Fire and Ice

For the myriad characters caught up in the power struggles dramatized on HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones,” the challenges are daunting: raising an army, winning battles, simply surviving from day to day. Right up there on the difficulty meter, though, has to be poised, patient Margaery Tyrell’s charm offensive to mold loathsome sadist and future husband King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) into a kinder, gentler ruler. Breaking in dragons seems cut-and-dry in comparison.

“It’s like she’s trying to train a dog, isn’t she?” says British actress Natalie Dormer of her character’s particular obedience task. “A totally aggressive, violent dog.”

Season 3’s first episode laid the groundwork for this campaign, with Margaery’s open kindness to war orphans causing Joffrey to briefly reconsider his equally open hatred of his subjects. In next week’s episode, a case of literal hand-holding on Margaery’s part helps bring Joffrey one step closer to her way of leading the people, and another step away from his mother Cersei’s (Lena Headey) method of control through fear. “You can see the mechanics in Joffrey’s head as he starts to unfold how beneficial it might be to listen to Margaery,” says Dormer. “It’s that difficulty most men come across, reconciling the girlfriend with the mother, and growing up.”

For Dormer, 31, such scenes are what make her role, and “Game of Thrones” on the whole, so much fun. “There are stories of explicit power, whether it comes from wielding swords or ginormous dragons setting things on fire, but then there are the delicacies of psychological power, and manipulating people,” she says. “That’s the beauty of the show — that it can oscillate between those big, massive, epic, physical things, and then the small intricacies of human psychology. There’s something for everyone, because it covers all the bases.”

Is Margaery one of the more adaptable characters on “Thrones,” then, unfazed by the treachery around her? “She’s trained to be adaptable, by her grandmother the Queen of Thorns, played by Dame Diana Rigg. She’s very much the protégée of that woman, almost suited for this sort of destiny. But I don’t think it’s that she’s not fazed by it. She’s just good at not showing her emotions or reactions,” Dormer says.

As for acting opposite the formidable Rigg, Dormer notes the nifty generational parallel at work: a younger, less experienced figure learning from a wily veteran. It applies to Dormer’s Margaery and Sophie Turner’s Sansa Stark as nascent politicians soaking up wisdom from Rigg’s wily Olenna, and to the actresses’ relationship off-camera as well. “It plays nicely into our story line of three women. It’s almost NAR: No Acting Required!”

If Dormer could give her own advice to Margaery, however, it would be not to take anything for granted. Not long after graduating from Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, she scored quick success with a part in Lasse Hallström’s movie “Casanova” opposite Heath Ledger. The realities of an actor’s life hit hard afterward, however.

“I had a period of unemployment for about nine months after my first big break,” she says, “and it’s the greatest lesson I ever could have learned, never to believe you’re home and dry. The same could be true of Margaery: Never believe you’re safe!”

Dormer is now no stranger to playing court intrigue, having won plaudits for her mesmerizing Anne Boleyn over two seasons of Showtime’s Henry VIII series “The Tudors,” her second big break. In fact, Dormer was skittish about similarities between the royalty-in-waiting characters when she was hired for “Thrones,” but after two years as Margaery, she realizes her anxiety was unjustified.

“The characterizations are so different,” says Dormer. “Talk about ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’” — referencing the book series “Thrones” is adapted from — “Anne Boleyn was fire, and Margaery is a little bit more cool, calm, and practical.”

Since Dormer has portrayed them both, though, it’s safe to say they each have benefited from a constant: her unorthodox feline beauty, which in Dormer’s hands is a surprisingly malleable acting tool. When asked about what she’s heard or read about her features, Dormer says matter-of-factly, “I know that some people don’t like my mouth.”

After a pause, she continues. “All I can say is, actors aren’t models. Actors should have interesting quirks, be it their faces or bodies or heights, whatever,” she says. “Perfect is very boring, and if you happen to have a different look, that’s a celebration of human nature, I think. If we were all symmetrical and perfect, life would be very dull.”

GAME OF THRONES

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