By Ashleigh Stevenson and James Mottram
Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams believes that a focus group during the testing of Early Man shaped her character in the Aardman stop motion animated movie. Speaking with FilmInk, she explained that “…a lot of the parents were really happy to see that there was a woman who had such a huge part to play in the driving of the film, so that really shaped her third act and I had a lot more to do.”
The British actress plays Goona, a girl who helps Dug (Eddie Redmayne) and his tribe triumph over Tom Hiddleston’s Lord Nooth in the typically dry-witted Aardman production.
Williams acknowledges that Early Man is a male-driven film, but believes her character balances it out. “I think that they’ve introduced Goona for all the right reasons,” she says.
She believes that Goona is a role model to kids everywhere as she feels many animated female characters are portrayed as being “hypersexualised”.
“I thought that she was such a wonderful role model for young girls, both visually but then also in the work that she does,” says Williams. “She inspires an entire tribe to work together and overcome what seems to be the impossible. I think that’s great in any film, but particularly in kids’ films.”
Surrounded by the likes of Sophie Turner, Lena Heady and Emilia Clarke on GOT, Williams believes that people now think that females can drive a commercially successful story. “I think people started to realise that ‘oh you could make a female that is serious, and it will still do well’.”
On the flipside, an area that is particularly barren in the cinema landscape is comedy headlined by females. “People don’t make as many female-driven comedies as they do male, and I think people are just scared of it, until someone does it and they’re like ‘oh, right, it can make a lot of money’.”
Early Man is in Victorian and Queensland cinema as from March 29, and the rest of Australia from April 12, 2018.
