Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/593724
N atalie Dormer is on a pool terrace overlooking Los Angeles, doing what can only be described as the happy dance. In an entertainment world where things so often go wrong, everything appears to be going exactly right for Dormer, and you sense her good fortune as she casually pirouettes and pliés— she was a ballerina before becoming an actor—for a photographer's camera on this sparkling-blue day in Beverly Hills. But then she stops, cocks her hip, and scrunches her lips into a mischievous little pucker that edges up on one side. Dormer has very large, bright blue eyes that somehow loom larger in that instant. The English actress is so well known for this facial fourish that there is a highly traffcked Tumblr page called "Natalie Dormer's Smirk." For the record, she is okay with that. "I have a lopsided smile, what can I say?" she says. "And if that message flters down to some girl looking in the mirror who feels she's not completely symmetrical, then I am glad to have helped in some small, albeit ridiculous, way." At the moment, Dormer is not smirking so much as suppressing laughter or perhaps primal screams. It has been an intense week that's about to get crazier. She just arrived via London, where she lives, from Serbia, where she flmed her frst honest-to-goodness lead role in a supernatural horror flm called The Forest. Tomorrow, she heads to San Diego for the restorative Zen retreat that is Comic-Con. Over three frantic days there, she will promote roles in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, which opens November 20; Patient Zero, an upcoming bio-thriller about a global pandemic; and the sixth season of HBO's Game of Thrones, in which Dormer stars as Margaery Tyrell, queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Press panels, parties, hordes of furry green-haired cosplayers—"The trick will be remembering which Natalie Dormer I need to be and when," she says as her grin starts to curl again. Madness might be justifable. At 33, Dormer somehow fnds herself in two of the biggest pop culture sensations of our time. Hunger Games and Game of Thrones attract so much frenzied analysis and commentary that they are international events. Game of Thrones, which this year received a whopping 24 Emmy nominations, will once again simulcast across more than 170 countries when it returns next year, and the three Hunger Games flms alone have grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Dormer, who frst appeared in Mockingjay Part 1, was the number-one choice to play Cressida, the propaganda flm director whose scalp ripples with vine tattoos. "Natalie had to shave part of her head for the role, and she wore the look with absolute ferceness," says Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson. "She gives you everything as an actor, and yet, on screen, you still can't quite pinpoint what she's thinking. The more you watch her, the more you want to know. I suspect it's why audiences are so drawn to her." To Dormer, the hair was a crucial part of developing the role. "If you shave your head and walk around with a semiautomatic rife for three months, you just feel different," she says. "Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night I'd sometimes catch my refection and actually get a little scared. The beanie stayed on my head pretty solidly." queeN SMART. BEAUTIFUL. FIERCE. THE GENERAL CONSENSUS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE POND IS THAT ENGLISH CHARMER NATALIE DORMER RULES. by DAVID HOCHMAN photography by TONY DUR AN throNes of opposite page: Gown, Chanel ($6,550). Wynn Las Vegas, 702-770-3532; chanel.com. beauty: Leonor Greyl Baume Bois de Rose ($49), Éclat Naturel Nourishing and Protective Styling Cream ($46), and Serum de Soie Sublimateur ($46). leonorgreyl-usa.com. Clé de Peau Radiant Fluid Foundation in O10 ($125), Luminizing Face Enhancer ($95), Eye Color Quad in 313 ($55), and Extra Rich Lipstick in 101 ($40). Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-733-8300; saks.com vegasmagazine.com 83