22 Things about GoT‘s Natalie Dormer you probably didn’t know (VIDEO)

We first got to know British actress Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn on the TV show The Tudors. Next came the power-thirsty character Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones. Now, Dormer is starring in a horror film called The Forest that totally blew our minds. Our own Lauren Joskowitz sat down with the versatile actress to discover these 21 things that make her tick.

1. Natalie Dormer almost turned down Game of Thrones

Apparently, Dormer was worried the character Margaery was too similar to her previous character, Anne Boleyn, on The Tudors. She later admitted that the two characters were very different.

2. She was attracted to her character Sara in The Forest because she explores her inner demons

“On a psychological horror level, it was a really interesting thing to play… I thought it was a smart horror movie,” said Dormer.

2. Dark and crazy characters are like catnip to Dormer

“It’s wonderful to play a role where… you can descend into madness and you can let it all hang out,” admitted Dormer.

3. Shooting The Forest in chronological order helped Dormer calibrate her character’s mental breakdown

“There was a lot of running around, there was a lot of night shoots, and I got tired. As I looked rougher and rougher, and I descended into the madness of the forest, it helped inform Sara,” said Dormer.

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4. There’s no way she could ever act with snakes

“A spider in the bath thing, I can do. Snakes, no thank you!” said Dormer.

5. She visited the real forest where the film The Forest is supposed to take place

The real forest the film is based on is located under Mount Fuji in Japan. Due to the iron ore in the ground, cell phones and compasses don’t work, so it’s critical to stay on the path.

6. She did the least amount of character research to play Sara and Jess Price than any of her other roles

“The whole point is that Sara knows nothing about the forest. She gets the phone call that her identical sister has gone in and she doesn’t even think about it… She just goes,” said Dormer.

7. She tweaked her body and her voice to play the twin sisters

“You’re just trying to find some physical hook where you can distance yourself. I tried to make the voice slightly different… and position her body in a slightly different way,” said Dormer.

8. She hopes non-horror movie fans will enjoy The Forest

Dormer thinks there’s an “interesting psychological and emotional story there” that she hopes will entertain people who don’t normally enjoy the genre.

9. She’s a trained theater actress

“My first love was the stage,” she admitted.

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10. She had to teach herself to act in front of the camera

“With roles like Anne Boleyn and so forth, I had to learn my relationship with the camera,” she said.

11. She recently binged Mr. Robot

It’s a great show to binge.

12. Her least favorite exercise is interval training

Uh, we really can’t blame you.

13. She has recurring “actor’s nightmare”

This nightmare is when an actor gets onstage in front of an audience and doesn’t know their lines. Sometimes they don’t even know what play they’re supposed to be in.

14. Her biggest life lesson has been perseverance

“Life is a marathon, not a sprint,” she said.

15. The fear she’s most recently overcome is of having insects crawling on her body

In The Forest, Sarah falls though a sinkhole. To film the scenes inside the hole, the filmmakers dumped real dirt onto the set that included worms, slugs, spiders and all sorts of creepy-crawlies.

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16. Her biggest fear is not getting to her next interview on time

She said this jokingly as she did her best to answer all our questions.

17. She wishes she had time to read more literature

Like most actresses, she spends most of her free time reading scripts.

18. She can’t decide which Game of Thrones character is the most well-written

“You have characters like Margaery who’s fleshed out on the show in a way she’s not in the books… I couldn’t possible decide, but I guess I’ll say Margaery,” said Dormer.

19. She loves being surprised by characters on Game of Thrones

“I just love the way with Thrones that you can start off hating a character and slowly, surreptitiously, without you almost realizing, you can find a few seasons later that you really adore them. Jaime Lannister would be a good case in point,” said Dormer.

20. She thinks gender equality in Hollywood is starting to evolve

“Credit has to be given to television, and cinema is finally catching up, knowing an audience responds to those well-written, three-dimensional [female] characters,” said Dormer.

21. Her favorite horror movie is a tie between The Others and The Orphanage

Both are great films with unexpected twists, not unlike The Forest.

The Forest opens in theaters Jan. 8. Watch our interview with Natalie Dormer to hear what else she has to say about filming the horror flick.