July 8, 2018

Natalie Dormer Defends New Erotic Thriller ‘In Darkness’ From Claims That It’s ‘Sadistic’ and ‘Icky’

Now that her time on “Game of Thrones” has come to an end, Natalie Dormer has moved on to the silver screen. Her latest film is the thriller “In Darkness,” which she both co-wrote and stars in as a blind musician who overhears a murder in her apartment building. It hasn’t been especially well received — it currently sits at 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a Metascore of 59 — and so Dormer has rushed to defend the film against claims that its sexual dynamics are “sadistic” and “icky.”

“There has to be sexuality in the power play of a thriller. We have all got bodies, after all. In this film the sex scene, which for me was a love-making scene, is a metaphor for the way my character connects with the part played by Ed Skrein,” she tells the Guardian.

“If the lead characters do not have a clear connection, then it doesn’t work,” Dormer adds. “And on screen it has to be a physical connection between two broken people. That was my intention. In a thriller the protagonists always have to join together somehow and sex represents that connection. If you are being true to the genre, you have to show this.”

Dormer remains active on television as well, having just appeared in Amazon’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” — an adaptation of the same novel that inspired Peter Weir’s classic film.

Source: IndieWire film