Maisie Williams Talks About Going Topless For Her Upcoming TV Show "Pistol"

Maisie Williams Went Topless For Her Upcoming TV Show 'Pistol'

Maisie Williams explains why she agreed to go topless for her upcoming TV show 'Pistol'

Maisie Williams is famous for portraying the role of Arya Stark in the globally recognized TV show, Game of Thrones. Now she’s coming to the small screen again as part of the star cast of "Pistol", a six-episode miniseries about the Sex Pistols that involves some nudity for Williams. It’s not the first time she’s gone topless, she has explained why she made that decision for show.

She plays Pamela Rooke, a.k.a. Jordan, in the upcoming show Pistol, which will be available via FX on Hulu. In the past, Maisie Williams went topless for a sex scene in the season finale of Game of Thrones. Maisie Williams opened up to GQ about going topless for Pistol:

I was hesitant, just because of everything that happens in the industry and all the horror stories I’ve heard…I want to be in this show because I’m the best person to do this, not because I’m the only girl who’ll take her top off.

Pistol is a new show and the actress wanted the role of Jordan because of her acting skills, not her willingness to do nudity and she made sure to make her feelings about the role abundantly clear to the casting directors before moving forward in the audition process, sending a note about her concerns after her initial taped audition. It was clear from her earliest conversations that nudity would be involved with the role and Jordan's real-life look had a distinctive style that didn’t shy away from showing a lot of skin. Danny Boyle, who directed Pistol, cleared up the issue for Williams, as she shared:

Jordan was a political statement. Her entire ethos was turning the male gaze in on itself, and it was overtly sexual in a way that made other people feel ashamed. If I take my top off, I want to make other people feel uncomfortable.

Williams was persuaded after receiving clarification from Danny Boyle, who won the Oscar for Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire in 2008. Her second audition via Zoom featured an attire befitting of Jordan: a skimpy top with no bra. Williams' audition went well, and viewers will soon get to see her take on Jordan with a pistol.

FX’s Pistol with a Hulu subscription starts on Tuesday, May 31. All six episodes will be released at once. The six-part series follows Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and the band's rise to prominence and notoriety.