Natalie Dormer: Tattoos, shaving my hair and why Hunger Games Mockingjay trumps all my roles

The actress said shaving her head was 'terrifying' but 'liberating'
Natalie as Cressida in the film
Louise Jury11 November 2014
The Weekender

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She has starred in TV hits The Tudors and Game Of Thrones — but appearing in the blockbuster Hunger Games franchise “trumps everything”, says new recruit Natalie Dormer.

Speaking exclusively to the Standard before the world premiere of the third Hunger Games film in London tonight, Dormer said she was used to “high production values” from playing Anne Boleyn and Margaery Tyrell, but there was no comparison with the scale of the movies starring Jennifer Lawrence as reluctant heroine Katniss Everdeen.

“Walking on to set my first day, I was surrounded by a lot of fire and descending by crane on a hovercraft.” she said.

The London-based actress joined a cast including Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and fellow Brit Sam Claflin for The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part I, which sees Everdeen become the figurehead of rebellion.

Natalie Dormer - in pictures

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Dormer, 32, swapped long locks for a semi-shaved head and tattoos to play spin doctor Cressida, whose promotional films of Everdeen rally the people.

She said she loved playing someone who was “defined by her profession. It was gender irrelevant. It is nice to play a role not defined by romantic engagement”.

Shaving off half her hair was “terrifying at first” and then “a liberating experience”.

She said: “Of course, so much of female identity is bound up in our hair. It was fascinating to explore my idea of what makes me physically attractive. I felt empowered.”

The actress already had a small tattoo before being covered in fake green ones for the role: “I had a knee-jerk reaction to immediately get another five. It’s quite an addictive process.”

But she has stopped herself because “I love to sleep and more tattoos as an actor mean an earlier pick-up call in the morning to cover them all up.”

She said the film was unique as “a commercial entertainment movie that cleverly interweaves really big philosophical themes about humanity, about personal identity and social structure. It doesn’t shy away from darkness.”

Dormer, who grew up in Reading, also praised the “incredible cast” headed by Moore — “one of my heroines” — and Lawrence. “She is very centred, that is how she survives this media circus. Jen really waves the flag of being a very healthy role model for young girls,” she said.

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part  I is released on November 20.

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