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Maisie Williams' latest role is definitely an exciting one. In Pistol, the new miniseries from Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, she plays British punk icon Jordan: an associate of the Sex Pistols famed for provocative dress sense and no-holds-barred attitude.
We've gathered 10 things you may not know about the actress who made her name as Game of Thrones' Arya Stark.
1. Her real name is actually Margaret Constance Williams.
"Maisie" is a nickname her family gave her at a young age because of her resemblance to Maisie, a character from classic British comic strip The Perishers.
2. Shortly before she was cast in Game of Thrones, she auditioned for Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang.
Williams told Game of Thrones fansite Winter Is Coming that she got down to the final two for the Nanny McPhee role. "My agent Louise Johnston then put me up for an audition for Arya," she added. "I have to say that at first, I wasn’t too keen; I was still thinking about Nanny McPhee 2."
3. She left school at 14 to focus on acting.
In 2013, on the day when U.K. teenagers received their exam results, Williams tweeted reassuringly: "For the few of you who were disappointed by your grades and didn’t get what you were hoping for, I would just like to say that I have no qualifications to my name and won’t have for a while. There is more than one route into your dream job."
4. She is realistic about the impact of being cast as Arya Stark at such a young age.
Williams was just 13 when she joined Game of Thrones. "At the end of the day, I think you do create your own success," she told The Guardian. "People can sit back and say I was given an amazing opportunity, which is why I am where I am, but I also gave up being a normal teenager. I gave up a huge part of my adolescent life. I’m still petrified of my peers, because I just didn’t spend a lot of time with them."
5. As Arya, she has even appeared on a British postage stamp.
Williams was shown the stamp for the first time during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show.

6. She would love to co-star opposite Emma Stone someday.
However, the prospect also makes her rather nervous. "I've always loved Emma Stone, like to my core, but it would terrify and excite me because acting in front of a person that you're that obsessed with and you're a big, big fan of is... it's a lot," she told GQ.
7. Her original ambition was to be a dancer.
Candidly, Williams told The Guardian in 2016, a full five years after her acting career took off: “If I could have had a career in dancing, I would have left acting in a second. Like that.”
8. She has her own app.
Titled Daisie, it's billed as a "place to connect with creative people." According to Williams' website, the goal "is to create a place where communities of like-minded individuals who want to share their passion can make their stuff and help other people make their stuff" without ads or brands.
9. She moved to the countryside last year.
Before then, Williams had lived in London for five years. She now lives in the southern English county of Sussex, where she grows her own lettuce. "I thought I was going to move to the country and hate it, thinking where’s Deliveroo [takeout app], where’s the coffee shop, but it’s just been so easy and I think I’ve made the right decision," she said on the Table Manners podcast.
10. She keeps somewhat unusual pets.
Williams told GQ recently that she has a "tortoise dynasty." Her pets are named Barney, Stevie, and Adventure Man, and she added drolly: "If I have children, they won't inherit nice jewelry, they'll just inherit tortoises."
And it's surely no coincidence that tortoises love to eat... lettuce.
Do you have a favorite Maisie Williams role?