Actor Maisie Williams, who played Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones, has revealed the drastic lengths the makers of the show went to in order to hide her developing body as a woman gave her body image issues.

Maisie was only 14 when she started acting in Game of Thrones. During the course of its eight seasons, as she grew up and her body started to mature, the makers attempted to mask that so that she could continue to have a masculine frame that was associated with Arya’s character. This, Maisie said, had a negative impact on her self-esteem.

"They would also put this strap across my chest to flatten any growth that had started, and I don't know, that just felt horrible for six months of the year," Maisie said during Vogue’s ’24 Hours with Maisie Williams’ video.

The actor added the extent to which the makers of the show went in order to hide her developing body and present her as a girl, because the role demanded so, left her feeling "a bit ashamed" of her body.

Now 22, Maisie said she felt "horrible" and "conscious" about her body image while on the series. "Around season two or three, my body started to mature and I started to become a woman. But Arya was still very much, like, trying to be disguised as a boy,” said Maisie.

She continued, "I had really short hair and they constantly covered me in dirt and shaded my nose so it looked really broad and I look, like, really manly."

However, post Game of Thrones, Arya said that she is happy to be exploring her style, and her feminine side of herself. "With this new phase of my style, it is nice to look more feminine and have a real waistline and just embrace the body that I have," she said.

(IANS inputs)