Game of Thrones star Joe Dempsie has said his character Gendry Baratheon’s romance with Maisie Williams’ Arya Stark made him ‘slightly uncomfortable’.

Dempsie said the age difference between him and Williams, and the fact he had met her as a young woman, meant he had to think about whether he wanted to act in those scenes.

He told The Independent: “It was an odd transition purely because I’d seen Maisie grow up. I’d met her when she was a child and, during the course of the first three seasons, it was something I was asked regularly because [George RR Martin’s] books suggest there’s a possible romance. It always made me slightly uncomfortable.

“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. I always avoided answering the questions. But it was something I then had to think about.”

He also admitted that while he liked how the show ended, the showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss could have spent more time on the final season.

He added: “Watching it back, I think they could have maybe taken a little more time.”