“First of all, she’d have to be introduced to Elvis Presley…”
The Game of Thrones star, returning to TV for the first time since the HBO show ended, recently told NME what she would like to see for her character Kim if the series were to return.
“I think that her little mind would be completely blown by so many things,” Williams said. “I’d love to see her experiencing tribute acts. They’re so weird and we don’t think they are.
“First of all, she’d have to be introduced to Elvis Presley or whoever and then she’d have to understand that he’s dead and this person is just acting like him. It just makes no sense. Or I’d love to see her looking at doll’s houses.”
Williams continued: “The fact that we keep houses in our houses that are full of really tiny things?” she says. “People actually put in wiring and plumbing and shit like that, it’s just so extra. Kim really does call everything out, like, ‘Why do we do this? It’s so strange.’”
In a five-star review of Two Weeks To Live, NME said: “One of 2020’s best new shows, Two Weeks To Live leans into the witty humour of classic British comedies like Hot Fuzz and Brassic.
“There’s attitude and the story rolls along with a real swagger, but it never does the expected or takes itself too seriously. Season one’s final episode leaves the door wide open for a second series and lays to rest the ghost of Arya Stark.”
“I look up to Robert Pattinson, and I look up to Kristen Stewart. I love what they did,” Williams tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve really just been trying to understand what she did so well, the decisions she made and how that really affected the longevity of her career. So, yeah, I definitely do look up to the both of them, and yeah, I will be taking notes and following in their footsteps.”
Nearly 16 months after the series finale of Game of Thrones, Williams may have added a new wrinkle to the season’s most enduring moment, as well as its biggest swerve — which saw Williams’ Arya Stark strike the killing blow to the series’ big bad.
“[Kit Harrington] expected it to go [Jon Snow’s] way, too, and he even said, ‘It was going to go that way. Someone told me in season three that I was going to kill The Night King,’” Williams shares. “And then, he read the script, and it was Arya the whole time. (Laughs.) Yeah, I think it would’ve been too obvious. I’m glad that it was Arya, honestly. I think I had the best storyline of the final season.”
In a recent conversation with THR, Williams also discusses The New Mutants’ long road to the big screen, the movies that frightened her as a child and having to forget her fighting and weapons training for The Owners. Director Julius Berg also chimes in on casting Williams and adding a sledgehammer to her collection of famous on-screen weaponry.
Maisie, since you’ve made several weapons quite famous over the years, can we officially add a sledgehammer to your trophy case as well?
Maisie Williams: (Laughs.) Yeah, it’s true, actually. I hadn’t thought about that. Yeah, there’s a knife in this and a sledgehammer. So there’s a couple of interesting weapons in this film. But yeah, I must start keeping a note.
Julius Berg: (Laughs.) That was a great moment from shooting. I was happy to offer her this new tool, and I think she really enjoyed it.
This was the first project you shot after Thrones ended, right?
Williams: Yes, it was.
Julius, how did you get Maisie on board for her first post-Thrones project?
Berg: I was quite lucky to cast Maisie after Game of Thrones. I worked with an amazing casting director named Daniel Hubbard, and he’s worked on so many amazing movies like Harry Brown and King Kong. He has a great connection with many amazing actors from everywhere, especially Maisie Williams. So we sent the script to her manager in London, and her manager liked it a lot. Then, she sent it to Maisie, and she also liked it a lot. So we had a Skype call with Maisie, and I had a great connection with her. It was very easy. After that, we started shooting. It was as simple as that.
After finishing a project of such massive scale, was it nice to go back to basics and be reminded that effective storytelling can also be as simple as a few people in a house?
Williams: Yeah, definitely. Although being part of a psychological thriller or a horror is always somewhat hyperreal, I did like that we didn’t have any green screens. A lot of the emotions are a lot more realistic and a lot more pared back. I had really missed that, and so I was glad to be able to just do a lot of really interesting dialogue scenes and see the power dynamics between two people and how that can play out when there aren’t any weapons involved.
Even though you’ve shot other projects during Thrones, does it still feel a bit bizarre when you find yourself wearing modern clothes on a set and not being draped in multiple layers?
Williams: (Laughs.) I mean, it’s definitely a relief. I was quite lucky in that my Game of Thrones outfits were always far comfier than other people’s, I think. Or maybe I just don’t complain as much. (Laughs.) But it was nice to be able to just get dressed in ten minutes rather than getting dressed in a half an hour.
Since you’d done fighting and weapons training for many years leading up to this film, did you have to consciously forget everything you’ve learned since Mary is not remotely trained in weapons or survival?
Williams: Yeah, absolutely. So much of the film and so much of the fight choreography, for me, was really centered around the characters. We were trying to understand why Mary gets walked all over in this film. And it’s because she’s always on the backfoot. Why is she always on the backfoot? It’s because of Terry (Andrew Ellis). Terry is constantly slowing her down, and I think that’s an intentional thing that the Huggins (Sylvester McCoy, Rita Tushingham) do. Halfway through the film, they make Terry physically so much slower. So I had to think about it more logically in terms of these characters and the situation rather than the training, the fighting and the muscle memory. It was really nothing to do with that. So it was a very different experience, for sure.
For some reason, I can just imagine you holding that knife with such skill that you had to correct yourself to not look as skilled.
Williams: Well, I found on Game of Thrones, they were always, like, “Look cooler. Do it faster. Be stronger.” So I feel like we got to a place on Game of Thrones where I looked very slick, but I don’t think that that’s so natural. (Laughs.)
Williams: I really didn’t go to the cinema much when I was a kid; I watched a lot of stuff at home. But I do have memories of watching movies at home. I watched Signs when I was, I don’t know, maybe like 5. (Laughs.) It was so scary, and it kind of really shaped my life, I think. Just being so terrified of aliens when I was so young. (Laughs.) Actually, do you know what I remember watching at the cinema? I watched Mars Attacks! at the cinema, I think. I mean, it’s not even a horror, but it did kind of scare me because I was so young. The part where the alien lady [Lisa Marie’s Martian Girl] bites off the guy’s [Martin Short] finger, I had this recurring nightmare where all of these aliens with massive brain heads would come out of my neighbor’s house and they would come up my stairs and they would come into my room and they’d bite my finger off. (Laughs.) And there were so many of them, and it all came from watching Mars Attacks! when I was really young at the movie theaters. (Laughs.)
Is wearing a stocking over one’s head as uncomfortable as it looks?
Williams: I am so glad that you asked because yes. It hurts so badly. (Laughs.) My eyes were just streaming to the point where when it was my last shot with the stalking on, I just ripped it over my eyes so that my eyes could breathe for the first time. I’m not really a whingy person, but I think my eyes are just quite sensitive. My eyelashes kept getting folded in, and they were just sticking me in the eyes. And so, yeah, I just had to do everything I could to keep my eyes open and not have tears streaming. Well, there actually are. There are tears streaming down my face, but you can’t see them because the stalking is just soaking them up. But I’m glad you asked because it sucks, and I literally would not wish it on anyone. (Laughs.)
Lately, when actors such as yourself come off of big projects, there’s a tendency to go the indie route for a while. Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are obvious examples of this. Since you shot The New Mutants during Thrones, I’m not counting that as a post-Thrones project, but is The Owners an indication that you’ll be going indie for a little while? Or is there no grand plan at the moment?
Williams: No, I would say absolutely [about going the indie route]. I mean, the industry is very different to what it was when Twilight ended in that television has skyrocketed recently and not as many indie films are being made. The people who have these really wonderful indie stories have now started stretching them out and making them into TV shows because it’s more likely to get made. There are still indie filmmakers, and I have been meeting with a lot of them. But if there are enough indie movies who want to cast me, then yes, you can say that I will be doing indies for a long time. (Laughs.) But I know that the industry is different now, and so I have to be weary of that, also. But, yeah, I look up to Robert Pattinson, and I look up to Kristen Stewart. I love what they did. I mean, I love what Kristen Stewart did before Twilight, but I really have watched so many of her movies since. I’ve really just been trying to understand what she did so well, the decisions she made and how that really affected the longevity of her career. So, yeah, I definitely do look up to the both of them, and yeah, I will be taking notes and following in their footsteps. (Laughs.)
Have you wrapped your head around the fact that in 5 years or so, you’re going to be on sets with young actors who were literally named after you or Arya?
Williams: (Laughs.) I hadn’t thought about that. I have never encountered an Arya. I’ve encountered a couple of Arya cats, people have tweeted me pictures of their children, but I don’t think I’ve ever met an Arya in the flesh. But yeah, there are going to be girls that grow up, and they’ll have no idea who they’re named after. Maybe, they’ll watch one day, but it’ll be so part of a different time — a different time where we all sat down and watched a show every Sunday night at 9 p.m. (Laughs.) These kids are just never going to experience television or film in the same way that we experienced that show, so it is funny to think about.
But it’s not just Arya; Maisie is popping up all over the States, too.
Williams: Oh my gosh. Wow. That’s cool. Well, Maisie is a really old name, actually. When my mom told my nan that she was naming me Maisie, my nan was horrified because, to my nan, it was like an old lady’s name. And so that’s, like, what? Four generations before myself when Maisie was super popular amongst babies? So, yeah, I’m glad that people like the name. I’ve always loved my name. It’s always been quite different. I like that it’s got a lot of letters. I’m glad that people also like the name. (Laughs.)
Is there a Thrones group text and have you used it to playfully tease Kit (Harrington) with a GIF of Arya’s big dagger moment?
Williams: (Laughs.) Actually, no, not that. We do tease Kit, but it’s usually about other things, which I probably can’t say. (Laughs.) But I don’t tease him about the dagger moment at all, but maybe I should. That’s a new weapon that I can use. (Laughs.)
Obviously, that was such a left turn since everyone expected him to do the honors and kill The Night King.
Williams: Yeah, they did. He expected it to go that way, too, and he even said, “It was going to go that way. Someone told me in season three that I was going to kill The Night King.” And then, he read the script, and it was Arya the whole time. (Laughs.) Yeah, I think it would’ve been too obvious. I’m glad that it was Arya, honestly. I think I had the best storyline of the final season. (Laughs.)
Without a doubt.
Williams: Yeah. (Laughs.)
As we wrap, I just want to touch on The New Mutants, which was greatly affected by the Disney-Fox merger. Unfortunately, whenever a film is delayed, people’s imaginations tend to run wild. Has it been frustrating for you to see conclusions being drawn before anyone had even seen the movie, especially since you couldn’t come out and correct them? [Writer’s Note: This interview took place prior to The New Mutants’ release on Aug 26.]
Williams: Well, not frustrating at all. I feel like anyone speaking about any movie in any capacity is a good thing, especially one which hasn’t come out yet. I liked that people were speculating, and I don’t believe when people say online, “Oh, who even cares about this film anymore? Who’s even going to watch this film?” I just don’t believe people that are like that because I’m like, “Well, you are, because you’re still talking about it even though you don’t care about it.” (Laughs.) So I think it’s only a good thing. I actually think our numbers are going to be good because of that very reason. There’s so much mystery as to why this film was shelved for so long, and really, I think it was a lot simpler than any of us really had thought. But the drama and the excitement of, like, “It was supposed to be reshot and it’s supposed to be terrible,” I think that just draws people’s interest. I mean, that’s just free promotion for 3 years. There are people who wish that they had people talking about their films. (Laughs.)
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The Owners is now available on digital HD and on demand.
“I Feel Myself Coming Back To The Surface”: Maisie Williams On Her Cathartic Quarantine
Maisie Williams returns to our screen this week in revenge comedy Two Weeks To Live as Kim, who leaves her overbearing mother (Fleabag’s Sian Clifford) behind to avenge her dead father’s killer. Along the way, our heroine encounters obstacles that allow Williams to utilise her Game Of Thrones-era combat skills once again – albeit with Needle swapped out for rather more 2020 ammunition.
“The original storyline was that a virus broke out and the world was going to end,” Maisie told Miss Vogue, having dialled into a call from her current base in Paris. ”I had to do ADR [dubbing] from my bedroom, because there actually was a virus going on, so we changed it to a nuclear war. The storyline we had chosen became real — it was our reality and not just a story.”
Playing Kim gave the actor an opportunity to get her teeth into a comedy role for the first time. “I first read the script about four years ago when it was a film, and thought it had real potential. If something can make you laugh, then the chances are it will make other people laugh, too,” she explained. This isn’t to say that nailing comic timing was without its challenges. “Comedy is terrifying and intimidating to do,” said Maisie. “Even if I could do this show again I would do so many things differently, and I’ve learned so much for the next comedy role that I do. I always see things that I would want to do differently. I think watching yourself is painful!”
Maisie appears to have no qualms about the dearth of damsels in distress on her CV. “I don’t usually get to read [for roles] like that, because aesthetics-wise, I don’t really look [like] the stereotype of a damsel in distress, which is also all made up and all in our own heads anyway. I just think that people don’t see me that way, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself that way either.” According to Maisie, her body of work reflects a feeling she’s had since she was a child. “I have always felt very different to the girls and women I grew up around, and a lot of that comes out in my art. I think that I do wear that with me everywhere I go. I do feel different, but that’s something that I embrace.”
It’s all part of an ongoing journey towards acceptance for Maisie, who says she has recently begun to rediscover the confidence she lost during her teenage years. “I got really lost and I didn’t know what to do, and would second guess everything about myself. I really feel myself coming back to the surface again, and I think this lockdown has helped that. I feel very different from the girl who went into quarantine, and I feel so much more confident.”
Her advice to other young women who have experienced similar struggles? “No one else is as cool as you are, and trying to be like anyone else is going to cause you a lot of pain. I think that people just need to let go of the expectations in their head – expectations of other people but also of themselves – and learn to exist in this world as they are, and learn to be better to themselves and other people.”
Maisie’s cathartic quarantine also coincided with her settling into a new city: she moved to Paris just before the lockdown was introduced. “I’ve been learning French which is something I’ve always wanted to do, so that’s been really enjoyable. I’ve also just been reading a lot and drinking tea. I didn’t have anything to complain about, and I know it hasn’t been that way for everyone,” she told us. “I’ve been trying to be happy with what is happening today – even if that is just being stuck in your house – and being grateful for everything that I have. I can definitely relate to that feeling of wanting tomorrow to come, and wanting things to be better or different or more – or whatever it might be. I can see why Kim escaped her mother’s clutches and went after a more exciting life.”
Two Weeks To Live will air tonight on Sky One and is available to stream in full.
I guess my career has been pretty extraordinary. Until this point, I’ve never really had a direction and I’ve allowed myself to be pulled through this industry. Me as a person? I would say I’m a control freak so from here on I see myself having a clear plan and goal.
What achievement are you most proud of so far?
To be recognized by the Academy [of Television Arts & Sciences] for my role on Game of Thrones is something that I’m really proud of.
What does it mean to be successful today?
Success is a positive mental attitude. You take from the world what you put in; I’m currently manifesting my happiness and success.
Success is entirely personal – it’s never about the status which comes with the work that you’ve achieved. It’s always about the way you feel about the work you’ve achieved, and if you’re doing something which you find unfulfilling you’ll never see it as success.
What’s left for you to achieve? What other achievements are you striving for?
Too many to count. I want to direct and produce; I see art and creativity as fluid, so I’m interested in pushing the boundaries of what film and television can be.
At what point did you realise you wanted to use your celebrity status towards something bigger, grander and more personal?
When realised people had a preconceived idea of the sort of person I was before getting to know me.
Anyone has the power to change the world, especially those with influence. I believe we were put on this earth to do more than just exist, I want to leave the planet in a better state than the way I found it because I think that’s my purpose. I don’t want to only be a mother for my children, but I will also be a mother for the world.
I rely on other people for energy. I find conversation to be an excellent way to understand the thoughts within your brain. I think we need other people to be a better version of ourselves and for that reason collaboration is the most important thing in creativity.
You used to one of the youngest actors of your generation. What’s it like to grow up in your industry?
Growing up in the industry is like being the youngest child in the family. You watch the people before you, you see their decisions and actions. You learn from their mistakes and you choose the way you want to be similar, and also different.
Generation Z has an experience unlike any generation that’s come before. We’re on the cusp of something so monumental, we can’t even see it or understand it yet. To be growing up in this era and creating art feels other-worldly. I know the emotions captured today will be around for hundreds of years, because this new age of technology will inhabit the veins of our society for the rest of eternity.
Describe your generation in three words.
Mischievous, compassionate, riotous.
Do you have a motto that you live by?
Get that head, get that bread, then leave – peace out.
How did you start your career?
My career came to fruition through persistence. I love to perform more than anything in the world. At every opportunity to be seen by a new audience or to meet new people who were linked to the industry, I made sure I was there even from the age of eight.
The biggest challenge I faced as a young woman in the film industry would be my body image. There’s immense pressure on young women to look a particular way. We need to be striking but in a soft, appealing way. To be curvy but with a slim waist and skinny arms. At a certain level the decisions stop focusing around talent and they purely come down to aesthetics.
What does time mean to you?
I used to feel like I was running out of time, but that was because I used to fill my time with pointless things. Now I see time as being precious and I don’t want to waste it.
What’s more challenging, being an actress or an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur is pretty stressful. Business brings out the worst in people and having to compete with personalities like that is draining.
What’s your message to young women like yourself?
Never let the people who don’t care for the real you distract you from loving who you are. Don’t waste time being anyone other than yourself.
Linda Hamilton or Sigourney Weaver.
What was your reaction when Cartier approached you?
I was extremely flattered. It’s such an honour to be approached by a brand as famous as Cartier.
The Pasha watch was initially created in 1985. What’s the first image that comes to mind when you think about the ’80s?
Princess Diana and her athleisure.
We are surrounded by devices that tell time. Why do you choose to wear a watch? What does it represent to you?
My phone represents chaos – every five seconds it’s a notification or an email or a text. My watch literally gives me more time in my day, it’s magic.
How would you describe the watch you’re wearing?
It’s a subtle reminder of how far I’ve come without being flashy or insensitive.
The distinct design of the Pasha watch challenges the predominance of round shapes in watchmaking and amplifies its presence, originality and singularity. How do you relate with the watch and the spirit of Pasha de Cartier?
I see my style as being fluid in terms of gender and I think this watch is empowering to wear for women like me.
Two Weeks to Live comes to Sky One next month.
Working by 12 and famous at 15, the former ‘Game Of Thrones’ star has been bossing Hollywood for a decade. But what do you do when the biggest TV show ever, the one that changed your life, finally comes to an end?
It felt like The Hunger Games,” Maisie Williams says down the line from Paris, where she’s been spending lockdown. “Everything was at stake.”
Weirdly, the tense experience she’s recalling isn’t from Game Of Thrones, the series that thrust her into the limelight as ruthless assassin Arya Stark. Instead, Williams is telling NME about a lighthearted backstage face-off between cast members on the set of Sky’s new comedy series Two Weeks To Live. The contest in question? Not a physical brawl but, erm, singing Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at the top of their lungs.
“It felt like ‘The Hunger Games… everything was at stake”
“We had to stand up one at a time in the green room and belt it out,” the 23-year-old actor explains. “You couldn’t laugh – and it was just really uncomfortable. If someone actually tried and did a good job, it was even more uncomfortable. If someone actually tried and did a good job, it was even more uncomfortable. Endless fun! But we had to stop in the end because I could tell the crew were like, ‘Shut up, this is so annoying’.”
The jokey atmosphere behind-the-scenes reflects what we see on screen – the show has an infectious and addictively funny tone that makes it a prime candidate for your next feel-good binge-watch. In her first TV role since Thrones, Williams stars as Kim, daughter to paranoid and overprotective – but also quite badass – mum Tina (Fleabag’s Sian Clifford). She’s kept Kim, now in her early 20s, in almost total isolation for most of her life, in a hut in rural Scotland. Her daily chores are a little unusual – doing the dishes doesn’t quite compare to having to disembowel dinner – and instead of vitamins, she takes “pollution pills” from a translucent green box. Normal, everyday things like music, movies and going down the pub barely feature. Until halfway through the series, Kim genuinely thinks Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ is a poem her mum penned for her 21st birthday.
Like Kim, Williams had quite an unusual childhood. She auditioned for Game Of Thrones at 12, was a recognizable star by 15, and then had to deal with the fallout. She ended up being homeschooled for her last couple of years of high school because of the bullying she received from classmates. The joke’s on them, though, because since then Williams has gone from promising child actor to one of Britain’s best bright young things. She’s beloved by the fashion world, is trying to help other young people without industry connections get a leg up through her app Daisie, and post-Thrones has already made some exciting moves in her on-screen career.
Perhaps her experiences with fame – particularly at such a young age – make running off to a hut in the middle of nowhere more attractive. Williams reckons she’d manage with Kim and Tina’s off-the-grid lifestyle, which isn’t too dissimilar from the quarantine living many of us have been doing recently. “I think I would cope OK,” she says. “I’d need to be really warm and so would Sian – she has this thing where if her hands get too cold, she passes out. So we’d need a big, roaring fire cos it would be freezing and then we’d be OK.” She wouldn’t miss anything else? Not Netflix, Spotify or Instagram? “I guess I’d probably miss Deliveroo,” she concedes. “I hate cooking.”
The boys invite her back to their house for more drinks and end up in a hypothetical conversation about what they would do if they knew they had only two weeks left to live – have lots of sex and eat tons of doughnuts is the consensus. Jay, in a bid to set up Kim and the recently dumped Nicky, decides to prank the naive newcomer with some cleverly edited video footage that shows a massive nuclear explosion that has set Earth’s remaining lifespan to just one more fortnight. Where most people would instantly see through the stunt, Kim – raised to believe the end times are imminent – jumps into her beaten up Jeep and heads off to kill Jimmy (Sean Pertwee) – the man who murdered her dad in front of her when she was a child.
“[During filming], I got a bottle on the head a couple of times, which was really painful”
Williams is no stranger to nailing stunts and Two Weeks To Live lets her pick up her fighting skills from where she left off in Westeros, but this time there are fewer swords involved and more household furniture. As she brawls with Jimmy through his flashy pad, tables, walls, chairs and pillows become tools of revenge. Not every stunt in the high-octane sequences went according to plan though. “I got a bottle on the head a couple of times, which was really painful,” she laughs. “I also kicked Sean in the mouth and made his mouth bleed so I think we were even after that.”
Aside from the badass blow-ups and edge-of-your-seat drama, the show is also genuinely funny, often in a very meta way. Dialogue between characters regularly breaks down for them to deconstruct their exchanges. For example, when Kim first makes her way into Jimmy’s house and confronts him, they swap puns around the idea of the Grim Reaper, pausing their fraught battle to congratulate themselves on how “organic” the back-and-forth was.
Where’s the first place you’d go in a strange place? Well, the pub of course.
Comedy isn’t something Williams is entirely new to – she appeared in short film The Olympic Ticket Scalper in 2012 and homegrown dramedy Gold in 2014 – but she’s never been so immersed in the genre as she is here. “It was completely out of my comfort zone, I was really nervous,” she says. “I’ve known that I wanted to do comedy, but actually doing it…
“The longer it went on without me doing comedy, the more terrifying it was. [Working on Two Weeks To Live] was quite intimidating, especially because Taheen and Mawaan are so unbelievably funny, but I think we pulled it off.”
“The longer it went on without me doing comedy, the more terrifying it was”
For the young star, stepping out of her comfort zone has become increasingly important. “That’s basically all I want to do from now onwards,” she says. “I think that so much great work comes from being super uncomfortable – as an actor, obviously, not for everyone. But when you’re pushed to some sort of emotional extreme in real life then, when you’re on camera, it just creates some crazy magic that you can’t fake. It’s just real.”
Surprisingly, given the nature of her career, Williams says she finds it “very hard to pretend” so being put in elevated states of emotion is key for her building believable characters on screen. “I always tend to draw on very real things that have happened in my life,” she says of her technique, but notes that it’s also a flawed approach. “It’s a very painful thing to do but, ultimately, is the way that it works for me. Being able to tap into things like that is difficult unless your senses are already heightened.”
“I don’t think I’m gonna be part of anything that’s seen by that many people again”
As with most people, the pandemic has left Williams’ next steps undetermined. She’s already completed work on action thriller movie The Owners and long-delayed X-Men spin-off The New Mutants hits cinemas next Friday (September 4). Two Weeks To Live hasn’t yet been announced for a second season but, if it is, the actor has plenty of ideas for what Kim could get up to next.
“I think that her little mind would be completely blown by so many things,” she laughs. “I’d love to see her experiencing tribute acts. They’re so weird and we don’t think they are. First of all, she’d have to be introduced to Elvis Presley or whoever and then she’d have to understand that he’s dead and this person is just acting like him. It just makes no sense. Or I’d love to see her looking at doll’s houses.”
They are, according to the actor, also “really bizarre”. “The fact that we keep houses in our houses that are full of really tiny things?” she says. “People actually put in wiring and plumbing and shit like that, it’s just so extra. Kim really does call everything out, like, ‘Why do we do this? It’s so strange.’”
She has a point but there’s a deeper message behind her character that feels very relevant to the time we’re living through now. “I want people to take from it that this world that we live in and this society that we’ve built is so incredibly flawed,” she says, becoming serious again. “It’s OK to think that – and life doesn’t have to be taken so seriously because it’s all completely bonkers anyway.” As her Celine Dion sing-offs show, Williams is already living up to that sentiment.
‘Two Weeks to Live’ debuts at 10pm on September 2 on Sky One and NOW TV