Natalie Dormer has urged women to embrace feminism.
The 35-year-old actress is worried society will go "backwards" after so much progress has been made, and encouraged women to stick by their choices, so long as they have been "empowered" to decide for themselves.
Natalie – who will portray actress Vanda Jordan in play ‘Venus in Fur’ in London’s West End – told the Daily Mail newspaper: "I was talking to young girls who are still the property of their fathers or their husbands.
"We can’t go backwards and give away what we’ve won.
"I think our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought to give us choice. I think you can be Vanda Jordan and walk in wearing a patent leather corset, if that is what you have chosen.
"Equally, you can burn your bra and not shave and do nothing but wear flats. It’s your choice.
"The empowerment is in the choice you made, and not that you felt compelled, by peer pressure, legality — or men."
Although the former ‘Game of Thrones’ actress is excited to play the role of the "sassy, emancipated woman" in the theatre adaptation of David Ives’ 2010 play, she is apprehensive about her audience’s reaction to her character and the "sexist" criticism she thinks she will inevitably face.
She said: "You’ve got this great juxtaposition in ‘Venus In Fur’, where Vanda is this sassy, emancipated woman who is then playing a character from a novel in 1870 who’s not allowed to be financially or emotionally independent.
"Someone’s going to say something in it was really sexist. And someone else is going to disagree with that – and there will be comments about what I wear."
Natalie Dormer embraces feminism
