Maisie Williams Finally Set the Record Straight on How to Pronounce Arya Stark's Name
Forget final-season spoilers, because a long-gestating Game of Thrones mystery has been solved. However, it’s less to do with spooky White Walkers and more along the lines of…basic pronunciation.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Maisie Williams clarified once and for all the correct pronunciation of her character Arya Stark’s name. Take a deep breath. You ready?! Have you been disrespecting the Girl With No Name for all of these years?! “It’s Arr-ya,” she said with a laugh. “But I don’t like that, so I call her Arr-ee-ya.” Well, if either is good for her, we guess it can be good for us too.
Unsurprisingly, the talk-happy Williams also divulged a bit of non-spoilery information about the show’s final season, which will be debuting in April 2019. (There will be six movie-length episodes in total, lest you forgot.) “I ended on the perfect scene. I was alone—shocker! Arya’s always bloody alone,” she said. “But I was alone and I had watched a lot of other people wrap. I knew the drill. I had seen the tears and heard the speeches.” Besides, she doesn’t think she could’ve handled any more bloodshed or tears, anyway: “I got to the end and I didn’t want more. I had exhausted every possible piece of Arya. And this season was quite big for me. I had a lot more to do. Mainly because there’s just less characters now, so everyone’s got more to do.”
Despite being a few months away, many Game of Thrones cast members have already been enjoying press rounds in anticipation of the show’s premiere. Earlier this month at New York Comic Con, for instance, Sophie Turner told a hilarious story about her and Williams’ self-care ritual after long, hard days on set. “We just used to sit there and eat and watch stupid videos and smoke weed,” she explained. “I don’t know if my publicist will kill me for saying this. We’d get high and then we’d sit in the bath together and we’d rub makeup brushes on our faces. It’s fun.”
Related Stories:
Maisie Williams Explains Why the ‘Game of Thrones’ Cast Are Scared of Getting Drunk in Public