Maisie Williams Revealed Why She Nearly Skipped Out On Her ‘Game Of Thrones’ Audition

Maisie Williams’ run on Game of Thrones included the coolest move in the entire Battle of Winterfell. Granted, that was a low bar to meet because much of that episode was barely freaking visible, but Arya ruled. It’s hard to envision anyone else in that role, but Williams almost didn’t go there, which would have meant that she was also missing out on the cast group chat, even though these days, she has moved onto a new Apple TV+ series, The New Look, which also stars the very musical Ben Mendelsohn as World War II-era Christian Dior.

Wiliams stopped by The Drew Barrymore Show, where she made the almost-wasn’t-Arya revelation, which revolved around wanting to skip the HBO audition and go on a school field trip instead. Fortunately, Barrymore had her back and delivered on some replacement pigs, via EW:

“I said to my mum, ‘You think we could just miss this one and go to the pig farm instead'” Williams told Barrymore about the experience. “Thank god she said let’s not! Like, ‘Let’s go to the audition.’ But I missed out on the pigs and it’s really, really affected me in my core ever since.”

“I want to thank your mother because we needed Arya Stark in the world,” Barrymore replied, before revealing that she happened “to have an area full of piggies” for them to play with after the commercial break.

Williams was thrilled, and if you want to see that happen, all episodes of The Drew Barrymore Show are streamable on Paramount+, and a preview clip can be seen below.