Maisie Williams on life after Game of Thrones

By Karishma Sarkari|

Why the actress's next move is out of left field - read more.

Maisie Williams is best known for her role as Arya Stark in 'Game of Thrones'.

But with the popular dragon slaying series set to wrap up at Season 8 (which will air next year), the young Bristol-born actress looked a little closer to home for her next project and it's something a little out of left field.

Gone are the elaborate costumes for the fearsome warrior, which help her get into character.

Playing an animated soccer-loving teen means the focus isn't on Williams's expressive face this time around, but rather, her voice. And that's something that makes the 20-year-old a little nervous.

Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams chats to TheFIX about why she chose to stay off-screen in her latest project, 'Early Man' (Getty)

"I've never done a lot of voice training and the beauty of being on film or in TV for me is all of the tools, and a lot of the emotions I portray, I portray through my face, which is the biggest think I use as an actress," Williams tells TheFIX, during an interview in a London hotel room.

In the children's movie 'Early Man', the actress plays Goona - a soccer-mad girl who helps cavemen prepare for a do-or-die football match in the bronze age.

And it was definitely a very different mindset for the starlet.

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"When it comes to being in a [voice]booth, which is very different - you have to strip everything away, and everything has to be portrayed through your voice" she continues.

"And although you have a microphone very close, the way you sound in real life and the way it sounds recorded...and the way it feels in the booth, to the way it's animated outside, next to a huge volcano.

"It's just a lot of things that you've got to think about and I think if I had had more voice training before I had done this, I wouldn't have found it quite so scary and unknown territory."

Enough to make anyone nervous, Williams stars in the movie alongside Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston, who lend their voices to Dug and Lord Nooth respectively.

However the actress, revealed most of her time was spent in a voice booth by herself, with director Nick Park, rather than her co-stars.

"You let loose a bit more [when you're by yourself] because you can't help but get a bit nervous when other actors are around - not that the boys would have [been intimidating] - but I do still get a bit of stage fright," she admits.

The animation also features the voices of Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne as villain Lord Nooth and hero Dug, respectively (Getty)

Williams says her big co-stars did make her a little nervous about her role and time in the voice booth (Getty)

The actress who started acting at school and landed the GoT role as her first job in the industry, goes on to make a point about not having trained or been to drama school but adds she enjoys learning on the job.

"I think I've been very lucky to get some incredible opportunities early on in my career and I think now, I just owe it to myself to be as ambitious as possible."

"I never studied my craft and I think opportunities like this, I just really take the time to take something from it.

WATCH: Game of Throne actress Carice van Houten talks about the show. (Post continues.) 

"With this, I sometimes just wish I'd do it all again - I know now not to be scared about this or to do this...and all of these things that I've learnt that I had no idea about before and it kind of makes me excited about doing more in the future along these lines."

The claymation movieis from the people that brought the world 'Wallace & Gromit' and their studios Aardman are based in Williams' hometown of Bristol.

It's something not lost on the actress who has still calls her high school friends her best friends, despite spending most of the past seven years growing up on screen.

Williams tells TheFIX that while she's grown up on screen playing Arya Stark, she tries to keep life as normal and down-to-earth as possible (HBO)

"I feel like I still strive for those normal interactions between myself and my family...because it feels very lonely sometimes in this industry. So it's nice to be able to go back to my family and live a normal life," she says.

So, how does Williams feel about spending her teen years in the public eye?

"I think it goes through waves of being harder and easier," she reveals to TheFIX.

"I think as I've got a little bit older and more mature, I just sort of stepped away a little bit more and I much prefer it, I really do," she adds.

"Honestly, I remember when I was younger people said 'your life will completely change' and I remember thinking 'I don't know if I really want it to'. I love how my life is and living near my mum, I like being near all of my family... your life can completely change if you choose to do that with your career but there's a way of living your life under the radar, even if you are a 'star', I think there's a way you can avoid that," she adds.

The bubbly brunette tells TheFIX she brought some inspiration from her own teen years to the character Goona.

"Yeah, the grumpy bits for sure," she laughs, adding: "I feel like I was very stubborn and I was bossy [as a teenager], so I feel like that part of myself I absolutely channelled." 

However there is one thing very different between Williams and her latest character - she's not a soccer fan at all.

"I have no interest or knowledge of football at all...  I don't have any shame about it, it's just not for me."

Williams admits early on in her career after being sucked into the fame game, she knew she needed to take a step back (Getty)

Williams does reveal though, that as a youngster she used to make her own Plasticine models and would try her hand at making stop-animation films with friends.

So, while the actress's GoT fan-base might think this latest adventure on-screen is a little-field even for the tomboy of Winterfell, it seems voicing an animation is Williams way of kicking-goals in a post-Arya world.

'Early Man' is in cinemas across Queensland and Victoria now and opens in all other states and territories on April 12.
