She played her long-suffering daughter-in-law on-screen, but Natalie Dormer can still sympathise with ruthless Game of Thrones character, Cersei Lannister.
Dormer, 36, starred as Margaery Tyrell for four seasons of the HBO fantasy series, during which time her character famously feuding with Cersei, played by Lena Headey.
Jealous of Margaery’s marriage to her menacing son Joffrey, Cersei notoriously plotted and schemed to keep Margaery away from the Iron Throne at King’s Landing. Even after their characters’ frosty relationship, Dormer can understand why Cersei has become as evil as she is.
The actress told The Telegraph: ‘I think she’s an anti-heroine.
‘Cersei has had all her children murdered and taken away from her – and I’m not condoning her behaviour, but there is a fully fleshed-out human being in David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss]’s writing, and in Lena Headey’s performance.’
Some of Cersei’s most evil crimes include, framing Margaery for adultery and having her locked up in a cell, and poisoning her husband Robert. Worst mother-in-law ever?
Praising the GoT scriptwriters’ handling of Headey’s character, Dormer added: ‘You see incrementally how she became the monster that she is. To me, that’s good writing, it’s not Marvel good and bad.’
Dormer’s character later tied the knot with Cersei’s other son Tommen, you know, just in case marrying Joffrey wasn’t enough to rile the deranged matriarch.
Game of Thrones will come to an end in 2019 with season eight, which wrapped filming earlier in July.
Actress Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, confirmed shooting the last scenes with an Instagram photo of her – spoiler alert – bloody trainers and the caption: ‘Goodbye Belfast. Goodbye Arya. Goodbye Game of Thrones. What a joy I’ve had. Here’s to the adventures to come.’
Heady is currently promoting new movie In Darkness, which she wrote, and has been forced to defend the film’s nudity after criticism of its explicit content.
