What did you think about the audience reaction to Gendry and Arya’s love scene before the battle? What was your take on it when you first discovered it was in the works?

When I first read it, I was slightly cautious about it, because I’ve known Maisie since she was 11 or 12 years old. And so it was always going to be a slightly strange thing, to try to wrap your head around knowing you would be imminently shooting a scene like that with someone you’ve known since they were so young. By the same token, Maisie was 21, she’s 22 years old now. She’s a grown woman and a fantastic actor, so we were just completely professional about it.

The scene itself was kind of fun — we made sure to keep the mood light. For my experience, it was not an arduous scene to shoot, and I hope Maisie felt the same way about it. I hope she felt the atmosphere was familiar and supportive and safe. The reality is, though, she doesn’t need me to look after her. She’s spent way more time on that set than I have over the years. The level of respect she has from everyone is sky high, and I think everything was done the way she wanted it.

It’s an interesting conversation that started around it, though, with the audience discomfort. The conversation kind of forces you to confront some hypocrisy. I was 11 once, and then I got older, and then I started having sex, and that’s absolutely fine. That’s part of my expected journey through life. We all go through it. We all sort of bristle when we feel patronized about it, when someone suggests we’re too young to be doing something. But when it’s somebody else, we find it uncomfortable to watch.

When the Arya/Gendry shipping first started in Season 2, it had another layer to it because she was a minor at the time. She’s an adult now.

Yeah, exactly. That was the reality of that situation. I did a show called “Skins” a number of years ago, and my character Chris was naked, taking drugs, having sex with his teacher, and no one batted an eyelid. I think I was about a year or two younger than Maisie was, when I was shooting this? The difference is, the audience didn’t watch me grow up onscreen. It wasn’t like I played this character from the age of 11 or 12, and all of a sudden I was 19 and doing all of this incredibly adult stuff.