‘Game of Thrones’ Star Natalie Dormer On Shaving Head For ‘Hunger Games’: ‘It Was Liberating’

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer was faced with a difficult decision. To accept the role of Cressida, a documentary filmmaker who turns Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss into an icon of the revolution in the new Hunger Games film, the 31-year old actress would have to shave her head.

But according to an interview conducted by the NY Post, the decision wasn’t all that difficult in the end. “You’d have to be an idiot to say no to Hunger Games,” Dormer and her friends agreed. “And hair grows back.”

Natalie also found the perception of shaving her head once a day was not quite what she expected. “It was liberating, actually,” Dormer told the Post. “It’s interesting how much we women perceive that our sense of attractiveness or physical allure is to do with our hair.”

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead]

Allure is something the Game of Thrones star has plenty of. Aside from her star making role in Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2, Dormer is better known to the world at large for her role as Margaery Tyrell on the popular HBO show, who was recently widowed following the fan-favorite death of her newlywed husband, King Joffery. But Margaery wasted no time in Season 4 cuddling up to the new king in waiting, King Tommen of House Baratheon, as we approach the highly anticipated Season 5 premiere of Game of Thrones early next year.

So far, playing sensual and sexy characters is something Natalie has thrived in and is also something she does not take for granted. “I have been blessed to play women who are sexually competent. They know how to use it,” Dormer says. “Margaery Tyrell is a Kate Middleton/Michelle Obama hybrid, a first lady/princess, trying to win over hearts and minds. The Princess Di effect, you may call it. And Anne Boleyn had to use the tools women had back then. So it will be interesting to see what people think of Cressida. She looks cool, but she’s not a woman who’s defined by a romance or a man.”

The latest Hunger Games opens this weekend and it could transform Natalie into a household name the way the franchise did for actress Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence is so big now that the star has been immortalized as a life-size cake, according to the Telegraph. So is super-stardom in the cards for Dormer? And more importantly, would she embrace the role of sex symbol for women across the nation?

“When I wake up on a Sunday morning with a slight hangover, in the gym with no makeup on, that’s who Natalie Dormer really is. The girl next door who gets a spot on her forehead occasionally. I would embrace the opportunity to play more of those kinds of girls, who don’t have that arsenal of sexuality.”

[Natalie Dormer photo via EW]