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“Game of Thrones” star Natalie Dormer will return to the CBS series “Elementary.”
The announcement that the actress would be back on the Sherlock Holmes drama, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, was made at PaleyFest in New York City on Saturday night.
Natalie has a dual role on the show. In the past, she played Sherlock’s love interest Irene Adler. But, in the double-episode Season 1 finale, it was revealed that she is actually Moriarty, Sherlock’s greatest enemy.
When asked about the possibility of returning to the show back in May by Access Hollywood, when the “Elementary” cast were prepping to shoot the Season 2 premiere in London, Natalie said she would be up for coming back.
“All I can say is I am on this side of the Atlantic. I have to be because of ‘Thrones.’ Shooting on ‘Thrones’ begins in July, but it’s serendipity that I’m on the right side of the Atlantic in case Rob [Doherty, the show’s executive producer] wanted to use me again. So, who knows? I can’t say enough positive things about how much I enjoyed being a part of the ‘Elementary’ family for the time that I was. So, I would always be open to the idea of working with that fantastic cast and with Rob again, definitely.”
[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Thursday’s episode of Elementary. Read at your own risk!]
Irene Adler is alive!
That’s the bomb Elementary dropped on both Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and the audience Thursday after a mysterious man claiming to be Moriarty led Holmes straight to his one and only love. Sherlock had long believed Irene (Natalie Dormer) to be dead after discovering a healthy amount of her blood in London. But she is, in fact, alive, having been held captive for the last 18 months. This, of course, raises the question: Why now? With Sherlock hot on Moriarty’s trail, how will Irene fit into all of this? TVGuide.com turned to Dormer to get the scoop on Irene’s return. Plus: Check out an exclusive sneak peek of the extended season finale promo below!
Tell us about this version of Irene Adler and how you play her.
Natalie Dormer: When I went into the meeting with [executive producer] Rob Doherty to talk about playing her, we talked about how you have to choose an angle at how to play Irene depending on who your Sherlock is. The wonderful thing about the way Rob writes Elementary is that Sherlock has this issue of his addiction and this darkness and this vulnerability that he has due to being an addict. You could argue it’s a nice nod to the Arthur Conan Doyle novels in a way that other incarnations of modern-day Sherlocks don’t actually pick up on. So for me and Rob to have a conversation on how to tackle Irene, you’re very much aware that Irene Adler has to be the woman, the only woman who has ever gotten under the skin or close to — to terrorize or to invigorate — Sherlock. She’s intelligent, fiery, and Rob said she’s got a bit of the devil in her. She’s a nice yin to Sherlock’s yang. She’s stimulates him mentally as well as other areas, as we all know that’s what Sherlock responds to: being challenged and stimulated mentally. She’s a good foil. She makes him feel alive and feel human.In present day, she’s been held captive for a long time, so what is the initial interaction like between Sherlock and Irene?
Dormer: They’ve both been traumatized. She essentially has been incarcerated for 18 months and he’s been incarcerated within himself and dealing with his addiction, so they’ve both gone through a heavily traumatic experience. It’s that thing when you’ve been incredibly close to someone — the closest you can be to someone on a mental and emotional level — and then you go through trauma that changes you, then how do two people who have been so close react to each other when they meet as if they’re strangers? They’ve both come out of the other side that has altered them and their sense of self and identity and everything they thought and knew and believed about themselves. It’s really interesting to play. It’s a gift of a role and a story line for that reason because the chemistry is obviously still there. There was a bond between them which can never be denied and yet they’re strangers at the moment because of what they’ve been through. It’s very human in that it’s a heightened version of what it is to lose someone or the love of your life and find them again and the trauma in that.
As we say in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly hitting stands Friday, behind every man with a thirst for sex and power is an equally clever, manipulative woman… who could be played brilliantly by Natalie Dormer.
The 31-year-old Brit, who broke out Stateside in 2007 as the seductive Anne Boleyn to Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ King Henry VIII in The Tudors and now embodies King Joffrey’s shrewd betrothed Margaery Tyrell on HBO’s Game of Thrones, begins a three-episode stint tonight as Sherlock Holmes’ iconic love Irene Adler on CBS’ Elementary (through May 16′s two-hour season finale). “It’s a real privilege to be asked to play that one woman who has gotten under Sherlock’s skin,” Dormer says, noting that Elementary creator Robert Doherty was a fan of her work on the 2011 cult supernatural British TV show The Fades.
Unsure if her schedule would align with the show’s, Doherty and fellow exec producer Carl Beverly wouldn’t tell her much about the arc when they first met. “We had this kind of really amusing conversation where they were like, ‘We love you!’ And I was like, ‘I love you!’” she recalls. Though she got all the details when she officially signed on, she’s still going to be “reasonably coy” with us…
What we do know is that in this incarnation, Irene is presumed dead at the hands of Moriarty — the reason Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) started his downward spiral and moved to New York. We meet her in flashback and find out she worked in art restoration and met Holmes when she was asked to consult on a case. ”Occasionally, two personalities bump into each other and this mad chemical reaction happens — and not just sexual. Obviously because of the nature of Sherlock Holmes, it’s cerebral as well. He has to engage with somebody on an intellectual level to really be inspired or intoxicated by them. And the feeling is mutual,” Dormer says. “Irene brings out an entirely different side of his personality that no one else has yet been privy to. So it’s interesting to see Sherlock go through that turmoil.”
Watch out, Joffrey!
Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer is set to take on the iconic role of Irene Adler Elementary, CBS confirms to E! News. Dormer, who plays current queen-to-be Margaery Tyrell on HBO’s fantasy hit, will make her debut as Sherlock Holmes’ (Jonny Lee Miller) former love in the May 9 episode and will also appear in the two-hour season finale on May 19.
“We’re moving to the next chapter in our show—and in some ways, to a previous chapter in Holmes’ story,” executive producer Rob Doherty said in a statement. “Irene Adler is perhaps the most pivotal relationship in Sherlock’s life, and I can’t think of an actress better suited to the challenge than Natalie.”
In CBS’ take on the classic story, Sherlock learned that his former employer Moriarty (whom viewers have yet to meet) was behind Irene’s mysterious death, which led the brilliant consultant detective to develop a drug addiction.
Of course, Dormer isn’t the first actress to play what is arguably the Sherlock Holmes franchise’s most important female character: Rachel McAdams took on the role in Robert Downey Jr..-led film franchise and BBC’s super-popular Sherlock cast Lara Pulver as Adler opposite Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Sherlock.
TVGuide.com first reported the news of Dormer’s casting.
Elementary airs Thursday at 10 p.m. on CBS.
