Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/553637
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, when I ask about it later. "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 and one 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. "I'm trying to remain sane and not go totally schizophrenic." 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 has garnered a whopping 24 Emmy nominations this year, more than any other show—will once again simulcast across more than 170 countries when it returns next year, and the three Hunger Games flms alone have grossed over a billion dollars 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." One casualty has been Dormer's anonymity. "Recognition can be a many-times-a-day occurrence," she says, kicking back on a pool chaise. She's wearing black stretch pants and a gray T-shirt under a black jacket glittering with zippers. "I get oil paintings from fans, computer-generated art from fans, fans approaching me in the toilet, fans approaching me in the sauna. It's a Champagne problem, but I can't really go anywhere without a 'Wait, aren't you…?'" 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 michiganavemag.com 111 opposite page: Gown, Chanel ($6,550). 935 N. Michigan Ave., 312-787-5500; chanel.com. beauty: Leonor Greyl Baume Bois de Rose ($49), Éclat Naturel Nourishing and Protective Styling Cream ($46), and Serum de Soie Sublimateur ($46). Anthony Cristiano Salon, Trump International Hotel & Tower, 401 N. Wabash Ave., Level 1M Ste. B, 312-268-2440; leonorgreyl-usa.com. Clé de Peau Radiant Fluid Foundation in O10 ($125), Luminizing Face Enhancer ($95), Eye Color Quad in 313 ($80), and Extra Rich Lipstick in 101 ($65). Saks Fifth Avenue, 700 N. Michigan Ave., 312-944-6500; saks.com. Dior Dior Vernis in Trianon ($27). Saks Fifth Avenue, see above