The Game of Thrones vet delights in playing Magda, a demon who takes three human forms.
Just callNatalie Dormera triple threat… or, rather, a quadruple threat.
Instead of Dracula, we have shape-shifting demonMagda(Dormer).
Warrick Page/SHOWTIME (2); Jim Fiscus/SHOWTIME
Torn between two worlds is Det.
Can he stop whatever Magda is planning?
Not if she can help it.
Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How are doing with everything going on in the world right now?
NATALIE DORMER:My brother, thankfully, got back from France today.
We were all really relieved because theyre closing borders.
Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME
[U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson has been on TV adding a lot of lockdown measures.
So, its slowly escalating.
Its a weird and peculiar time to be talking about TV shows.
Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME
Closing the borders and pointing the finger at other countries.
In that regard, with the time setting of the show, it is kind of pertinent.
Therefore, he created Magda.
Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME
Thematically, I was curious in what he was trying to say.
Magda is a metaphor for the darker side of mens souls.
Magda is not the devil incarnate.
Shes taken a position on mankind: They will always choose the more selfish or baser option.
When they have forks in the road, which way do they choose?
Its interesting to see where communities and nations are cooperating.
How can I manage their physicality in their voices and mentality?
What can I do to test myself in what Im capable of spinning at one given time?
How does Magda choose which people to manipulate?
[John] is experimenting with different types of manipulation or appealing to mankinds ego.
Although interestingly you dont see her manipulate a female, and I think John realized that was a gap.
Heres the thing with a first season: you get into it and go, “We havent takenthatopportunity!
Theres just so much material and, hopefully, so much room to run and run for seasons.
Its the whole adage of “good people can do bad things.”
That was very true in the late 1930s, and its very true now.
What makes Magda more complex for you as an actor?
Their backstories have to be real.
Take someone like Rio.
One persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter.
For John and I together, it was finding humanity to Elsa, Alex, and Rio.
In some places, perhaps you might at least empathize with why they would make certain choices.
I cant play a role on two levels.
you’re able to only ever be pure in the moment.
Its an experience I had with Margaery Tyrell [inGame of Thrones].
If she contradicts herself in one scene, you cant play that contradiction in that frame.
I have to play Elsa, whos a true, full characterization.
Costumes help because the way they all move.
Your physicality changes immediately, and [the characters] all move differently.
You find a voice and a different placement in your mouth, whether its an accent or tone.
Alex talks down here in her throat and [is] guttural.
Rio is in her chest, and Elsa is up here in her nose.
Its acting in its grassroots.
This is not prosthetics.
This is not trickery.
This is acting, with capital letters and underlined.
When an actor reads that, thats a dream to see that written down.
John is a maestro in how he envisions things.
I would float things by him.
He loves the detail.
That same attention to detail happened in the makeup trailer trying different wigs, different postures.
I was trying to feed into the gaps.
He is a strong creative force.
How gorgeousPenny Dreadfuls Los Angeles looks on screen.
Its this epic cinematic that happened on screen.
It really is John LogansPenny Dreadful: City of Angels.
