SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Maisie Williams said she went through a big transformation — from her accent to her weight — for her most recent role in Apple TV’s film “The New Look.”

“The New Look” is a fascinating story following the fashion icon Christian Dior (played by Ben Mendelsohn) showing the horrors of life pre and post-WW2 in the fashion world.

Maisie Williams plays Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine Dior, a member of the resistance who is captured by Nazis. ABC4 Film Critic Patrick Beatty was able to sit down with her and discuss the challenges of the role.

Maisie Williams is no stranger to television, being a part of one of the most successful HBO shows Game of Thrones as Arya Stark. When asked how she realized that she needed to play the role of Catherine Dior, Maisie said she was inspired in part by the impact the character’s story could have on viewers who are unfamiliar with Catherine Dior.

She continued to list a few other aspects of the character that made her want to play the part.

“There’s also just her journey as a woman and the things that will entail for me as an actor, whether it’s physical transformations or the speech or kind of the emotional journey,” Maisie said. “Also, just my love of fashion. I really wanted to be involved in this show because I love Dior and The New Look so much. I’ve always thought that collection was so fantastic, and so to now be involved in something like this, which kind of depicts it on screen for the first time, is really exciting.”

Catherine Dior undergoes major trauma and physical hardships, which means Maisie is taking on physical and mental challenges. Asking what she did to prepare, Maisie said she did “so much.”

“It started with the voice and with the accent. Then I read this amazing book, which is called Miss Dior and it’s by Justine Picardie. That gave me a huge insight into Catherine’s entire life,” Maisie said. “I sort of underwent a physical transformation too. I cut my hair off and lost a lot of weight. I was just like, you know, there’s so many tools that you get to use as an actor, but you don’t always get to use all of them in every role, and in this one, I got to use them all, which was a delight.”

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Maisie shares the screen with Ben Mendelsohn, who leads the series as Christian Dior. Asking what it was like when they were on set with each other, Maisie explained the lengthy audition process.

“I’d done a lot of auditions for this role, a lot of chemistry reads and photographs and all sorts. I think she’s a very important character, and I think that Apple wanted to make sure that they made the right decision. And so working with Ben during that time was so, so great that we built up some kind of rapport and like friendship so that when we were on set together, just like it was so unpredictable.”

“I think Ben loves to do every take very differently from the one previous, and it just really kept me on my toes and you just have to be listening. I wanted to create something that felt real and felt authentic. And Ben is so, so good at that. Yeah, it kind of pushed me to do better.”

The New Look will premiere on Apple TV+ on February 14th, and you can check out Patrick’s full interview in the video at the top and check out his review on See It or Skip It.

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