Welcome to Maisie Williams Online, your online source for everything Maisie Williams! Maisie is best known for her role in Game Of Thrones as Arya Stark, and her latest projects is the upcoming mini-series Pistol. Here you'll find the latest news, high quality photos, and media on Maisie. Check out the site and please come back soon!
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Pistols2022
Jordan
Based on the memoir of Steve Jones, the legendary Sex Pistols guitarist who helped usher in a punk revolution in Britain.
Explores the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior, as he dethrones Coco Chanel and helps return spirit and life to the world with his iconic imprint of beauty and influence.
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All graphics and original content belong to maisiewilliams.org. All images are copyright to the their respective owners, the webmasters claim no ownership and receive no financial gain for this site. We do not support stalkerazzi of any matter. For more information, please check our disclaimer.
This is an unofficial website!
We have no official affiliation with Maisie Williams or her management.
British Vogue-The second episode of Pistol, the new Disney+ miniseries from writer Craig Pearce and director Danny Boyle which tracks the stratospheric rise and spectacular fall of the Sex Pistols, opens with a shot of Maisie Williams as Jordan. Born Pamela Rooke, the punk icon is seen cycling down a quiet street in her hometown of Seaford in East Sussex. She has her platinum blonde hair piled into a towering beehive, dramatic eye make-up and wears a yellow PVC coat that is completely transparent. Young men heckle her, elderly women cower and mothers try to shield the eyes of their children, but Jordan holds her head high, even when she boards a train to London and the stares intensify. Meanwhile, Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” plays over their chatter. It’s a remarkable moment, one of the strongest in the whole show, and one that encapsulates the revolutionary power of the woman who auteur Derek Jarman labelled “the original Sex Pistol”.
It’s also a reminder to the audience that they don’t own Williams either. After all, the now 25-year-old Bristol native came of age on screen, playing the plucky and later vengeful Arya Stark across eight seasons of Game of Thrones. It earned her a spate of Emmy and SAG nominations, but brought with it unimaginable scrutiny. When, in the HBO epic’s final instalment, her character – then a young adult – had sex, some viewers were horrified. Since then, Williams has shown her range in films like The New Mutants, but this role, and this sequence in particular, marks her most dramatic departure to date – a sign that she is hurtling towards the next phase of her career and ignoring her critics (and those who still view her as a sword-wielding tween) with a brazenness that Jordan would surely admire.
She steals every scene in which she appears in Pistol, but Jordan is not the focus of the raucous six-part series. Based on Steve Jones’s memoir Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, it follows the troubled guitarist (played by the gruff Toby Wallace) as he forms a band with Paul Cook (Jacob Slater), Johnny Rotten (Anson Boon) and Glen Matlock (Christian Lees), the latter soon replaced by Sid Vicious (Louis Partridge). They’re managed by the eccentric Malcolm McLaren (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and are frequently found lounging in SEX, the King’s Road boutique run by Vivienne Westwood (Talulah Riley) whose employees include both Jordan and Chrissie Hynde (Sydney Chandler). It is to this groundbreaking establishment that Jordan commutes daily in her elaborate ensembles, interrogating customers about their reasons for buying the fetish wear on offer and insisting that being seen in it is a political act. As the Pistols gain notoriety, Jordan remains a fixture at their riotous gigs and parties, a visual embodiment of this thrilling and turbulent era.
To celebrate the release of Pistol, we caught up with Williams to discuss her extraordinary costumes, spending time with the real-life Jordan on set and the fashion pioneer she’s poised to play next.
How familiar were you with Jordan before you got involved in this project?
I wasn’t hugely familiar with her but, once I did some research, I realised that I had seen her image a lot. I’d just never really connected that face and that iconic Mondrian make-up to the name. So, I had this whole archive to dive into from the team who made Pistol. It was a pleasure to learn more about her. This project had actually been on my agent’s radar for a while, and she was giving me all of the details she could get. I knew there would be some incredible women featured in it, so I sent off an audition and it was more of a general reading. Then, I got a callback for Jordan and did a Zoom with [director] Danny [Boyle]. It’s been a dream of mine to work with him for a long time so I was very excited.
How did that audition go?
So, I didn’t do the Jordan hair and make-up, mainly because I don’t have the skills to, but I decided to wear this totally sheer Charlotte Knowles two piece [laughs]. There’s that moment on Zoom calls when you see your reflection for the first time and I was just staring at my nipples like, “I really hope I haven’t made a horrible mistake.” But, it went well and it was great to chat with Danny. He gave us all a real insight into how it felt to be in the UK in the ’70s. In this cast, we are all very young and none of us were around then, but these boys [in the Sex Pistols] were very young. Older actors play younger characters so often, and it can make everything feel more calculated but here, you feel their fragility. These boys were portrayed as menacing, but they were just young boys. Danny really captures that.
I know you read Jordan’s memoir, Defying Gravity, but what other research did you do and what most surprised you about her story?
I was intrigued by her upbringing. She has such a unique way of looking at the world and making these political statements. It was a time when a lot of women were protesting, but not necessarily using the same methods as Jordan. She used her body like a piece of moving art and it was completely habitual. She did something that was groundbreaking for women but also for this movement. I wanted to know where all of that came from, so I read her memoir. She trained as a dancer, and I related to that because I did too. Then, I saw so much archive footage. Jordan was part of a lot of art films, notably [Derek Jarman’s 1978 film] Jubilee, where she dances a lot. I was completely mesmerised by her.
You also got to spend time with her on set because she was a consultant on Pistol. What were the things she gave you notes on?
It was so helpful for all of us to be able to speak to someone who’d lived through all of this and could look back on it fondly. And specifically in terms of her image, it was very intimidating because I was this total stranger who was about to play her. She was incredible, though. She sculpted the beehive. She had notes on the angle of her eyeliner. Our faces are slightly different and so it was about understanding how we could recreate her look because it’s all about the angles. With her Mondrian make-up, she did an original prototype where everything was at right angles to reflect those paintings more accurately, but she slowly adjusted it into something which fit the contours of her face. To create that for me, we had to compromise, but I think we finally managed to get it to a place where she was really happy with it. There was a particular day when she was on set and saw me on camera for the first time. She seemed to be transported back to that time in her life, watching this version of herself in her yellow rain mac standing in front of this shop [SEX] that meant so much to her. It was really special.
From that rain mac to all the black rubber and fishnets, Jordan’s costumes are incredible. Which were your favourites?
[The costume designer] Liza [Bracey] was incredible. She’d done so much research into Jordan and her wardrobe. There’s a particular look she wears during the Mondrian phase, when SEX had been renamed Seditionaries, and it’s a little white top, a white tennis skirt, fishnet tights and little heels. Jordan told us that the top was made from her sister’s wedding dress [laughs]. She had taken the dress, taken the bustle off, cut it up and turned it into this beautiful blouse. I love that one. When Jordan saw me in it, she said, “[Gasps] Oh! My little skirt, my little top!” It was as if it was the real thing. I believe she had a lot of archive pieces that she sadly lost in a fire. She did bring up some of her high heels from that time, though, and they fit me perfectly.
There was also a rubber look which we had custom made by this amazing rubber artist who has spent her entire career referencing this period in British fashion history. It’s a zip-up top with peplum sleeves and a long black skirt. There’s a video of Jordan being interviewed in the shop about rubber wear. She says, “We’re having a heatwave. What a terrible day to wear rubber.” She said that during that time, she got so hot and sweaty in the shop in that skirt that it completely melted off her body [laughs]. I only wore it for one fleeting scene, but every time I saw it, I remembered that story. She was in hysterics at the absurdity of it all.
Those costumes must have helped massively with getting into character, but I also heard that you all had a two-month rehearsal period. What was that like?
We did and it gave us the sense of security we needed to go into the production. Filming anything is a marathon and it takes its toll. Having that time set in place a lot of friendships that I’ll have for the rest of my life. We saw each other at our absolute best and worst because it was a challenging time. We were trying to shoot in February 2021, there was a Covid spike and things were delayed, but it meant that we then had even more time together. Even though we all sat six feet away from each other with masks on and the doors wide open in winter, it gave us so much energy. They were the most exciting interactions that most of us had had in almost a year.
My favourite scenes in the show are the sweaty, crowded gigs. How fun were they to work on, especially after a year of isolation?
For one episode, we shot in the original 100 Club on Oxford Street where the Sex Pistols had played. The venue has kept so much of its history up on its walls. It was incredible for all of us to see so many images of the people we were playing and to be recreating that iconic gig within those walls at a time when the whole of central London was deserted. It was a really spiritual moment and a day I’ll never forget.
And which sequences were the most challenging?
I did wonder how I’d fill such big shoes and command the respect that Jordan did. She meant a lot to a lot of people at that time, and coming into that was a bit overwhelming. To be honest, it was all in the outfits, hair and make-up. It gave me a confidence that I had never felt before. Jordan spoke about turning the male gaze in on itself and she was really on to something [laughs]. I’d never been listened to in the same way. It’s funny because we usually associate being the centre of attention with doing a lot or being loud, but Jordan was very minimal in the way she communicated with others. Her image spoke volumes, and mine did too when I played her.
Jordan, of course, had cancer and tragically passed away this April. How did it feel to get the news?
Tracey Seaward, our producer, was in touch with Jordan, and Jordan phoned her to say that she didn’t know how much longer she’d have. I didn’t know who knew [about her illness] up until that point. We were so glad she reached out because it gave us all the opportunity to chat with her one last time. Then, getting the news was devastating. I was heartbroken that she wouldn’t get to watch Pistol, something she’d been really desperate to see. I feel like the universe has such strange ways of working because, maybe more than any other person [depicted in the show], she oversaw so much of what we created. Now I think, maybe she wasn’t supposed to watch it. She was there, she lived it and she was integral to how we told this story. I hope that anyone who watches Pistol and isn’t familiar with her wants to go off and learn more.
Up next, you’re playing another figure from fashion history that people may not be familiar with – Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine – in Apple TV+’s The New Look. What can you tell us about it?
So, Jordan wondered if my playing her would push me towards more projects about fashion and she was absolutely right. For The New Look, it’s been so exciting to unpack everything about this woman and this period, the 1940s in Nazi-occupied France. It’s also been fascinating to tell a story that’s linked to these fashion houses [Dior and Chanel] that are still so important today. The show is hugely insightful in terms of parts of the story that had been lost.
So, what fashion icon are you playing after that?
[Laughs] That’s still TBC.
Pistol is now streaming on Disney+.
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Search✘
Current Projects✘
Pistols2022
Jordan
Based on the memoir of Steve Jones, the legendary Sex Pistols guitarist who helped usher in a punk revolution in Britain.
Explores the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior, as he dethrones Coco Chanel and helps return spirit and life to the world with his iconic imprint of beauty and influence.
For optimal viewing: This website is best viewed in a resolution of 1024 or higher, 32 bit color, and in Mozilla Firefox. Javascript, CSS and Tables.
All graphics and original content belong to maisiewilliams.org. All images are copyright to the their respective owners, the webmasters claim no ownership and receive no financial gain for this site. We do not support stalkerazzi of any matter. For more information, please check our disclaimer.
This is an unofficial website!
We have no official affiliation with Maisie Williams or her management.
Comment Form