Natalie Dormer (Margaery) on what she won’t miss about Game of Thrones 

, Natalie Dormer oozed shrewd ambition. She\'s also quite the force offscreen—yet in real life, she\'s driving her energy toward a less conniving, more charitable concern than Margaery ever would: fighting sexual and gender-based violence.

At the UN World Humanitarian Day last Friday, the 34-year-old actress gave a speech urging UN leaders to protect women and girls in areas of conflict throughout the world and to follow through on plans of action made last May. "I will always be grateful that playing Margaery has lifted my profile in the way that it\'s lifted all the cast\'s profile—that I can do some good, like being here," she told ELLE.com at the event. She wore an all-white pantsuit, which, in case it wasn\'t clear enough from her attitude, says she came to get sh*t done. During our sit-down, every topic we discussed–whether it was about on- and offscreen nudity or why she doesn\'t use a trainer–became a rallying cry to be better about the conversations we have about women.

Now that your role on \'GoT\' is over, what did you learn from playing Margaery?

Every role affects an actor a little bit. There\'s always a little chunk of a character that stays left over in your heart. When a show communicates on such a vast level internationally, you know, and philosophizes about power, gender politics, and crimes against humanity, which

deals with all those things, then I\'m just grateful that it reinstates my faith that art can be life applicable. We can actually learn and have dialogue about stuff through escapism and fun, you know?

Did venturing into screenwriting make you think more about how roles are created for women?

One hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, I started writing

out of a frustration of the quality of roles that I was reading in scripts for women.

[Dormer cowrote the film, which she will star in alongside Emily Ratajkowski.]

And I started writing it six and a half years ago, so the landscape has changed a lot in that time, and obviously there\'s been a lot of dialogue in the last two years specifically. There\'s been a sort of mini-revolution, an uprising, as was long overdue, about these subject matters: ethnicity and gender equality. So, because it takes so long to get anything made, you know, my anger isn\'t quite as acute as it was when I started writing it, because it was seven years ago. But yes, that is the genesis of why I started writing.

\'I started writing...out of a frustration of the quality of roles that I was reading in scripts for women.\'

I just want to play real human beings. You know, I don\'t care if they\'re male or female. A character on a page has to feel real, and for me the greatest fun is if you could gender-swap the role. Could John be Jane, Jane be John? You don\'t want the men to be written in a three-dimensional way and the women, not. So, or you know, you don\'t want the white men to be written in a three-dimensional way but the black men, not. I mean, it\'s just about [how] scripts should always reflect real human beings. So that\'s what I look for.

Only what is sort of innate. But I think that\'s the most dangerous kind of sexism: People don\'t realize it\'s there and we end up surreptitiously accepting it because it\'s just part of our culture. I\'ve never experienced explicit, overt, confrontational sexism personally. But yes, I\'m sure it\'s there traced along my career. I\'m sure it is in most actresses\' careers.

But I think that\'s the most dangerous kind of sexism: People don\'t realize it\'s there and we end up surreptitiously accepting it because it\'s just part of our culture. ​

When actresses are asked about being a feminist, it seems like they can\'t win no matter their answer. They\'re getting criticism for not identifying, or for being the wrong kind of feminist. What do you think about the debate?

It\'s wrong—everyone\'s concentrating on the wrong thing. There\'s 130 million people in crisis in this world at the moment, in humanitarian crisis, and most of them are women, more than half of them are women. So can we all stop slinging mud at each other about definition? Feminist, whatever the definition, whatever you call yourself—I am, I\'m not—none of us want little girls being forced into early marriage before they\'re 12. None of us want gender mutilation; none of us want rape as a tactic for war. So I just think that if we stopped playing on the superficial level and concentrated on women in real crises throughout the world, it would be a better thing if we all stood together about the important stuff and stopped getting distracted by superficial things.

Some female celebrities have also sparked a debate about nudity and whether or not it is empowering. What\'s your take?

That\'s a massive question. That\'s an essay; I can\'t give you a sound bite on that question. You know, I don\'t believe in nudity for nudity\'s sake, nothing gratuitous. But, you know, some of the most successful, talented actresses of our generation, be it Julianne Moore, or Charlize Theron, or Charlotte Gainsbourg, or Isabella Rossellini, if you know your cinema history, have taken their clothes off. There\'s nothing wrong with nudity, per se, if it\'s part of the storytelling and it\'s eloquent and it says something about the raw humanity of the story. So again, you see, we\'re getting caught up with labels: "Nudity: bad." It\'s not about "nudity: bad." It\'s about gratuitous oversexualization of children; it\'s complicated. And I feel that we live in an age where everyone\'s trying to reduce, and soundbite, and cut it down to140 characters, and that\'s not what life is. So everyone should stop shouting so much and listen more to what each other is saying, you know?

\'If we stopped playing on the superficial level and concentrated on women in real crises throughout the world, it would be a better thing .\'

Mental health has also been in the spotlight more lately.

Dormer says she runs for mental health— last year she did the London Marathon.

Oh, that\'s a nice question. I buy the odd book. There\'s a great book out at the moment called

. I run; that\'s sort of my meditation. I\'ve been to therapy in the past when I\'ve had crisis moments in my life; I think it\'s very healthy. I think that\'s even a more acceptable attitude in America actually than it is probably back at home [in England]. I think we have to monitor our minds the way we need to monitor our bodies. And that\'s part of what I touch on in my [UN] speech—when assaults happen on women and girls in these fragile countries, in these places of crisis, there isn\'t the psychosocial support. There aren\'t counseling services. It\'s not in a lot of cultures to explicitly talk about things that maybe have happened to the body. So, repression of emotion, and shame, and guilt is something that really needs to be handled in humanitarian crises. Women need to have access to counseling services in the way that American or British women can have if something really bad or upsetting happens to them. I think [the stigma] is changing. It\'s an evolution. The responsibility lies in people like you, as well as me, to make it a positive and not a negative.

In acting school you participated in the Alexander Technique mindfulness training and had to do yoga and meditation. Are those things you still practice regularly?

I meditate but not regularly. I wish I did more meditation. It\'s always my New Year\'s resolution to do more. And yes, I do yoga weekly. I don\'t know who I\'d be without yoga and running.

No, I do it myself because for me it\'s not just a physical thing. It\'s a mental thing.

Have you ever taken those boutique workout classes?

I\'ve been a member of some good gyms in the past. I love a good spinning class; I love a good aerobics class. I go to yoga classes as well as practicing myself. I\'m always open to new experiences and when I\'m in different cities shooting, I try some local classes sometimes. So, whatever\'s around, really. I think classes can be the most fun. And if you want to make it a social thing and you want to go with friends, then that\'s the way to do it. Or if you\'re a loner and you like to go off and run on your own, do that. There\'s no right or wrong, exercise is exercise and it\'s incredibly healthy for you and, you know, society. And it\'s a positive thing, so however you want to do it, each individual to themselves.

Please indulge us in just a little \'GoT\' talk. What will you miss the least about filming?

All the pins stuck in my head from the wig. I would set off a metal detector. And you know when your head gets really itchy? So when the wig gets put on at like 5:30, 6 A.M., and you can\'t take it off until 7 P.M.—I won\'t miss all the pins scratching against my scalp.

I have Margaery Tyrell\'s—I didn\'t take it, I was given it—but yes, David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] gave me Margaery Tyrell\'s wedding crown. So that is sitting on my bookshelf.

Who do you think Margaery would have on her hit list for people who must die next season?

My gosh, well, obviously, Cersei took so many of us out in the last episode and she\'s really turned dark; even Jaime Lannister can see that, so I don\'t think that Cersei Lannister is long for her Westeros world. I hope she\'s not.

Drake Bought a Whole Billboard to Congratulate Rihanna on Her VMA Video Vanguard Award

And Now, Some Sound Advice on Shutting Down Social Media Bullies from GOAT Serena Williams

Will Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber Come Face-to-Face at the VMAs?

Here Is Britney Spears Doing Carpool Karaoke, Hating on All Men

Leslie Jones\' Website Hack Is Being Investigated by Homeland Security

Natalie Dormer on the Perks of Having a Secretly Shaved Head

Harley Viera-Newton on Christopher Kane, \'90s Jams and the Versace Dress She Can\'t Live Without

20 Celebrities Reveal Their Worst On-Screen Kisses

Selma Blair Was Sarah Michelle Gellar\'s Favorite On-Screen Kiss

The Architects of On-Screen Style: Melissa Joan Hart as Clarissa Darling on