Maisie Williams is opening up about undergoing an intense transformation to play Catherine Dior on the Apple TV+ series The New Look.
“It was hard work, but it was such an honor to do this part, and it became all-consuming,” Williams, 26, told Harper’s Bazaar UK in an interview published Tuesday, February 6. “This was a role that required an extraordinary amount of research and care — and it really hit me, bringing that wartime period back to the streets of Paris; like I would acknowledge the weight of it in a way that I hadn’t before.”
The series, which is based on the book Miss Dior, tells the story of Christian Dior’s younger sister Catherine, who was a French resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Paris and served as inspiration for the iconic fashion designer.
To realistically portray Catherine, who survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp and returned to Paris emaciated and close to death, Williams followed a strict regime to lose about 26 pounds. She used dehydration methods to sweat out fluid before filming.
“I was eating very little, meditating all the time, burning candles and incense in my apartment,” Williams said. “I had to be up at 4 a.m. to start sweating. The night before, at about 7 or 8 p.m. I was allowed to have something salty and dehydrating — some smoked salmon and a tiny glass of wine. Then I had a boiling-hot bath with lots of salts in it. And I sort of levitated to bed and slept for maybe three hours, and woke up and had a handful of nuts. I wouldn’t be able to sleep through the night at this point.”
The actress’ routine was monitored by medical professionals who took regular blood tests and heart rate measurements. Williams previously took on a grueling role when she played Arya Stark for eight seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones, but portraying Catherine forced her to “build different muscles.”
“[It] took over what I’m eating and how I’m moving and sleeping and thinking,” she told the outlet.
Williams has previously spoken about struggling with her body image while filming Game of Thrones. She was cast on the show at just 11 years old and grew up on camera.
“Around season 2 or 3, my body started to mature and I started to become a woman,” she told Vogue in October 2019, several months after the show’s conclusion. “But Arya was still very much, like, trying to be disguised as a boy.”
Williams continued: “I had really short hair and they’d constantly cover me in dirt and shade my nose so it looked really broad and I looked really manly. They’d also put this strap across my chest to flatten any growth that had started. I don’t know, that just felt horrible for six months of the year, and I felt kind of ashamed for a while.”
Since GoT wrapped, Williams has been able to embrace her body in a whole new way. “So, you know, we’ve this new phase of my style. Like, it’s nice to look more feminine and, like, have a real waistline and just, you know, embrace the body that I have,” she said.
While The New Look also put strains on her physical and mental health, the gravity and importance of the story motivated Williams to persevere.
“Every day of filming was a reminder that we were portraying a story of the horrors that humans are capable of inflicting on one another,” she told Harper’s. “But also the magic and the hope and the love. … Ultimately, we wanted to make a show that was uplifting.”
The New Look premieres on Apple TV+ Wednesday, February 14.
