Maisie Williams: The Painful Past Of A Game Of Thrones Star | E181

TL;DR

Maisie Williams describes a childhood dominated by a traumatic relationship with her father, which left her with a persistent sense of impending doom, joylessness, and self-hatred. She reveals that an intervention at school around age eight led to her leaving that environment, but the emotional scars persisted and later fueled her acting career, substance abuse, and identity struggles.

Key insights

• Williams felt a sense of impending doom and inability to feel joy from a very young age, often stopping mid-play because she felt something awful was going to happen.
• She describes her childhood relationship with her father as a "child cult against my mother" – she was indoctrinated and initially fought to stay with him even after the truth came out.
• She did not realize many of the traumatic things happening to her were wrong until a teacher asked the right questions when she was about eight; that was the moment the situation "met its peak."