Twelve times Game of Thrones stars should’ve won Emmys but didn’t
By Dan Selcke
Image: Game of Thrones/HBO
Maisie Williams: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama — “Two Swords”
Game of Thrones is responsible for discovering a number of excellent young actors, perhaps none more intriguing than Maisie Williams. It’s hard to point to any one moment that stands out as her “best” — it’s more the uniquely physical nature of the role as a whole I want to reward, with Arya Stark always rolling and stabbing and running and jumping — but I remember leaning in to pay attention in “Two Swords,” when Arya and the Hound get into a brawl in a barroom, and Arya calmly slides her sword Needle through a man’s throat.
It’s the way Williams switched between Arya’s hard-scrabble innocence and killer’s edge that really impressed me…and frightened me a bit, if I’m being honest. Maisie Williams walked that line throughout her time on the show, reminding us of the homesick kid in Arya even when she was being trained to become a face-changing assassin half a world away during the show’s fifth and sixth seasons. She was a killer with a conscience, a murderer with a song in her heart.
With Game of Thrones behind her, Williams can choose to do pretty much whatever she wants. I hope she carves out a niche for herself in Hollywood, because I think she has a ton to offer the world of entertainment.