The Big Picture

In her role as Catherine Dior in
The New Look
, Maisie Williams has learned to handle emotionally volatile scenes by folding her emotions away like clothes in a tidy manner.
Catherine Dior’s story of growing and selling roses after surviving a concentration camp inspired Williams, who now plants roses for her in her own garden.
Williams shaved her hair on camera for the show, and she realized that cutting her hair was the least scary thing that happened in concentration camps.

Audiences have watched Maisie Williams grow up on our television screens thanks to Game of Thrones, and with her upcoming performance in Apple TV+’s new series The New Look, we get to see just how talented of an actress she has become. While her work as Arya Stark saw her tackle some truly heartbreaking scenes, playing Catherine Dior, the sister of the iconic designer Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) allowed her to step into even more soul-crushing plots, made even more sobering by the knowledge that these moments were inspired by the real-life horrors Catherine endured while held at a concentration camp during World War II.

At the start of the interview, I asked Williams about her growth as an actor and specifically how she handles emotionally volatile scenes now, versus when she was just starting out. “Now, I don’t feel like my own life is affected as much, maybe,” she revealed.

“I think that I used to draw on very real things, but I didn’t really know how to put them back away again. Like a dressing-up box, and you just keep getting things out and getting things out, and then it just doesn’t stuff back in, in the right way.
I think now I’ve learned to fold my clothes and tidy them back away, so it really just becomes more fun that way, and you can jump around a lot more.
So I think that’s probably, like, the biggest thing that’s changed.”

The New Look Explores the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior, as he dethrones Coco Chanel and helps return spirit and life to the world with his iconic imprint of beauty and influence.Release Date February 14, 2024 Creator Todd A. Kessler Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

How Catherine Dior Had an Impact on Maisie Williams’ Life

The New Look, which borrows its title from the fashion label Christian Dior created during the German occupation of France, explores the lives of the Dior siblings, as well as Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche), who aided and abetted the Nazis during the war. While Christian attempted to navigate the tedious world of fashion amid the perilous Nazi occupation, his younger sister Catherine risked her life to help the French Resistance make a positive change for those affected by the Third Reich. While The New Look makes an effort to appeal to historians and armchair historians alike, Todd A. Kessler’s series delves into aspects of these individuals’ lives that will make viewers want to learn more. With this in mind, I asked Williams if there was anything she learned about Catherine that stuck with her, and she shared that there was “so much”:

“I think the biggest thing that stuck with me is later on in her life she kind of returned to the gardens in Callian, and she grew and sold roses to the perfumeries all around France. When I read that, I thought it was so inspiring.
It kind of said more about her as a person than so much of the other things that I’d read.
It’s such a simple thing, and I’m not even sure if she, in her mind, sees it as symbolic as I see it. But growing life from where dirt used to be is such an interesting way for her to spend the rest of her days.”

Williams also revealed that Catherine has an everyday presence in her home. “I plant roses for her in my garden now.” When I pointed out how the idea of nurturing life parallels one of the key themes in the series (which is the idea that creation is our survival), she enthusiastically replied, “That’s what she did! She ended up doing that, too, you know?”

‘The New Look’ Prompted a New Look for Maisie Williams

Back in August 2022, Williams debuted a very chic-looking buzzcut that generated a lot of buzz, and it turns out her new look was for The New Look. The series delves into the period when Catherine was taken by the Gestapo and held at the women’s concentration camp Ravensbrück. Most of the victims in concentration camps had their heads shaved as part of the dehumanizing tactics the Nazis practiced, though this often paled in comparison to the other horrors they faced. Noting that the reveal of Williams’ new haircut fit within the timeline of the series’ production, I asked her if she shaved her hair for the role. She was quick to answer, “I did! Yeah. I shaved my hair on camera for the show, and so that’s why I debuted my buzzcut back then. I was always curious, and then I did it, and yeah.” After I pointed out how much emotion is tied to our hair, Williams added:

“It was such a surreal experience. I was really just thinking about those girls and that moment, like that time.
For me, I kind of thought that the stories that were coming from the camps at the time would have been so terrifying that, actually, cutting your hair is probably the least scary thing that’s going to happen, and so I was really trying to find a calmness in that moment.
I felt like that was probably more accurate than it feeling… But then, you know, my own relationship with my hair sort of started to come through, and this cool, calm, collected performance I thought I was gonna give started to, like, slip away. But that’s real, isn’t it? So, yeah, it was an interesting scene to shoot.”

I followed up by asking her if the experience of having one take to get the scene right was nervewracking. “I think it was more nerve-wracking for Cécile [Marchione], who was the hairdresser who was doing it. I think the shear kept breaking, and then afterward it was all crazy. Then they said cut, and she came over, and she said, “I’m so sorry,” because we knew that whatever the haircut was was gonna have to be the haircut forever. She comes over, she says, “I’m so sorry,” and she gave me a hug, and I just, burst into tears. [Laughs] But it was fine. It was a freedom. It was like a release, and it was done, and then we went to lunch. So it was just like the day keeps going as we wrap up.”

We wrapped up our conversation with a quick and fun question about whether or not Williams might return to the Doctor Who universe, and while nothing is in the works—maybe a little manifestation can make it happen. Catch the first three episodes of The New Look on Apple TV+ today, and stay tuned for more interviews with the cast and creatives, like this conversation with Ben Mendelsohn. Check out a clip from the premiere below: