Maisie Williams says she was 'body shamed while playing Arya Stark'

Maisie Williams is the latest actor to have opened up about body shaming. And that too while she was portraying possibly the strongest role she's donned so far - Arya Stark of the Emmy winning epic drama, Game of Thrones. 

The 22-year-old actor essayed the youngest Stark sister in the HBO hit drama, which came to an end after eight years on screen earlier this year and managed to bag the biggest award at Emmys 2019.

In the opening seasons of the show, the character was defined by her tomboy characteristics. In seasons two and three, Arya also disguised herself as a boy after escaping King's Landing.

And, speaking recently to Vogue in a video interview, Maisie admitted that having to disguise her body while filming during those seasons made her feel "kind of ashamed".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2OuV0sEa9o&feature=youtu.be

"Around Season two or three, my body started to mature and I started to become a woman, but Arya was still very much like trying to be disguised as a boy," Maisie told Vogue. "I had to have really short hair and they'd constantly cover me in dirt and shade my nose so it looked really broad and I looked really manly."

"They'd also put this strap across my chest to flatten any growth that had started and that just felt horrible for six months of the year, and I felt kind of ashamed for a while," she added.

Maisie's discussion of the sensitive topic follows her opening up about her mental health journey back in May.

She said, "I think we can all relate to that – telling ourselves awful things. When I started digging in and thinking about why I'd said those things, actually it was nothing to do with myself."

"It got to the point where I'd be in a conversation with my friends and my mind would be running and running and running and thinking about all the stupid things I'd said in my life, and all of the people that had looked at me a certain way, and it would just race and race and race," Maisie explained.

"We'd be talking and I'd be like, 'I hate myself. I think we can all relate to that — telling ourselves awful things. When I started digging in and thinking about why I'd said those things, actually it was nothing to do with myself."

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