Natalie Dormer takes starring role in Mass Effect: Andromeda

Game of Thrones actor on playing 600-year-old Asari, Lexi T'Perro, even though she doesn't have time to play games herself

"I'm not a gamer per se " I don't have a life where I can spend hours gaming," says Natalie Dormer. It's a bold admission for an actor who has just been revealed as having a starring role in the new Mass Effect game, and one that may not be met kindly by fans of the franchise, but she adds: "I know if I did, this is exactly the kind of thing that I would play."

Mass Effect: Andromeda, the BioWare title which pairs combat with conversation, should be a good fit for Dormer. She is no stranger to backstabbing, high stakes and court intrigue from her TV work. The characters she plays in the Tudors, the Hunger Games and Game of Thrones are focused, conniving, manipulative. Hard-edged. She swishes silk skirts and allegiances fall; she rises up from the rubble with a shaved head and her fist in the air. To take these traits into the chromed expanse of the Mass Effect universe feels like a logical step. Dormer is voicing a 600-year-old Asari called Lexi T'Perro, one of several aboard the Tempest comprising what she calls "a motley crew".