Her role as Arya Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones made Maisie Williams a household name practically overnight, but it very nearly never came to be.
During a recent visit to The Drew Barrymore Show, Williams revealed that she came perilously close to skipping her audition for the iconic show until her mom stepped in.
Maisie Williams Almost Missed "Game of Thrones" Audition to Play with Pigs | The Drew Barrymore Showyoutu.be
Williams, who is now 26, was just 12 at the time she auditioned for Game of Thrones, and she explained to Barrymore that on the day of her audition for the show her school was taking a field trip to a local pig farm.
And it seems Williams was much more keen to play with the pigs than be on TV, at least in that moment.
She told Barrymore:
“I said to my mum, ‘You think we could just miss this one and go to the pig farm instead?'"
"Thank god she said let’s not! Like, ‘Let’s go to the audition.’"
She went on to joke:
"But I missed out on the pigs and it’s really, really affected me in my core ever since.”
Barrymore, after thanking Williams' mother for holding the line "because we needed Arya Stark in the world,” then surprised Williams with "an area full of piggies” for Williams to "heal the wounds" of missing out on that field trip.
On social media, fans were just as glad Williams skipped the field trip, and loved the moment between her, Drew and the piggies.
Williams also spoke to Barrymore about her new gig nowadays, the Apple TV+ series The New Look, which explores the lives of French fashion icons Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II.
Williams plays Catherine Dior in the series, sister and muse to the designer and part of Paris' legendary covert resistance. The show is currently streaming.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram