Natalie Dormer reveals she didn’t originally audition for Margaery Tyrell

Natalie Dormer is likely to be all over our television screens in the next couple of weeks as she makes the rounds to promote the upcoming third entry in the Hunger Games film saga. She’s already appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show on ITV in the United Kingdom, where she made a startling revelation: she originally auditioned for another character on Game of Thrones! Hit the jump for more details.

“The story of that,” she says, “is I went in to audition for another role and I’ve never told anyone what that other role and I won’t tell anyone while we’re still shooting the show.”  But she goes on to say that it was serendipitous because the producers didn’t know what to do with Margaery. “There’s not really much about her so I had to flesh her out and to make her a three dimensional character within the show.” She’s taken on quite an undertaking; as Margaery is not a POV character in the books; she’s largely defined by how others in King’s Landing, like Sansa, Tyrion, and (later) Cersei, perceive her. Dormer has had to find the human being buried underneath all those other biased perceptions. It’s also interesting that getting Dormer–a great catch after her impressive role on The Tudors as Anne Boleyn–affected how the producers brought her character to the screen.

Dormer seems to have tackled that challenge quite well, too, as she also talks about the rather awkward scene in Season 4 when Margaery flirts with young Tommen Baratheon. “It wasn’t as ambiguous and I was like ‘we need to talk about this’ and for a woman just to throw her sensuality, her sexuality at a young male is just so on the nose and so obvious and the last thing Margaery Tyrell is is obvious, she’s far more skilled than that.” A Margaery-esque answer if ever I heard one.

Who do you think Dormer initially auditioned for? I’d guess the most likely candidate is Daenerys Targaryen.

• Published on 11/10/2014 at 4:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 11/10/2014 at 4:00 PM CDT