Natalie Dormer covers the December issue of Flare magazine. The shoot doesn’t do her justice at all. Nat has a very bold look, and the mag mostly airbrushed her into genericism. Natalie is promoting her role in Mockingjay: Part I as Cressida, the documentary filmmaker who just happens to be a badass. The Flare interview talks about Nat’s half-shaved hairdo for the movie. She discusses her lopsided mouth again, but she calls it a “bitchy resting face” instead.

Oh, how I identify with Nat’s predicament. Most of my life has been spent dodging “What’s wrong?” questions, and the answer is always, “Oh, I just look like this.” Long live the bitchy resting face. We shall one day assemble and destroy the world. Beware. Here are some excerpts about many things. I especially like the part where Nat talks about body image and Photoshop:

On her hair: “I’m a natural blonde! It was funny because for the shoot yesterday, the hairstylist drew in roots. I was like, ‘You’re undermining me here, I’ve been telling people for years I’m really a blonde!'”

Her Cressida haircut: “I had a bit of a–[gulp]–moment,” she says, but she reconciled herself to going bald. Francis Lawrence later suggested an undercut befitting of a rebel punk from Panem’s fashion-forward Capitol.

Her upcoming BBC adaptation, Lady Worsley’s Whim: “I swore I wasn’t going to get back in a corset! But when it’s history, I’m a sucker. When it’s a real person who led a real life, I just get hooked, and I’m like, I have to know more about this human being. But you can see the pain I’m gonna be in! It feels like a bit of a homecoming because when I was a teenager. I’ve never done a costume drama for the BBC. This role is teenage Natalie’s dream.”

On (someday) getting married to her fiancé: “It’s such a thing, right? So many little girls dream about their wedding day. But with actresses, sometimes it’s the inverse, because we get to be the centre of attention, looked up and down, dressed up for premieres all the time. The pull isn’t quite as great.”

On female roles in film: “We don’t have enough young, female antiheroes. We don’t accept women as antiheroes the way we do the men. Unless there’s a family get-out clause.” She cites Katey Sagal’s character in Sons of Anarchy and Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black. “We accept women being complete c–ts if they’re doing it for a child.”

Nat’s trio of femme fatale character: “Is it the bitchy resting face?”

Nat’s strong female characters: “The beautiful thing about Margaery is that even though she keeps getting married, she’s not defined by a love interest. And Cressida is defined by her profession and her political beliefs. Since Anne Boleyn, I haven’t played a woman who’s defined by romantic love.”

Her 3:50:56 London marathon time: “When you’re in the public eye, it’s hard to negotiate your relationship with your body. But the way I look at it is: if I can run 26 miles in under four hours, then there’s nothing wrong with my body. Sometimes younger girls see things and maybe they’ve been Photoshopped or whatever, and they take it to heart. There’s all this angst, and it’s just not necessary.”

On her tumultous 20s: “I’ve got through the angst of my 20s. I know who I am, and that’s half the battle in life. I hear the calls a director makes, and I see audition tapes, and when you start out, it’s this narcissistic thing of”–she affects a pompous voice–“‘It’s all about me and my art.’ But then you step outside of it and it is show business: it is a business.”

Perspective on her career: “I’m just an actor! I was a daydreamer as a kid. I want to act because of whatever artistic bone is in my body. I want to explore what it is to be alive. I just want to make good sh-t.”

[From Flare]

I unabashedly dig this woman. Part of the draw is that she’s a runner, and that means she’s a bit plucky and insufferable by nature (we are). The important thing? Natalie recognizes how her body is perfect the way it is because it allows her to do what she wants to do with it. Her legs are just as “real” as anyone else’s legs, big or small, because they carry her 26.2 miles. Even the running magazines airbrush their models, so there’s no hope for losing the Photoshop monster in fashion mags.

Natalie’s ambivalent attitude towars marriage isn’t new, but it’s interesting. She’s been engaged to Anthony Byrne for three years. They’re “too busy” to get married, but that’s cool. Natalie’s 32 years old, and there’s no rush.

Photos courtesy of Flare, Fame/Flynet & WENN