Maisie Williams is thrilled to be playing her "dream" role in ‘The Forest of Hands and Teeth’.
The ‘Game of Thrones’ star has nabbed the lead part of Mary in the film which has been adapted from Carrie Ryan’s 2009 post-apocalyptic zombie novel of the same name and says she stumbled across the "incredible" character by chance.
Asked what her dream literary role would be, she spoke about her forthcoming project, and said: "There’s a film being made later this year based on a book called ‘The Forest of Hands and Teeth’ and I’m going to play Mary, which I am really, really excited for – lots of people are such massive fans of the book and the character is just so incredible. I was only introduced to it through the script but I’m really, really looking forward to it and had I read the book first, it would have been a character that would have been on the list of people that it would be a dream to play."
Maisie, 19, rose to fame in 2011 when she first played Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy television series ‘Game of Thrones’ and fans of the popular drama will be delighted to hear that Mary – a teenager who wishes to learn what lies beyond the village in which she is imprisoned – is a similarly "strong" character.
She said: "The character is (similar to Arya) but I think she’s a bit of an introvert, she’s definitely a very strong leader though, extremely passionate and will stop at nothing until she fulfills her goals in the story and is very driven. Yeah she is quite similar."
The story follows Mary after she escapes the village, which is supposedly the only human habitation left on Earth not infected by the cannibalistic undead, and attempts to find true love and friendship while figuring out the mystery behind the fences and gates.
Elsewhere, Maisie is set to continue making independent films and trying out different characters before she moves into big Hollywood movie roles.
She told BBC Radio One’s breakfast show: "I don’t want to do all of the big things right now. I quite like doing the independent films because they always have cooler and different characters – I find that far more fun. Although I should be shaping a career, I still want to have fun because I don’t want to get to the end of my career and be like ‘Oh I did all those bucket list things but didn’t actually enjoy it’, so it’s more important for me to do things that (I fancy) … that’s my attitude."