Maisie Williams Lost Over 25 Pounds for Role as Catherine Dior in “The New Look”

The 'Game of Thrones' alum also suffered from nightmares and insomnia while preparing for the role

Maisie Williams endured several changes for her latest role.

For Williams’ upcoming show, The New Look, she embraced a major physical change to transform into her character Catherine Dior.

The Game of Thrones alum, 26, revealed in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar U.K. that she shaved her head and lost about 25 pounds to embody her role as Christian Dior’s younger sister. “I was eating very little, meditating all the time, burning candles and incense in my apartment,” revealed Williams.

The process of losing the 25 pounds was supervised by a team of medical professionals who regularly monitored her heart rate and administered blood tests. Williams explained that most of her weight loss was accelerated by sweating out fluid just 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,” recalled Williams. “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.”

Related: Maisie Williams Reveals She 'Resented' Her 'Game of Thrones' Character While Coming Into Womanhood

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep through the night at this point,” shared the actress. “I kept waking up and feeling like a marble inside a bottle, rattling around..."

She revealed during her sleepless nights that she listened to the book the series was based on, Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture. 

Williams added that along with her impacted sleep cycles, she had nightmares that led the actress to feel much like Catherine Dior, the WWII French resistance fighter.

She clarified that her dreams made her feel “restricted” and “almost like sleep paralysis.” Williams elaborated that those dreams included “horrible visions of men in uniform” and felt like she was “being trapped and attacked.”

As the conversation continued, the actress explained the physical requirements of her recent role differed greatly from starring as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones. She noted that Catherine "took over" what she ate, how she moved, slept and thought, while Arya required her to “build different muscles.”

Related: Maisie Williams Shares How She's Finally 'in Control' After 'Searching for Empowerment'

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The New Look premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 14 on AppleTV+.

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