On Game of Thrones, Sansa and Arya Are Ready to Connive and Kill

By Hillary Crosley Coker  |  April 1, 2015 | 3:50pm
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Game of Thrones returns on April 12 but instead of gods and men as the focus, the fifth season is shaping up to all about the women, including Arya and Sansa Stark, as they mature into their own power. SPOILER ALERT.

Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams, the actresses who play Sansa and Arya respectively, grew up on the set of HBO’s hit fantastical show where dragons fly and families gamely have wolves as pets. But when the ladies spoke to the New York Times, it was clear that they’re ready for their characters’ next steps into the spotlight.

*SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT *

In King’s Landing, a battle is brewing between Cersei Lannister, left to rule House Lannister following her dad’s death, Margaery Tyrell, widow of Justin Bieber/King Joffrey Baratheon and Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons and widow of terribly hot Khal Drogo. Meanwhile Arya is slowing becoming a skilled murderess and with her captor the Hound dead, she and her adorable sword will finally get her chance to … try to stab everyone, it sounds like.

Arya is en route to Braavos and the House of Black and White — a new location for the show but one that will be well known to readers of the books by George R. R. Martin. There she aims to learn the ways of the Faceless Men, an enigmatic order of assassins.
Sansa, meanwhile, has shifted into Black Swan mode, both in wardrobe and in attitude, and is emerging as more of an equal to her master-plotter escort. “She’s really becoming her own lady and surprising everyone, including Littlefinger and perhaps herself,” Mr. Gillen wrote in an email.

Elsewhere the two actresses are branching out outside of Game of Thrones. Williams is starring in a new independent film called The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and Turner has Alone and Barely Lethal coming out this year, about which she jokes that “People think [Barely Lethal] is a porno.” She’s also been cast as a young Jean Grey in the new X-Men: Apocalypse.

The ladies are also besties, thanks to their time on GoT.

“Our other friends don’t 100 percent get it,” Ms. Williams said. “Sometimes it is nice to just be with the one person who does.”
“No one else gets it like you get it,” Ms. Turner said to her, sincerely, before turning playfully mawkish: “No one gets me like you do.”

They aren’t able to hang out on set because Turner usually films in Croatia while Williams is mucking about in Northern Ireland, but they catch up in summer, reuniting at hipster events like the Glastonbury Festival. Ultimately, the pair are maturing on Game of Thrones and stretching their talents elsewhere to strike while the iron (throne) is hot.

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