Let’s be real for a second. If you close your eyes and think of Anne Boleyn, there’s a massive chance you aren’t seeing a 16th-century oil painting. You’re seeing Natalie Dormer.
It’s been years since The Tudors wrapped up its run on Showtime, but her performance as the doomed second wife of Henry VIII still dominates the conversation. Why? Because she did something nearly impossible. She took a character that history—and many a lazy screenwriter—had flattened into a "homewrecking siren" and turned her into a breathing, terrified, brilliant human being.
Honestly, the show itself was often a mess of historical inaccuracies and gratuitous nudity. We know this. But the The Tudors Natalie Dormer partnership was the anchor that kept the whole ship from sinking into pure soap opera territory.
The Fight for the Brunette
Most people don't realize how close we came to a blonde Anne Boleyn. Seriously.
When Natalie Dormer showed up for her audition, she was a natural blonde. The executives at Showtime actually wanted her to keep it that way. They had this weird idea that "blonde equals leading lady." Dormer, being a massive history nerd who had actually hoped to study the subject at Cambridge before a botched A-level exam diverted her to acting, wasn't having it.
She knew Anne was famously a brunette—a "night crow" as Cardinal Wolsey called her.
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She basically went rogue. She dyed her hair dark brown before filming started, almost getting herself fired in the process. She argued that Anne's look was a political statement in the 1520s; she was defying the "English Rose" standard of the time.
Dormer won that battle. And thank God she did. That dark hair, paired with her natural "asymmetrical" smirk (which she’s said is just how her face is shaped), created an screen presence that felt dangerous and modern all at once.
Re-writing Anne in Season 2
If you watch Season 1, Anne is kinda... one note. She’s the girl behind the curtain, whispering and flirting. It’s very "femme fatale."
Natalie Dormer hated it.
She famously sat down with the show’s creator, Michael Hirst, during the production of Season 2. She begged him to let her show Anne’s brain. She wanted to show the woman who read banned French bibles, the woman who pushed for the Reformation not just for a crown, but out of genuine evangelical belief.
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Hirst listened.
The result was a second season that felt entirely different. We saw Anne’s political acumen. We saw her fear as the "King’s Great Matter" began to crumble around her. You’ve got to admire an actress who fights the writers to make her character more complex rather than just more likeable.
The Execution Scene: A Masterclass in Trauma
There is a specific scene everyone talks about: the walk to the scaffold.
It was filmed at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin at dawn. Dormer has mentioned in interviews that the atmosphere was so heavy she became "hysterical" during the shoot. She didn't want to play Anne as a stoic martyr. She wanted the "demented" weeping, the raw, ugly panic of a woman who knows her life is being stolen by the man she loved.
The contrast between her composure in front of the crowd and her breakdown in the Tower is what makes it the definitive portrayal for most fans. Even compared to Claire Foy’s excellent, more grounded turn in Wolf Hall, Dormer’s Anne has a raw, rock-star energy that's hard to shake.
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What Most People Get Wrong About Her Performance
A common critique of The Tudors is that it’s "history for people who don't like history." While the show definitely played fast and loose with facts—like combining Henry's sisters into one person—Dormer herself was the most accurate element of the production.
- The Eyes: Critics often point out she has blue eyes while the real Anne had dark, almost black eyes. Dormer has joked that while her eyes aren't the right color, they are her "most becoming feature," just as Anne’s were.
- The Personality: Some thought she was too "mean." But look at the primary sources. Anne was temperamental. She was sharp-tongued. She wasn't a "nice" girl, and Dormer didn't try to make her one.
- The Ambition: People often confuse ambition with villainy. Dormer played the ambition as a survival tactic. In that court, if you weren't moving up, you were being trampled.
Life After the Axe
It’s wild to think that The Tudors was basically her big break. Before this, she had a small role in Casanova, but Anne Boleyn put her on the map.
It’s also the reason she got Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones. The showrunners saw her ability to play the "political wife" who is smarter than everyone in the room and immediately knew she was the one. If you look closely, Margaery is almost a "What If" version of Anne—one who actually knew how to play the game well enough to survive (well, almost).
How to Appreciate the Performance Today
If you’re revisiting the series or watching for the first time, look past the 2000s-era "sex-sells" marketing.
Focus on the silence. Watch how Dormer uses her eyes when she’s standing behind Catherine of Aragon. There’s a layered performance there that many missed at the time because they were too busy looking at the costumes (or the lack thereof).
- Watch Season 2, Episode 5-10: This is the peak. This is where the "bitch" persona drops and the "tragic hero" emerges.
- Compare the Scaffolds: Watch her execution scene, then watch Natalie Portman’s in The Other Boleyn Girl. You’ll see the difference between an actress playing a "role" and an actress inhabiting a ghost.
- Check the Quotes: Many of the lines Dormer delivers in the final episodes are verbatim from the historical record. She fought to keep those in for the sake of "her" Anne.
The legacy of The Tudors Natalie Dormer isn't just about a TV show. It's about how one actress's stubbornness and research changed the way a historical figure is perceived by an entire generation. She gave Anne her humanity back, one smirk at a time.
For anyone looking to dive deeper into the real history, checking out Susan Bordo’s The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a great next step, as it actually features interviews with Dormer about how she constructed the character. It’s a rare look at how the craft of acting and the grit of history occasionally collide to create something truly iconic.