Natalie Dormer, star of the new horror movie The Forest, said in an exclusive interview with TEN that she would travel halfway across the world to save her siblings.
The Game of Thrones star plays identical twins in the psychological thriller, in which one of the twins gets lost in the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, prompting her sister to hop on a plane and fly across the globe to come and save her.
Dormer revealed that she was drawn to the project, which she describes as "a great thrill ride and a great bump and a scare", because it had "human emotional intelligence".
She explained: "This idea that we all have baggage, we all have inner demons and regrets, and the idea that you could go to a place where the things you're most scared of, or dislike most about yourself, manifest themselves and the forest reflects it back to you. And equally that we all have someone in our life who we would get on a plane and travel halfway across the world if we thought they were in trouble."
The amazing @theforestisreal star #NatalieDormer tells us who she would travel across the world to save.https://t.co/V5E8kUpIDP
— RTÉ TEN (@RTE_TEN) February 22, 2016
The thought of her own siblings encouraged her in the more challenging moments of shooting the film. She said: "When I was standing in the middle of the forest in Serbia and you know I wasn't really feeling it because I was a bit cold, or it was 4am and I hadn't slept very well the day before, I just thought about if either my brother or my sister were out there in that horrifying dark place... I think we all have someone, lover, parent, family member, friend, that we would do that for."
Dormer is internationally known for playing the scheming Margarey Tyrell in Game of Thrones, as well as appearing alongside Jennifer Lawrence in the global blockbuster Hunger Games franchise.
Being well accustomed to being part of a large ensemble cast, she welcomed the opportunity to take on the leading role in this film. "There's a lot of fun to be had being a team leader with your crew day in, day out and not gracing the set now and then almost like a tourist! It's nice to literally roll your sleeves up and get dirty," she told TEN.
The actress, who also starred in period drama The Tudors alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers, added that she relished the opportunity to try out different types of roles, saying: "I like to do a little bit of everything, I try to shake it up as much as possible. I've been spoilt this far in my career and in the diversity that I've managed to do. I just hope and keep my fingers crossed that I can keep doing that really."
The Forest hits cinemas on February 26, watch TEN's interview with Natalie Dormer by clicking the link.
