After fi ve seasons on the show,
she has returned to the sofa to watch
it like a fan again. “It is a cathartic
escape for us all, isn’t it, good old GoT?
It goes back to what you and I were
saying about what’s happening in the
world. The unpredictability of Game
of Thrones is defi nitely refl ective of the
last handful of years.” On that note, as
someone who has played the partner
of several powerful, slightly unhinged
men – Henry VIII , the tyrannical
king Joff rey – how does she think
Melania Trump is doing as fi rst lady?
She smiles, sphinx-like, and cocks her
head to one side. “Oh, I’m not going
to comment on that, Kathryn,” she
says quietly. I try again – does Joff rey
remind her of any politicians? – but
she’s far too shrewd to fall for it.
I change tack and go for something
that should be less infl ammatory: her
haircut in The Hunger Games, where
she shaved one side of her head for
her role as rebel warrior Cressida.
She speaks of how liberating it is as
an actor to assume new identities,
although she did get treated diff erently
in the street. She starts to say “To me,
feminism...” but the word instigat es
another train of thought. “Being an
equalist, or egalitarian, whatever
semantics you want to get into... I was
in Tanzania a few weeks ago with Plan
International , who are supporting an
advocacy group to ban child marriage,
and I think sometimes western women
take certain things for granted. Sitting
next to little girls in Africa who literally
belong to their father or husband,
really made me realise there are so
many places where the basics are still
not won.”
She returns to the question. “We
are too aesthetically obsessed,
defi ning people by how they look, or
choices they’ve made.” She suddenly
looks exhausted. “We should all
support each other more often, andstop looking at ‘ Where did you go to
university?’, ‘ How many kids have you
got?’, ‘ How high are your heels?’, ‘ Are
you on social media ?’” She takes a deep
breath. “It took us a bloody long time to
get this far, so can we get our priorities
in order? Sorry, there you are, if you
wanted a feminist rant, there it was.”
It’s not over. “And embrace the men.
We need to support our male feminist
support, not berate them. Let’s all start
looking after each other.”
One way Dormer is striving for
gender equality is by seeking out and
creating interesting, fully rounded
female characters. Since 2009, she
has been co-writing the thriller In
Darkness with her fi anc e , director
Anthony Byrne. “This was pre-Girl
With the Dragon Tattoo, pre-Black
Swan, pre- this wonderful revolution
we’ve had with female anti heroes,”
she says. Due for release next year,
it’s inspired by Hitchcock and Scandi
drama, and centred on a blind
musician who thinks she hears a
murder in the fl at above. After Venus
in Fur , she’ll be appearing in the “dark,
funny, surreal” Amazon mini-series
Picnic at Hanging Rock , pandemic
drama Patient Zero opposite Matt
Smith, and The Professor and the
Madman, a fi lm about the making of
the Oxford English Dictionary starring
Mel Gibson and Sean Penn. What was
it like fi lming with those two? “Oh man- that’s a whole other interview.”
When she’s not starring in or writing
big screen roles, she likes to run – she’s
done the London marathon twice – to
help her sift through thoughts (while
listening to Stormzy or Rihanna or
Queens of the Stone Age) or do yoga,
to clear her mind. “I fi nd both very
therapeutic, for my mind as much as
my body. They’re diff erent types of
meditation.” At 35, she has found a
greater tolerance and self-love than
in her 20s. “The anxiety is not so
potent, because you realise you can’t
be superhuman, and to attempt to be
will only make you miserable. Enjoy
being more caring of yourself: be more
accepting of your fl aws, and quietly,
consistently, constructively try and
work on them.
“To me, moving into my mid-30s has
been a calming experience. I have felt
a respite, sort of catching my breath,
going: ‘Oh, OK, so all those things
that that angry, defi ant, hopeful, self-
berating 18-year-old wanted to achieve- we got to a good place.’”
Venus in Fur is at the Theatre
Royal Haymarket, London SW1,
6 October -9 DecemberThe Observer | 01. 1 0. 17 | THE NEW REVIEW 15
MIDDLE OF A REVOLUTION’
argues: we are in the next technological
revolution. “I feel like in a decade’s time
we’ll look back and go : ‘ Holy fuck, the
tectonic plates of society, all the things
we’ve taken for granted for the last 100
years – liberalism, Whiggish evolution,
that everything is slowly going to get
better – have been blown out of the
water.’” Dormer, who before acting was
planning to study history at Cambridge,
is getting heated.
“We have to be diligent: it’s not a fait
accompli. You need to defend gender
politics, you need to defend democracy,
my God.” She angrily spears a slice of
muffi n. “If you look at history, nothing
happens in an arbitrary manner.
Trump and Brexit are a reaction to a
handful of people’s genuine fears and
concerns. I think people are incredibly
anxious. We live in a very anxious time.
Because we’re always attached to these
things now” – she jabs an accusatory
fi nger at my smartphone, segueing to
a discussion of anxiety in children,
people’s obsession with profi le, the
constant bombardment of bad news.
“People try and look for a panacea,
and if they see something they think
will fi x everything” – she snaps her
fi ngers – “they latch on to it. The
truth is that issues are so much more
complex than that.” She uses health as
an analogy: you have to be suspicious
if people say one pill will make you
healthy. It’s about the way you eat, how
much exercise you get, giving yourself
quiet time. “But in this modern world,
we’re looking for the pill.”D
ormer doesn’t regret not studying
history at university (“I would
100% still have ended up doing
this”); she enjoys bringing the
subject to viewers in dramatic form.
Both The Hunger Games and Game of
Thrones, though fantasy, have some
basis in the modern world – violence,
prejudice, tyranny, power struggles –
providing escapism that’s grounded
in reality. “It’s just good storytelling:
that’s how I process and deal with
what’s going on in the world.” Game of
Thrones, in particular, is much loved
by politicians: Dormer once went to
a dinner in Washington DC and was
surprised to fi nd how many there
watched the show. Dormer met David
Cameron at an event when he was in
power and it was the fi rst thing he told
her. Another famous fan is Stormzy,
who approached her at last month’s
GQ awards: “I was like, my God,
that’s so crazy, that Stormzy is
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