Game of Thrones Star Maisie Williams Discusses Hitting Stardom at Age 12: Money ‘Doesn’t Take the Pain Away’

Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams is opening up for the first time about her difficult childhood and skyrocketing to stardom at 12 years old.

Williams sat down with Steven Bartlett for an episode of his podcast The Diary Of A CEO to discuss her career and during the conversation, she revealed details about her childhood for the first time.

Although Williams did not want to go into specific detail about her upbringing, she did say that the root of her trauma centered on her relationship with her father. She elaborated that, just four short years before being cast as Arya Stark, her life was turned upside down.

“Like that really consumed a lot of my childhood ever since I can remember. Like, I’ve really struggled sleeping and I think a lot of the traumatic things that were happening, I didn’t realize that they were wrong, but I knew that like, I would look around at other kids and be like, ‘Why don’t they seem to understand this pain or dread or fear?'” she said.

“When that sort of period of my life ended, I imagined that like, you know, everything is just like up from here. Like, everything’s perfect now. All of those things that I was concerned about were actually wrong, and like now I’m sort of free,” Williams added.

But the freedom she wished for took much longer than she imagined.

“At different stages in life you realize that there’s never like an end destination for that freedom. And it’s — it kind of comes from within, I guess. Like when are you going to let yourself be free from the pain?…That was sort of like what I was identified as, you know, what I identified myself as for a long time,” she said.

Williams credited her Game of Thrones character with helping her cope with some of the pain, as she was just 12 when she landed the role.

“Everything changed and I sort of became this like, you know, character who wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her or anyone around her,” she said.

Eventually, the conversation moved to Williams being cast in Game of Thrones at the age of 12. Bartlett asked her if she ever had guilt associated with making a high salary at such a young age.

“Yeah, real — like the guilt around like allowing yourself to have nice things or do nice things because you’re like able to. Like I felt like when I was a kid everything stopped happening and all my problems were gonna go away and then like, all my problems didn’t go away,” she said.

“And then I was set for life when I was 12 and I thought all my problems are gonna go away. And I was like, well this doesn’t, it’s not like that unless all of my friends and family are that way too, cause like, how are we all supposed to be okay if the only one person is okay?” Williams added.

She elaborated that although the money from the show afforded her a comfortable living, she still had a lot of pain to work through from her childhood.

“You know, you give people what you can, but you don’t see the pain — that, take the pain away for another person — doesn’t take the pain away for yourself. Then you realize that like, actually life is something else entirely. And like, the biggest problem that a lot of people face is making money and making enough money to live and support their family. But being able to do those things isn’t the only thing that makes you happy,” she said.

“Money won’t take the pain away. It will take like the stacking bills or the fear of like losing a house, you know?” Williams added.

“It doesn’t undo trauma, you can’t buy trauma away,” Bartlett said. “Even if you can keep the heat on and the electricity and feed yourself, there’s still, for many people — another level of trauma, which money can’t seem to solve for directly.”

Listen above via The Diary Of A CEO.