Natalie Dormer is unrepentant about her many nude scenes, declaring: “Sex is part of life”.

The actress rose to fame as Anne Boleyn in The Tudors, before playing Cressida in The Hunger Games and Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones.

Margaery TyrellNatalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell (Home Box Office)

 

As Anne Boleyn opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Henry VIII, she frequently found herself stripping off.

She told ES Magazine: “When I started my career, I was grateful to get the job. People would say, ‘The Tudors was so hyper-sexualised, why on earth would you make that decision?’

“Well, I made the decision because I was unemployed. I didn’t know what The Tudors was going to be, I didn’t have all 10 scripts; I’d just got a job, for f***’s sake.”

Since then, she has also disrobed to play manipulative queen Margaery Tyrell.

The 33-year-old added: “There’s plenty of male nudity in Game Of Thrones, too. Sex is part of life, ergo it’s part of art. If you’re representing real life, then you will represent sex.”

She now has her first starring role in a feature film, The Forest, a psychological thriller. Natalie stars as Sara, who flies to Japan to trace her missing twin but ends up in the ancient forest of Aokigahara, a notorious suicide hotspot, where her grip on sanity starts to slip.

“It means the work has paid off,” she said.

Natalie Dormer on the red carpetNatalie Dormer on the red carpet (Jordan Strauss/Invision/PA)

 

“First things first, I can pay the bills doing the job I love — my 16-year-old self would be very content with that. But, of course, your ambitions change.

“I’ve had the responsibility of carrying projects on stage and TV, so it was the next thing I had my eyes on, to prove I could do it on film.”

Natalie has also been outspoken about the need for better roles for women – with The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence, leading the way.

She said: “The money men now know that it’s not going to damage their revenue to have a fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional female in the lead.

The ladies of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 get photobombed by Woody HarrelsonThe ladies of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 get photobombed by Woody Harrelson (Ian West/PA)

 

“Like, hello, guys? It doesn’t hurt to write for 50% of the population.

“But, you know, it’s not just the film industry. It’s a society problem — we just have the platform to talk about it in our industry.”

The Forest will be released in the UK on February 26.