CELEBRITY
Maisie Williams Dropped 25 Pounds, Shaved Head For Apple TV’s ‘The New Look’
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Maisie Williams has revealed the grueling regimen she underwent to prepare for her role as Catherine Dior, younger sister of the fashion designer Christian Dior, in the upcoming Apple TV Plus series The New Look.
The Game of Thrones star, 26, shared in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar U.K. that she dropped 25 pounds and shaved her head for the role.
“I was eating very little, meditating all the time, burning candles and incense in my apartment,” Williams told the outlet.
A team of medical specialists oversaw her dramatic weight loss, performing regular blood tests and monitoring her heart. Williams said that much of the weight was shed by simply sweating it out before filming.
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,” Williams said. “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.”
The unusual routine disturbed her sleep and she began having nightmares about the woman she was playing.
“I wouldnt be able to sleep through the night at this point,” Williams said. “I kept waking up and feeling like a marble inside a bottle, rattling around.
When she couldn’t sleep, she read Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture, the book on which the series is based. It details Catherine Dior’s time as a French resistance fighter during World War II.
As a result, she had nightmares that featured “horrible visions of men in uniform” and felt like she was “being trapped and attacked.” She described feeling restricted, “almost like sleep paralysis.”
Williams said the experience was very different from her preparations to play Arya Stark in Game of Thrones, which required her to build different muscles.
The New Look premieres on Feb. 14.
TMX contributed to this article.
