Game of Thrones Star Still Believes Their Character ‘Deserved Better’ Than Their ‘Frustrating’ Death

Letting go of a character you’ve played for years can be an emotional experience for any actor, and it certainly hit hard for Natalie Dormer, who played Margaery Tyrell on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Westeros is a cruel and vicious place, but Margaery was perhaps one of the few “good” characters in the acclaimed series, based on the novels by George R.R. Martin. House Tyrell met its end at the hands of one of TV’s most deplorable villains, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), with Margaery and her brother Loras facing a fiery death as the Great Sept of Baelor was obliterated by wildfire. Dormer played Margaery for four years, making her GOT debut in Season 2, before being killed off in Season 6, and her death was just as shocking for Dormer as it was for audiences.

During an interview with Collider’s Ladies Night, Dormer revealed her frustration at being killed off in Game of Thrones. The actress said she felt deeply connected to the role, and would occasionally personally take on the emotions her character was feeling in a given scene. During Margaery Tyrell’s final scene, the character was crammed into the Sept of Baelor for her brother’s trial, but is frustrated to discover that Cersei had been planning their family’s downfall. Dormer explained:

“I was frustrated that she went that way, but then she was frustrated in the scene. And I was once told by a much older actor, ‘Don’t get confused. If you’re feeling something, always check yourself that it’s not just that your character is feeling it, and, via osmosis, it’s seeping into you.’ Because if you play something, your body doesn’t know any different, and if you’re playing something repetitively, as you obviously have to do on a shoot, sometimes that emotion can seep into you.”

Natalie Dormer Would Have Liked a Better Ending for Her Character

“Nice guys finish last” is certainly a sentiment that reigns true in Game of Thrones. Over the course of her Thrones tenure, Margaery Tyrell was faced with a number of horrors, most notably, being married to King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), who might still rank as the most despicable villain in TV history. Dormer wishes Margaery received a better end than being another one of Cersei’s victims in Season 6, as the former Queen sought to regain the power she had lost. Dormer explained:

“So, of course, she deserved better. I wanted more for her, but she’s so frustrated in that moment with the Sparrow, with Jonathan [Pryce], and so that’s part of it. That’s how you know you’re doing it right, because you’re like, ‘I just need someone to listen to me a little bit more.’ She was vindicated in the end. It’s just a couple of sentences, but it’s all that needed to be said. She was vindicated, and I felt like I could let her go in that moment because I was like, ‘She said it, man.'”

In a series filled with shocking moments, Margaery Tyrell’s death was one of the show’s most unexpected and jaw-dropping moments. As Cersei watched on from the Red Keep, the entire Sept of Baelor, and all the religious fanatics, the Sparrows, within it were obliterated in seconds as Cersei’s henchmen lit wildfire underneath the church. The downfall of House Tyrell was cemented when Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) led a force to invade Hightower and kill the House’s matriarch, Olenna Tyrell (Dame Diana Rigg).