Maisie Williams has revealed how she threw herself into fainting fits for her new film, The Falling.

The 18-year-old Game Of Thrones star, who plays a schoolgirl with fainting spells, said she and her co-stars even held regular sessions where they would rehearse their moves.

“Me and another couple of girls all stayed in a house together while we were working and we would have a Tuesday night where we would all practise our fainting. It was pretty mental,” she said, ahead of the film’s gala screening in London tonight.

The film, written and directed by Carol Morley, sees pupils at a girls school suffering from a fainting epidemic, with those scenes looking like choreographed dance sequences.

“We wanted them to be this sort of hyper-real state where you’re not quite sure if it’s in their head or if it’s actually happening,” Maisie explained.

“We had an amazing movement coach. She taught us how to faint safely without hurting our knees, bums or elbows, and that was fantastic. It was crazy.”

Carol would play David Bowie’s hit, Space Oddity, to help them get into the mood to shoot the fainting scenes.

“Carol played music on set all the time. It was wonderful at first to get us into character. Every section of the film had its own theme song, and there would be a series of about ten songs. As we go into a new block or character, there would be a different song played,” the actress continued.

“It got to the tenth day when we’d be listening to David Bowie on set again – wonderful at the beginning, and so much fun, but by the end, I was like, ‘You’re making me hate Bowie. This is not fair’.”

As well as in The Falling, Maisie has explored complex parent-child relationships through other roles including her portrayal of Arya Stark in the fantasy series Game Of Thrones and Channel 4 drama Cyberbully.

She said: “My mum and my dad separated when I was four months old. I don’t remember any of that. I met my stepdad when I was about eight so I don’t really draw on anything familiar.

“I think a lot of teenagers experience insecurity at home and when your world starts to change, not necessarily on this level… I just think everyone’s experienced that a little bit where there’s money problems or something that causes friction in the home, which is supposed to be your safe zone. When that gets wear and tear, it does really affect you in everyday life. That’s what I drew off really.”

Maisie, who has been filming a role on BBC’s sci-fi drama Doctor Who, added: “It was really interesting to explore, and it’s something that is so real. Teenagers get such a hard time for just being teenagers but I think there’s always a lot more to it than that.

“In all three of those projects, but particularly in this one, you realise that there’s so much more going on and people are just acting out.”

The Falling opens in UK cinemas on Friday, April 24.