THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY (2014): Natalie Dormer cast as Cressida

Natalie Dormer cast in The Hunger Games Mockingjay. The casting of Natalie Dormer in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) answers the question of who will play Cressida in the Francis Lawrence directed films. Cressida plays second-tier role in the Mockingjay narrative but saying anymore than that would get into spoiler territory.

The official casting announcement via Twitter:

On Natalie Dormer:

In 2006, Dormer guest-starred in an episode of Rebus entitled “The Falls”, playing the character Phillippa Balfour.

In 2007 and 2008, she played Anne Boleyn in the first two seasons of The Tudors, for which she received positive reviews. Robert Abele of LA Weekly wrote, “Natalie Dormer presents a painterly exquisiteness and complexity in her portrayal of Anne Boleyn…[her] enigmatic, time-halting loveliness is a boon for The Tudors, and damn near worth losing your head over.” After her character’s death at the end of the second season, The Boston Herald noted that “Dormer’s departure from ‘The Tudors’ leaves a void.” Dormer is, in fact, descended of the English noblewoman Jane Dormer, a lady-in-waiting to Mary I. Jane Dormer’s memoirs contain some evidence on Boleyn’s actual age, which is still a source of much academic dispute.

In 2008, she played Moira Nicholson in Agatha Christie’s Marple: “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” and appears in a number of forthcoming films: Fence Walker, Flying Lessons and City of Life. Dormer’s Marple appearance aired in the US in the summer of 2009 as part of the PBS Masterpiece Mystery anthology series.

In March 2010, she made her stage debut at the Young Vic theatre in London as Mizi in the play Sweet Nothings. In The Observer, theatre critic Susannah Clapp praised the performances of the cast and wrote, “Natalie Dormer is lissome as a dirty, delightful gadabout, pushing aside an entire chess game in order to put down her hat.” After six months of playing Mizi, Dormer went on to film some new roles, including the Duchess of York in Madonna’s film W.E., Pvt. Lorraine in Captain America: The First Avenger and Niamh Cranitch in the BBC court drama Silk, before going on to her next stage role of Pat in .45 at Hampstead Theatre in November 2010.

She returned to The Tudors as Anne Boleyn in a dream sequence for the fourth and final season in mid-2010. This was confirmed when the first promotional picture of the season showed Anne (along with King Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr) on the cover.

In June 2010, Dormer was cast in the lead role for the movie adaptation of the Peter Straub novel Shadowland.

In June 2011, Dormer joined the cast of the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones as Margaery Tyrell of the noble House Tyrell.

In March 2012, Dormer returned to the Young Vic to play the title role in After Miss Julie by Patrick Marber. Her performance received critical acclaim, with reviews describing her as “little short of sensational”, “outstanding”, and “the perfect Miss Julie”. The online theatre magazine Exeunt wrote that her portrayal of Miss Julie contained “all the anger, desire, wit, loneliness, merriment, melancholy and desperation of the casts of several plays together…Dormer has still more presence and eerie beauty than is apparent from her appearances on-screen, and she shape-shifts almost supernaturally between seductress, child and tormentor.”

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In March 2013, Dormer played the Lady Door in the radio play of Neverwhere, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman.

As of 2013, Dormer has several films in post-production, including The Counselor, Rush, A Long Way From Home, and Rubicon.

On 9 April 2013 it was announced Dormer would star in three episodes in the CBS TV series Elementary as Irene Adler.

On Cressida from the book (Mockingjay) the films will be based on (spoilers):

Cressida is a resident director from the Capitol who joined the rebellion along with her camera crew Castor and Pollux as well as her assistant Messalla, who had also joined the rebellion, to District 13 when they fled the Capitol. Cressida was told by Plutarch to follow Katniss throughout her journeys in the rebellion so they could make numerous propos across Panem to encourage strength and morale in the rebels.

On The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 from the book they are based on (spoilers):

Mockingjay centers around the districts’ uprising against the Capitol. Katniss, now a refugee in District 13, agrees to be used by the rebels as a propaganda tool (the embodiment of the mockingjay symbol, complete with costume) to unite the rebelling districts. Peeta is soon rescued, along with the other tributes captured by the Capitol, but he has been brainwashed to regard Katniss as an enemy, and is carefully guarded as his rehabilitation progresses. Finally, a group including Katniss, Gale, and a still somewhat unstable Peeta go renegade in the Capitol on a mission to assassinate President Snow. Before they can achieve the objective, Prim is killed in a bombing. Later, a captive Snow tells Katniss that Coin, the president of District 13, was behind the bombing, and she deduces that Gale was one of the designers of the bomb. After Panem falls to the rebels, Coin suggests a final Hunger Games featuring the children of the Capitol’s former leaders as tributes, leading Katniss to believe that nothing will change under a new regime. At Snow’s scheduled execution by Katniss’ arrow, Katniss targets and kills Coin instead, and Snow dies in an ensuing riot. Katniss is tried and acquitted of killing Coin. Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch eventually return to a ruined District 12. Katniss slowly begins to recover from her many mental scars. Katniss’ mother and Gale both take jobs in different districts. Katniss and Peeta eventually marry, having two children together.

We previously published these The Hunger Games: Mockingjay articles:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (2014): Julianne Moore cast as Alma Coin

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Jennifer Lawrence, Willow Shields, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Lynn Cohen, Jeffrey Wright, Maria Howell, Jena Malone, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tony Shalhoub, Amanda Plummer, Stanley Tucci, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland, Toby Jones, James Logan, Ivette Li-Sanchez, Justin Hix, Megan Hayes, Bobby Jordan, John Casino, Elena Sanchez, Daniel Bernhardt, Marian Greene, Jackson Spidel, Tiffany Waxler, and Lenny Kravitz.

Leave your thoughts on Natalie Dormer’s casting in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 in the comments section below. For more The Hunger Games photos, videos, and information, visit our The Hunger Games Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, or “like” us on Facebook. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens in US theaters through Lionsgate on November 22, 2013, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 on November 21, 2014, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 on November 22, 2015.

Source: Slashfilm, Wikipedia