Natalie Dormer on Cressida’s final adventure in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2’

Natalie Dormer’s “Hunger Games” character, Cressida, is a film director who joins Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) rebellion. But don’t inquire if Miss Dormer herself is yet ready to step behind the camera.

“Ask me after [my own script] comes out, and I’ll answer that question,” the British actress said in a particularly wry English manner.

Little wonder Miss Dormer is perhaps loathe to discuss the future given the phenomenal present success of “The Hunger Games” franchise, which reaches its cinematic conclusion this week when “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” hits theaters Friday. The dystopian saga has already raked in well over $2 billion worldwide, with the final entry sure to pile on when it bows this weekend.

“It feels weird because we said goodbye over a year ago with filming,” Miss Dormer told The Washington Times, “which is obviously sad at the time [as] we’d all just spent these extraordinary nine month together doing ’Mockingjay 1’ and ’2’ back to back. But now I’m just genuinely excited to pass it over to the fans and let them see the final installment of the story.”

Genre fans are well known for their passion and fierce attention to detail. Miss Dormer says “Hunger Games” fans often approach her to discuss Cressida’s unique “undercut” hairstyle, a style many acolytes of the books and films have copied on their own pates.

“The fan base for ’Hunger Games’ is pretty informed,” she said. “I’ve had a couple of them [discuss] the ’undercut’ thing going on, but I can’t really take credit for that. That’s kind of a thing that’s happening in fashion in general in the last 18 months,” she laughed, briskly tossing aside any recognition she may be due for starting a hair craze.

“I’m not saying I inspired a craze or Cressida did, because it was kind of happening anyways. But that’s kind of cool.”

In addition to Miss Lawrence, the all-star “Mockingjay” cast includes Julianne Moore, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson, all of whom, Miss Dormer said, were a thrill with whom to act in the same scenes.

“You just shut up and you watch, it’s really that simple,” Miss Dormer said of being on set with such a high-voltage cast. “You realize that that these incredibly talented actors are also gracious and generous as human beings as well. I’m really proud of the fact that I got to stand next to those guys. It’s an amazing cast.”

“Mockingjay” also co-stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee. The Oscar-winning actor tragically died of a drug overdose in February 2014 before his scenes in the new film were completed, requiring both clever editing and some reshooting.

“It was very sad for all of us. I shot with him the week before he died,” Miss Dormer said of Hoffman, who was found unresponsive in his New York apartment with a needle in his arm.

“It’s just really wonderful to see his face again in ’Mockingjay 2,’” Miss Dormer said of Hoffman’s last-ever screen performance. “Such an incredible talent, such skill, such a gentleman as well. He will be sorely, sorely missed.”

As if the success of “Hunger Games” weren’t enough, Miss Dormer continues her work on the HBO fantasy hit “Game of Thrones” as Queen Margaery Tyrell, making her even more recognizable the world over.

But it wasn’t always so. Early in her career, Miss Dormer appeared in 2005’s “Casanova” with Heath Ledger and Jeremy Irons, which led immediately not to offers pouring in but nearly a year of unemployment.

“I think the best lesson I could have learned early in my career is never to take anything for granted and you’re kind of only as good as your last job,” Miss Dormer said. “So even when I’m on a phenomenon like I am right now with ’Game of Thrones’ and ’Hunger Games,’ I know better than to take anything for granted. I think you’re kind of dead in the water if you start making assumptions like that.”

In 2007 Miss Dormer was cast as the tragic Anne Boleyn in the Showtime drama “The Tudors,” the sexy drama that detailed Henry VIII’s (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) years of fighting with Rome to disentangle England from the grip of the Catholic Church — primarily so he could divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Boleyn.

Miss Dormer, who studied history at Cambridge before transferring to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, read as many biographies of Boleyn as she could in preparation for playing Henry’s ill-fated second wife.

“It was kind of my dream job because it was two passions, acting and history, rolled into one,” she said of the role she assayed for two seasons.

While much has been written of Boleyn’s affairs and familial machinations to the throne, Miss Dormer said what truly struck her was the would-be queen’s genuine belief in the power of the Protestant Reformation to save England and move it forward into a then-modern age and religion.

“Anne Boleyn was a genuine revolutionary,” Miss Dormer said. “She wanted to lessen the power of the Catholic Church, which she thought was dangerous and poisonous to her country.

“She was a genuine evangelical and … she wanted the Protestant Reformation, which was happening all over Europe at that time, to take place. So that really informs sort of her family’s desire for power when you look at it in a faith context.”

Miss Dormer had several conversations with “Tudors” creator and writer Michael Hirst about Boleyn’s faith being integral to her character. She pressed Mr. Hirst to punch up that part of her history in his scripts — all 38 episodes of which he wrote himself.

“I said, ’Please, you can’t make it all she is a sexy minx who wants to seduce the king because she wants to be queen,’” Miss Dormer said to Mr. Hirst. “She genuinely wanted to change the religion of her country and believes this is the democratic, personal relationship with God that the Protestants believed in — that you didn’t have to go through the Church.

“And all credit to Michael, he did listen to me, he knew how passionate and how well-researched I was, and he gave me those scenes that show her dedication to that.”

Miss Dormer’s Anne Boleyn met her fate at the end of season 2 when Henry tosses her aside to move on to Jane Seymour. Miss Dormer said she never watched the final two seasons of “The Tudors” as she was still mourning the execution of her character in the season 2 finale.

“To this day she’s probably the character … I had a strong connection with,” Miss Dormer said of the monarch. “Even though it was [nearly a decade ago], as you can tell by my hijacking this interview, I didn’t watch the show because I was kind of grieving her, which sounds like a wonky thing to say, but it’s true.”

With “Hunger Games” now put to rest, Miss Dormer is moving on to other projects, including the horror film “The Forest,” coming out in January. She has been engaged to Irish director Anthony Byrne since 2011, and the two are working together on a script called “In Darkness” to showcase Miss Dormer front and center in the near-future.

“I’m just really excited by the idea that at the beginning of next year [I’ll be shooting] ’In Darkness’ with my fiance, one of the most talented directors I’ve ever witnessed on set,” she said of Mr. Byrne. “I’m actually excited about playing a role that I wrote, which would be a whole new adventure for me. I’m trying to push the boundaries of characterizations a little in a slightly different direction from what I’ve played before.”