Natalie Dormer: Her Frequent On-Screen Nudity And Her Controversial Approach
Natalie Dormer has been a star on The Tudors and Game of Thrones and has appeared nude in both of those series.
If one thing can be said about Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer is that she doesn’t mind being nude in front of the camera. The British actress has never been shy about her nudity in film or television and it doesn’t appear that her outlook on that fact is going to change. What she would like to see, though, is a bit of fair play when it comes to men dropping trou.
She has strong views and an even stronger on-screen presence. Let’s take a look at where she’s been, where she might be going, and if Natalie Dormer nude is what fans will see in the future.
NATALIE DORMER HAS BEEN NUDE ON CAMERA MANY TIMES
Although Natalie Dormer going nude has been a part of her film and television catalog, and she has appeared in the buff numerous times throughout her career, it hasn’t been as easy as it may seem.
In fact, the actress has commented on a few occasions about her comfort level while appearing nude, saying she felt the need to “set the record straight” concerning this.
“To set the record straight, I have never been comfortable doing sex or nude scenes,” she explained to the New Statesman in a 2018 interview. She also feels that some of her prior comments on her being nude may have been misinterpreted, which actually caused her to rethink nude or explicit sex scenes.
She was shocked by some reactions to the sex scene with Ed Skrein, her former Game of Thrones co-star, in In Darkness, a movie that Dormer co-wrote and produced.
“[In Darkness] seemed to take on a tone that was completely out of my control. I was mortified that it had been interpreted in a gratuitous way. It was like a slap in the face,” the actress lamented.
“There has to be sexuality in the power play of a thriller,” Natalie Dormer said of the nudity and sex. “In this film, the sex scene, which for me was a love-making scene, is a metaphor for the way my character connects with the part played by Ed Skrein.”
“If the lead characters do not have a clear connection, then it doesn’t work,” she added. “And on screen it has to be a physical connection between two broken people. That was my intention.”
So, has some of the backlash caused Natalie Dormer to rethink being nude on screen?
NATALIE DORMER WAS NUDE IN THE TUDORS
Natalie Dormer made the choice to do nudity early on in her career when she took the role of Anne Boleyn in the racy period piece The Tudors. The series ran for four seasons, telling the story of the English royal House of Tudors, focusing mainly on the reign of King Henry VIII.
The series was shown on the premium cable channel Showtime, which has a reputation for not shying away from showing skin. The Tudors was no exception, as it had an unflinching look at how sex shaped the royal house.
Unfortunately for Natalie Dormer and her role as Boleyn, she only lasted the first two seasons, losing her head at the end of the second. But she took on the role because she needed the work.
Natalie Dormer said via NewStatesman, “I was grateful to get the job. People would say, ‘The Tudors was so hyper-sexualized, why on earth would you make that decision?’ Well, I made the decision because I was unemployed. I didn’t know what The Tudors was going to be, I didn’t have all ten scripts; I’d just got a job, for fuck’s sake.”
Natalie Dormer getting nude would eventually become part of her tagline. Showing the filmmakers that she wasn’t shy about it resulted in many of the roles that were being offered to her requiring a lot of nudity.
While she didn’t have a problem taking it off, she was picky about those roles, and for the record, taking it off or doing sex scenes wasn’t a comfortable thing for her. “How many people would be? My job specification is finding motivation in the text.”
Continuing to address her nude scenes, Natalie Dormer goes on: “I’ve turned down roles this year that have involved sex, solely because of the way I’ve been misrepresented. I’m so terrified at the moment of perpetuating that clickbait image of me.”
Natalie Dormer being nude hasn’t always been required in her movies or TV series. She was in Silk and then a small role in Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger.
She was also seen in the TV series The Fades and the TV movie Poe before another big break came her way. This was one of the biggest things in TV history: HBO’s Game of Thrones.
NATALIE DORMER WAS NUDE IN GAME OF THRONES
Game of Thrones, like The Tudors, required us to see Natalie Dormer nude. As Margaery Tyrell, Dormer was required to show some skin. The unwritten HBO rule at the time was that it had a “boob mandate.”
While Natalie Dormer didn’t actually confirm this mandate, she did say there needs to be more equality when it comes to the male-to-female nudity ratio. “Well, during the first season Alfie, Richard, and several of the men got naked—although not all the way. I suppose it’s just the rules of broadcast television, isn’t it? I think Thrones has been better than your average show with the equality, but they could definitely ramp it up! Absolutely.”
Her time on Game of Thrones didn’t come without its Natalie Dormer getting nude controversy. In it, Natalie Dormer’s character was forced to seduce the boy-king Tommen Baratheon. The boy-king was 12 years old in the story and it created much concern.
Natalie Dormer told the Daily Beast, “That scene was altered because I phoned Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] and said, ‘I’m not comfortable doing this.’ It’s the nature of the beast that I’m four years into playing Margaery Tyrell and the big plot points of the book are in stone. You can’t change them. George R.R. Martin wrote a particular plotline, so on the specifics of Margaery and Tommen getting married, there’s nothing I can do. On the show, we had to find a way to navigate that in a sensitive way.”
Natalie Dormer often found herself defending Game of Thrones’ many rape scenes, which forced a few active fans to abandon the series. She says, “I think sex and romance is a huge part of human motivation,” she said.
“So long as it’s informing the story then I don’t see what the problem is. Obviously, no one likes gratuitous sex or gratuitous misogyny, the same way people shouldn’t like gratuitous violence… But I think Thrones is quite good in that way.”
Natalie Dormer added, “The violence is quite naturalistic. It’s not hyper-stylised. It’s not glamorized. And the sex is quite real and dirty as well. It’s about those raw, visceral qualities of human life that make good drama.”
SHE WAS BULLIED AS A KID AND THEN STARRED IN CASANOVA
Before Natalie Dormer being nude became a big topic in her life and career, she described how her childhood and school years were not easy. The cruelty of kids was on full display with its focus on a young Dormer. It was a struggle to get through, but ultimately, one that made her stronger and more determined than ever.
“I suffered quite a bit of bullying, yes. I don’t know why. Life’s hard, man. School is hard, and I was a late bloomer in finding out who I was and how to be myself. Kids are very cruel to each other. It was never mental—it was physical, and psychological. And that’s the worst kind of bullying because it’s hard to grasp on to and explain it to other people. It’s a cliché, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” she explained to The Daily Beast.
Natalie Dormer had a similarly rough start to her movie career. She appeared in the British TV series Distant Shores and then made her feature film debut in the rom-com adventure Heath Ledger-led Casanova. Of course, she played one of Casanova’s many conquests.
Then came a lull in her work, which she refers to as a “steep learning curve.”
Natalie explains, “A lull. It was due to bad representation. I was attached to an independent film that didn’t have its money, and instead of keeping me on the audition circuit, they just took me off. When the movie fell through, I had spent many months not working, and was waitressing and doing data entry to make money—these temp job situations. It was a mismanagement situation that led to me not acting for 10 months. That was a very steep learning curve for me. Then I landed The Tudors and managed to pick up some momentum again.”
Natalie Dormer being nude has always been a hot topic in her film and television work. For the record, besides The Tudors, Game of Thrones, and In Darkness, Dormer has appeared nude in several other projects that include The Scandalous Lady W, Rush, and an episode of The Fades. By looking at the bulk of her career, though, and while nudity is a part of it, it isn’t necessary.
SHE HAD A BIG 2024
All controversy, sex, and Natalie Dormer being nude aside, the actress has a few projects lined up for the near future after a two-year hiatus. She was last seen in 2020 in the excellent series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, where she wasn’t fully nude, but was involved in a couple of sex scenes.
In White Lies, Natalie Dormer stars as Edie Hansen, an investigative journalist who’s embroiled in a murder mystery following the death of her estranged brother in Cape Town. She’s got to uncover the truth but also figure out what the hell is going on with her past. Dormer also was on as an executive producer.
Natalie Dormer was also in The Wasp, a story about two friends, Dormer and Naomie Harris, who have not seen or spoken to each other for years. When Heather (Harris) comes back into Carla’s (Dormer) life, she offers Carla a proposition that could change everything.
Finally, Natalie Dormer was in Audrey’s Children. She starred as Dr. Audrey Evans, based on the true-life story of the legendary oncologist. In 1970, when most children were dying from cancer, Dr. Evans decided to break all the rules in order to start saving lives. Evans ended up being the co-founder of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Natalie Dormer nude? While her comfort level hasn’t always been at ease, her willingness to be nude on film has gotten her to where she is in her career. And, she has no regrets about the path she has taken.
