SPOTLIGHT on Game of Thrones actress Charlotte Hope

How Game of Thrones star Charlotte Hope went from being reviled to revered. By Miranda Thompson

WHO? You might remember her as one of Game of Thrones’s most hated characters, but actress Charlotte Hope is now winning rave reviews on the London stage. ACTING BUG The 25-year-old, who hails from Lower Daggons, ‘a tiny village’ in Hampshire, has always loved acting – ‘I thought it was the best rush ever’ – but assumed that ‘everyone else felt the same’. Were it not for a chance encounter in the street with a casting agent for a French film (Charlotte studied French and Spanish at Oxford, spending a year at theatre school in Paris), she might never have plucked up the confidence to give acting a go. ‘After that, I wrote to agents, inviting them to see a play I was in. Luckily, one of them signed me.’ BIG BREAK Charlotte shot to fame in the hugely successful fantasy series Game of Thrones, playing Myranda, the sadistic lover of arch-villain Ramsay Bolton. She describes her time on the show as ‘total magic. I was only a small part of it but everyone made me feel welcomed and loved.’ Roles followed in two of last year’s big movies – A United Kingdom (alongside ‘favourite actor’ David Oyelowo) and Allied (where Charlotte ‘shared sushi with Brad Pitt’). TREADING THE BOARDS Charlotte is currently starring on the West End stage in Buried Child, which is about ‘a dysfunctional Midwest family’. She plays Shelly, who is ‘kind of the detective within the plot, shining a light on the family’s strange past’. On appearing alongside Hollywood legend Ed Harris in the play, Charlotte says: ‘He’s so generous and kind – I feel he makes me a better actor.’ WHAT’S NEXT? Her first lead role (alongside Richard Gere) in thriller The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. ‘Right now, I’ve got everything I ever dreamed of.’ Buried Child is at London’s Trafalgar Studios until 4 March. For tickets, visit buriedchildplay.co.uk