Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) is very busy. She has a movie out in theaters — In Darkness, which she both stars in and wrote — and is headlining Picnic at Hanging Rock, a miniseries from the BBC based on the classic novel. But as a veteran of Game of Thrones, outlets are understandably interested to get her take on the ending, which is just around the corner. “Well, I do know how it ends, but I can’t answer your question, sorry!” she told The Sun when it just asked her to spill the beans, apparently. “I’ve been disciplined in keeping secrets for a good five years, when I was part of the show.”
"I was told the ending by someone on the show and even though I know how it does, I am just dying to see how they get there. I’ll still be watching it like a regular viewer, completely agog, because I have no idea how the showrunners will get there. To be honest, I kind of wish I didn’t know."
She said much the same thing to The Hollywood Reporter. “I know A to B. I know what B is, but I don’t know how they get B. But I do know B.” That must be a strange situation; I’m not sure whether to envy Dormer or count myself lucky I’m not in her shoes.
Speaking to the Independent, Dormer also ruminated on the long-simmering question about whether the sex and violence on the show is exploitative. She’s cool with it, so long as it’s put in context:
"Sex and romance is a huge part of human motivation. So long as it’s informing the story then I don’t see the problem. But I think ‘Thrones’ is quite good in that way. The violence is quite naturalistic. It’s not hyper-stylised. It’s not glamorised. And the sex is quite real and dirty as well. It’s about those raw, visceral qualities of human life."
There’s no question that Game of Thrones is a violent, sexually explicit show, but excepting select scenes (the early seasons were worse about titillation for titillation’s sake, I think), I agree that those aspects are largely dealt with responsibly. Frankly, it’s a little tiresome that people like Dormer keep getting asked about this, and not just as it relates to Thrones; she also defends the sex scenes in In Darkness. “We have all got bodies, after all. In a thriller the protagonists always have to join together somehow and sex represents that connection. If you are being true to the genre, you have to show this.”
We can look forward to more sex and violence when the final season of Game of Thrones season 8 airs next year.
Next: The 2019 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar is out: Check out the beautiful art work
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