now growing up in this world and realizing that there’s one way to get things done. She’s had her training, she knows how to fight the right way, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most effective way. She’s realizing now there’s more than one way to get things done.
She’s so isolated from many of the other characters and, of course, her family. Do you think that she sees herself as part of the Stark family anymore?
[She’s] much more isolated. I feel like as we go into the new season we realize that Arya doesn’t have a grudge any more, she’s not fighting for her family, she’s not fighting to scramble this family back together at all. She’s given up on that. I feel like if someone were to come up to her and say, "Look, your sister and your brothers and your half-brother Jon, they’re all still alive," I feel like Arya would be like, "That’s great, good luck." I don’t feel like that's where she feels like she belongs anymore.
Then what does she want?
That’s the thing about the new season for Arya, she doesn’t know what she wants, she doesn’t know what makes her happy anymore. She’s trying different things, she’s discovering a lot about herself and she’s realizing that she’s not the same. She feels nothing, and she feels that’s quite a safe place to be, because you can’t get hurt if you feel nothing. But then again, you can’t be made happy either. That’s the twisted side to Arya in the new season, you see this little girl with these sort of confusing lines. I feel like it’s not quite as funny as it used to be. She’s now a lot darker.
You made a really funny Vine reaction video to the Red Wedding last season. Are you going to make more this season?
I don’t know, I don’t think anything can really compare. I haven’t done Vine in a long time and when I first started I just did stuff that I thought was funny. And then that one, it turned out a lot of people found it funny, which is cool. But I just continue to do things I think is funny, but no one else really getting them. I get a lot of comments that are like, “You’re weird.” And that’s okay, I didn’t do this for you. [laughs] I kind of just did Vine to make me laugh more than anything. So I don’t know. I will do it, but I don’t think anything can really compare to that sort of reaction.
If you had to sum up Season 4 in one phrase, what would you say?
I think HBO did it pretty well in saying “All Men Must Die.” You know, people look at the tag lines that we have each year, and they should be read into a lot more than they are.
For more "Game of Thrones," read our interviews with John Bradley (Sam), Kristian Nairn (Hodor) and Sibel Kekilli (Shae).
Season 4 of "Game of Thrones" premieres April 6 on HBO.
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