Natalie Dormer wants to take on a lot more theatre work now she's finished with 'Game of Thrones'.

Natalie Dormer

Natalie Dormer

The 35-year-old actress portrayed key character Margaery Tyrell in the HBO drama series for four years but her time on the show came to an end in Season Six when she was killed off in dramatic fashion.

Natalie is now focused on new challenges and as well as being seen in three upcoming films she intends to tread the boards regularly, starting with a role in black comedy 'Venus in Fur' in October.

Speaking to the London Evening Standard newspaper, she shared: "I would like to think I will always periodically go back to the stage until the day I die."

During her time on 'Game of Thrones' Natalie forged a close bond with her co-star Diana Rigg, who portrays Margaery's grandmother Olenna Tyrell in the drama.

And the blonde screen starlet's interest in the theatre comes from a piece of advice Diana, 79, passed onto her.

She explained: "As a woman, that's where all the good roles are once you are past a certain stage in your forties, Diana Rigg would tell you."

Natalie will next be seen in British horror movie 'Patient Zero' alongside Stanley Tucci and former 'Doctor Who' actor Matt Smith.

She co-wrote upcoming big screen project 'In Darkness' with her fiancé, director Anthony Byrne and has also landed a part in 'The Professor and The Madman', which is based on Simon Winchester's best-selling novel of the same name, which tells the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

And Natalie has learned a lot from her work on 'In Darkness' about the filmmaking process.

She said: "I've learnt so much about the mechanics of how a film is made from 'In Darkness'. To see and appreciate that you're a cog in a wheel of a much bigger thing happening in front of and behind the camera is a healthy thing for an actor. Now I'm just dying to get on set and tell the story. It's scary because we don't have a lot of time. But nothing worth doing isn't scary, right?"