Using a Scottish accent in new X-Men spin-off film has helped Maisie Williams move on from Game of Thrones.
The 23-year-old found fame playing central character Arya Stark in the fantasy drama TV series for a decade.
And now she hopes playing Scottish comic superhero Rahne Sinclair, a shapeshifting werewolf called Wolfsbane in The New Mutants, will show she has more to offer than the tomboy killer of The Night King.
Bristol-born Maisie said: “I really like doing accents because I hate my voice.
“I think it’s really bad, it’s the most cringeworthy voice ever. So I find it really helpful to create a new person as, off the back of Game of Thrones, I find myself playing the same girl over and over again.
“It’s nice to do an accent because then you feel like a new person.”
But Maisie hasn’t completely discarded the series that made her famous. She asked her acting coach from the show – who happens to be Scottish – to help her with the accent for The New Mutants.
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The youngster was in Doctor Who opposite Time Lord Peter Capaldi and had tried out Scottish accents for the 2018 film Mary Shelley and the animated series gen:LOCK last year. She said: “I just asked her and we went back and forth on the phone a few times.
“What was really helpful is she has an app so you can do it when you’re away and on your own. That’s been helpful because it’s kind of embarrassing doing it in front of someone else when you mess up.
“For The New Mutants, I went for more of a Highlands accent, although I can tell it sometimes goes a little bit Glasgow, but only people in Scotland would hopefully pick up on that.”
The character of Rahne first appeared in 1982 comic, The New Mutants. She is a teenager who has had religion beaten into her by her minister father, who, when he finds out she can shapeshift, leads a mob to burn her at the stake.
Maisie said: “Growing up, she went through a lot of trauma because of her power. She was raised as a Catholic and her pastor thought that she was a witch, didn’t understand her powers and really punished her for them. She just carries a lot of guilt of that.”
Rahne is the first gay superhero character in the Marvel cinematic universe. In the film, she meets another mutant, Danielle Moonstar, AKA Mirage (played by Blu Hunt), and their love story is as central to The New Mutants as the spectacular action set pieces.
Maisie, who is dating model agency founder Reuben Selby, is proud of the movie moment.
She said: “It was wonderful to be able to see a relationship like this. In the masculine world of superheroes, it was just lovely to see these two fragile women who just protect one another and bring light out in each other. At the heart of it is this really lovely love story.”
The other New Mutants include Russian Illyana Rasputin, played by Anya Taylor-Joy who as Magik has sorcery powers. There’s also Sam Guthrie, or Cannonball, played by Charlie Heaton and Roberto da Costa (Sunspot), played by Henry Zago, who can manipulate solar energy.
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From the trailer, the film looks more like a horror than anything seen in The X-Men or Avengers franchises.
Maisie said: “When I played Arya Stark, I always had to command the room, be really brave and strong. That’s kind of exhausting and I don’t really feel like that. It was really lovely to play someone who is just sitting, watching and listening.”
The actress knows all about fans after Game of Thrones and so far claimed the X-Men fans have been “incredible”.
“They have just been so welcoming,” she said. “This whole superhero world is just bonkers but I love it.”
Speaking of bonkers, this is the moment we ask about GoT and that ending which still causes fans to, like Daenerys, lose their cool.
Maisie – who starred alongside the likes of Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington – thinks fans are fascinated by the idea of there being an alternate ending to the hit series, which ran from 2011 until last year.
She said: “I think people wish we did. But… we didn’t. So, that’s your lot.”
As well as The New Mutants in the bag, which is due to be released in August, Maisie will appear in new Sky autumn comedy drama Two Weeks to Live and she is also in home invasion thriller The Owners.
But she is worried about the lack of future work because of the coronavirus pandemic. “The thought of not working properly for a year or maybe more is a little bit worrying,” she admitted.
“Like so many people, I’m trying to stay busy doing other things, which has actually been really nice.”
