After fantastical 'Game of Thrones' and 'New Mutants,' Maisie Williams seeks work that is 'more honest to the life that I've lived'
Maisie Williams is ready for the real world.
After shooting to stardom with her yearslong vengeance quest on Game of Thrones and getting her Wolfsbane on in the long-delayed New Mutants, the 23-year-old is intent on navigating far less fantastical landscapes for now, starting with her new psychological thriller The Owners.
“Now I’m definitely looking for something which is a lot more raw and real,” Williams tells us in a recent video chat (watch above).
“Even though this film is a lot more realistic than a lot of things I’ve done recently, it’s still hyper-real, which a lot of horrors and psychological thrillers often are. With New Mutants and Two Weeks to Live and Game of Thrones, it was alternate universes and different worlds. I loved it, that’s why I did it for so long, but I am really lacking something that is more honest to the life that I’ve lived and the connections with people that I’ve had. And I think now I’m really just looking to take people on an emotional journey within the real world.”
In The Owners, Williams plays Mary, a young woman unwittingly dragged into a robbery planned by her boyfriend Nathan (Ian Kenny) and his miscreant mates (Jake Curran, Andrew Ellis). Their devious plot is foiled, though, by the elderly couple (Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham) who return home and slowly begin exacting revenge on their intruders. In a twisty film where it’s not always clear who to root for, Mary is the story’s moral compass.
“What I liked about Mary was that she’s just completely obsessed about Nathan for no good reason, because he doesn’t treat her nice,” Williams says. “So many girls can relate to that. They let boys treat them wrong because they think they’re really cute. I can relate to that. I did that all throughout school. It’s like all I ever did. I have better relationships with guys now, but that was really relatable.”
The 1990s set film finds Williams, whose short-haired brunette Arya Stark in Game of Thrones was often mistaken for a boy, with a brand new look — one she would end up adopting in the real world.
“I have crazy blond hair now, actually, which is funny because when I had it for the film I was like, ‘This is horrible, I’ll never do hair like this,’” she says. “And now I literally have that hair. It really rubbed off on me. I went more Princess Di now.”
The Owners debuts Friday, Sept. 4 in theaters and on VOD services including iTunes and FandangoNOW.
Watch the trailer:
— Video produced by Jon San
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