Richard Dormer – The Message is “Dare to Love”

Game of Thrones fans will recognize Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion, the eye-patched, mustachioed, bearded unkillable Lord of Blackhaven. Dormer goes from that gritty medieval setting, to a gritty future dystopia in his latest television venture, The Watch, based on Terry Pratchett's characters from Discworld. In Discworld, crime is legal, so that presents a few problems for the resident police force, headed by Dormer's character Captain Sam Vimes. Dormer took some time to chat about the new project, what he brought to the character, and the message that this show has at its core.

"Discworld floats through space on the back of four elephants that walk across the back of a giant turtle," Dormer said. "This story focuses on a police force in the city. The thing about this place is crime is legal, therefore, the poiice force has very little authority or power. Then something happens. A ghost from the past visits Sam Vimes and it changes his destiny and the destiny of everybody in this world forever."

There can be a lot of pressure on an actor to do justice to an already known and much beloved fictional character. "The most important thing about Sam Vimes is heart and soul. And that's what I tried to bring to him, a sense of humanity. Because I didn't want him to be just some grizzled drunk. He has a whole inner light. He has a great sense of empathy for other human beings and goblins and dwarves and trolls giants," Dormer laughed. "What I really wanted to bring was a real truth to the character so you actually believe in his struggle.