Maisie Williams is back on our screens this week in the emotional new British drama 500 Miles. It follows two brothers who decide to visit their estranged grandfather in Ireland when their parents are on the verge of divorce, with Williams starring as Kait who the brothers meet on their journey.
It sees her star alongside the likes of Roman Griffin Davis, Dexter Sol Ansell (who you'll recognise from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Michael Socha and Clare Dunne. Most excitingly for Williams though, she also got the chance to work with her "idol" Bill Nighy.
While she didn't ask him for any career advice or tips, Williams told Digital Spy exclusively that just being around him made it clear why he's enjoyed the career he's had. "We did speak a lot about life and what he was like as a teenager, what he was like as a child, what he was like as he's been moving through his career, how he's dealt with fame," she recalled.
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"He asked me a lot about my upbringing, and I remember having these really beautiful and extensive chats about actually nothing to do with work. But yet it still kind of formed a view of him that kind of made sense as to why he's had such a long and incredible career because he's a real good person.
"I think they do say never, ever meet your idols, and Bill Nighy is just not an example of that. He is amazing. He is everything you would expect him to be and more, and it was so wonderful seeing him giving advice to Roman as well. He's just a really good man, a real gentleman."
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As well as working with Nighy, 500 Miles also gave Williams a chance to dust off her Dublin accent, which she'd previously used on one of her first movie roles in Irish comedy Gold alongside James Nesbitt.
If you need any sign that she nails the accent, then the fact that 500 Miles premiered at Dublin International Film Festival and Williams gained praise for her accent should tell you enough.
It even managed to fool some of the crew members who were working on the movie, while Williams joked that she also used it when she was out and about in Dublin because she felt "people would treat me nicer".
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"This time I felt like I really wanted to change a lot of my personality. A lot of it was on the page as Kait is so outgoing and she's darkly funny and she's witty, and that can only come from a place of confidence. I think if I was tentatively tiptoeing around an accent, it would lessen the performance in that sense," she explained.
"So I felt the need to do the accent all the time, which is kind of embarrassing, but it was really helpful. There were actually a few crew members who said that they had a little bet on whether or not I was actually Irish or not, so that made me feel very, very smug."
Alongside reprising her Irish accent, the role also saw Williams tackle the ukulele for one memorable scene where Kait starts playing on a train, only for an annoyed commuter to tell her to shut up and stop playing.
It's something she can relate too. "I would so be the guy that says, 'Someone needs to tell you to give up, you're shit'. That is more me on the public transport," she joked.
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"You know what I love on public transport is when people start dancing, I love that. On the tube, if someone starts dancing, or actually it happens more, I would say, on the subway in New York. I've got a lot of time for that.
"Playing music, I don't know about all that. I think that needs to be kept to the outside. I'm not sure if that needs to be on the train."
500 Miles is released in UK cinemas on 26 June.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
