Natalie Dormer Defends Game of Thrones’ Violence
By Ani Bundel
Yet again, Natalie Dormer is in the news for discussing the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. This time, though, she wasn’t considering the upcoming plot twists of Season 6, or dropping large circular hints about upcoming twists that the production is still trying to keep a lid on. Instead, she was defending the show’s reputation for violence, especially against women.
Speaking to the Sunday Times (and accessible by the way of The Mirror, since The Times is paywalled), Dormer defended the show’s portrayal of violence, and said those who are looking for escapism in their TV shows should watch something else.
All I know is that I turn on the news, and it’s covering a boy drowning off the coast, or children being shown beheading videos. The horror of human nature is prevalent in our world, and I appreciate that some people want to turn on the telly for escapism – but if that’s what you want, don’t watch Game of Thrones. I choose fantasy to vent, to process complex political, sexual and social politics at the safe distance of fiction. For me, that’s what art should be.
She’s not going to defend each individual character’s actions, though. Not even Margaery’s, who in Season 5 bedded a young and impressionable teenage boy in order to bend him to her will so that she could run Westeros by proxy.
You sign on the dotted line, give them seven years and don’t get to alter the writing. An actor is a conduit to a writer. The message comes from the writing. I can’t – as Natalie – defend everything Margaery does, as that’s not my job.
She also addressed last year’s most controversial scene: Ramsay Bolton raping his new wife Sansa Stark on their wedding night. “There are some misogynistic characters in Game of Thrones.” Dormer said. But as she sees it, scenes like this one also represent an opportunity to have a dialogue about marital rape. “(It) can start a conversation about the statistics of rape and how much it happens within the family”.
“I find parts of the show difficult to watch, but I don’t think we do young people any favours by sheltering them.”
We’ll have to see what Season 6 brings. The uproar over Sansa’s rape in Season 5 has lead to the rumor that Benioff and Weiss thought twice about some scenes in Season 6. Bryan Cogman’s recent comments on the Season 5 DVD commentary seem to suggest there may be truth to those rumors, as he was clearly distraught over both the scene itself and the fan response to it.