Maisie Williams has spent nearly a decade and a half being recognised for a role she played with a sword and a scowl. Now, promoting her return to the screen in “Practical Magic 2,” the actress is offering a different kind of confession: she once paid a stranger on Etsy to cast a spell on her career.
Speaking on the red carpet at the film’s European premiere, Williams told British Vogue she hired an online spellcaster to help her land a part in a different, unreleased movie. “I paid an Etsy witch to give me a role,” she said. “She told me some things that I had to say every night.” Williams says she recited the words as instructed, night after night, only for the role never to materialise. “It didn’t happen,” she said flatly.
The role that did materialise, “Practical Magic 2,” arrived without any online sorcery. “With this one, I didn’t ask an Etsy witch, but I just got it on my own,” Williams said, an outcome she has joked leaves her wondering whether she might possess some magic of her own.
Williams plays Antonia Owens, one of two daughters at the centre of Warner Bros.’ sequel to the 1998 hit, joining Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as they reprise their roles as sisters from a family of witches. Joey King plays her onscreen sibling, taking over the part originated by Evan Rachel Wood, who has said she felt “sad” about not returning for the follow-up. Williams has described the cast’s bond as immediate, calling Bullock and Kidman “the kindest, gentlest people,” despite never having worked with either before filming began.
The film, directed by Susanne Bier and based on Alice Hoffman’s “The Book of Magic,” is set twenty-five years after the original story, following the Owens women as they confront a new supernatural threat. It opens in U.S. theatres this month, more than two decades after the first film built a cult following that outlasted its modest box-office run.
For Williams, the anecdote about the failed spell has become the standout soundbite of the press tour, offering a glimpse of the wit that has helped her build a career well beyond Arya Stark.
