Game of Thrones: Joe Dempsie reveals 'initial discomfort' over sex scene with Maisie Williams

‘It always made me slightly uncomfortable,’ he admits

Game of Thrones star Joe Dempsie has opened up about his "initial discomfort" over his sex scene with Maisie Williams.

In the HBO show’s final season, Gendry reunites with Arya Stark for the first time since the third season. 

Ahead of the Night King battle, in a romance teased in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the pair sleep with one another after Arya tells him she wants to lose her virginity.

Following the broadcast of the episode, many viewers were left questioning how old Arya was considering Williams was just 14 when the show began. HBO confirmed that the character was 18 – Gendry was 22.

In a new interview with The Independent, Dempsie admitted he found doing the scene “an odd transition” purely because he’d “met [Williams] when she was a child”.

He revealed he “always avoided answering questions” about the possible sex scene years before it happened considering Williams was still a minor.

“During the course of the first three seasons, it was something I was asked regularly because the books suggest there’s a possible romance,” he said, adding: “It always made me slightly uncomfortable.”

Dempsie continued: “I know we were recreating fantasy, but we as actors have to make it very much in reality, and they were asking me to comment on whether I – at the time, a 25-year-old man – would like my character to hook up with a 14-year-old.”

He said that filming the scene was “absolutely fine” and that he put his “initial discomfort to the side” as he “didn’t wanna patronise” Williams, who was 20 when filming the scene.

“It would have been doing her a massive disservice,” he said.

In the same interview, Dempsie also rubbished a fan theory regarding the show’s “rushed” ending.

Dempsie can currently be seen in Channel 4 drama Adult Material, which provides an unflinching look at the porn industry.

Read the full interview here.