Let's be honest about something right off the bat. When Showtime first announced The Tudors, the historical purists were already sharpening their axes. A tanned, brooding Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a young Henry VIII? It felt more like a GQ spread than a BBC documentary. But then Natalie Dormer walked onto the screen as Anne Boleyn, and suddenly, the historical inaccuracies didn't seem to matter as much. She didn't just play Anne; she possessed her.
It’s been years since she took that final, harrowing walk to the scaffold in the Season 2 finale, yet her performance remains the yardstick by which every other portrayal is measured. Even in 2026, with a dozen other Tudor adaptations having come and gone, there's something about Dormer’s "Boleyn" that feels dangerously alive.
The Casting Choice That Changed Everything
Michael Hirst, the show’s creator, was looking for something specific. He didn't want a "victim" Anne or a simple "femme fatale" Anne. He needed someone who could explain why a King would literally tear his country apart and break with the Catholic Church just to have her.
Dormer was 26 at the time. She wasn't a household name yet—this was years before she’d join Game of Thrones as Margaery Tyrell. She came in with a massive chip on her shoulder because she’s a self-confessed history buff. In fact, she originally wanted to study history at Cambridge but ended up in drama school after a bit of a mishap with her A-level exams. That academic background changed the way she approached the role. She didn't want to play a "conniving bitch," which is how the male-written history books usually describe Anne.
Instead, she fought for the "Evangelical Anne." She pushed Hirst to include scenes that showed Anne’s genuine religious fervor and her intellectual contribution to the Reformation. She wasn't just a girl in a pretty dress; she was a political strategist.
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The Execution: Filming the End First
Here’s a bit of trivia that usually blows people’s minds: Natalie Dormer’s very first scene as Anne Boleyn was actually the execution scene. Talk about a "welcome to the job" moment.
The production filmed the final days of Anne’s life at the very start of the shoot to capture a sense of raw, unpolished trauma. They were filming at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, which stood in for the Tower of London. Dormer has mentioned in interviews that the atmosphere was heavy. Being in a real prison, overlooking a site of actual historical executions, made her "hysterical" and "demented" with grief.
By the time she had to film the "happy" scenes of Anne’s rise to power later in the season, she already knew exactly where it was all going to end. That’s why her Anne always has that slightly desperate, frantic edge, even when she’s winning. You can see it in her eyes—the knowledge that the clock is ticking.
Why Natalie Dormer’s Anne Boleyn Still Matters
Most actresses play Anne Boleyn as either a saint or a sinner. Dormer chose "none of the above." She leaned into the messiness.
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- The Power of the Smirk: Dormer has that famous asymmetrical smile. In The Tudors, she used it to perfection. It was a weapon of courtly warfare.
- The Vulnerability: There’s a scene in Season 2 where she’s lost a child and is terrified of Henry’s reaction. The way her voice cracks—it’s gut-wrenching. You forget you're watching a "villain" and realize you're watching a woman fighting for her life in a system designed to crush her.
- The Chemistry: Let’s not pretend the show wasn’t steamy. The chemistry between Dormer and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was electric, but it was also toxic. They played the "great matter" as a high-stakes psychological thriller.
Dealing With the Accuracy "Problem"
Look, the costumes in The Tudors were... creative. They wore 1950s-style corsets and weirdly modern jewelry. If you’re looking for a 1:1 historical recreation, this isn't it. But Dormer’s performance was historically accurate in spirit.
She captured the "fire and intelligence" that contemporary accounts actually mentioned. The real Anne Boleyn wasn't the most beautiful woman at court—she was the most interesting. She had "esprit." She was French-educated and bold. Dormer nailed that specific type of charisma that makes everyone else in the room look like they’re standing still.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often assume Dormer was just playing a dress-rehearsal for Margaery Tyrell. That’s a mistake. Margaery was a diplomat; she was "the good girl" who knew how to manipulate the public. Anne, as Dormer played her, was a revolutionary who didn't care about being liked. She was abrasive, loud, and uncompromising.
If Margaery was a chess player, Anne was a gambler who bet everything on a single roll of the dice and lost.
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How to Revisit the Performance Today
If you're planning a rewatch or checking it out for the first time, keep these specific things in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Watch the eyes, not the dialogue: In the scenes where she is Queen, Dormer often says one thing while her eyes are darting around the room, checking for enemies. It's a masterclass in "acting while listening."
- Compare Season 1 and Season 2: Notice how her posture changes. In Season 1, she’s lithe and moving like a dancer. In Season 2, as the pressure of the male heir mounts, she becomes stiffer, almost brittle.
- The Tower Scenes: Pay attention to the lack of makeup. Dormer insisted on looking "haggard" and "destroyed" during the final episodes. She didn't want to look like a Hollywood star; she wanted to look like a woman who hadn't slept for weeks.
Actionable Insight: If you're a fan of Natalie Dormer, don't just stop at The Tudors. Check out her 2010 documentary visit to the British Library where she examines the actual "Book of Hours" that Anne Boleyn allegedly held on the scaffold. It adds a whole new layer of depth to her performance when you see the real-life artifacts she used for research. It’s a reminder that beneath the glam of the Showtime production, there was a serious actor doing the heavy lifting of history.
To really appreciate the evolution of the "Boleyn" archetype, try watching Dormer’s portrayal back-to-back with Claire Foy’s version in Wolf Hall. Foy plays Anne as a cold, terrifying ghost; Dormer plays her as a woman on fire. Both are brilliant, but Dormer’s is the one that stays in your veins.