WOMEN WHO DARE: GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE

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A few years ago, Gwendoline Christie was treading the boards for the Royal Shakespeare Company and playing Mag Wildwood in a West End production of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Now she finds herself at the epicenter of three massive pop-culture movements: Game of Thrones, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2. While an actor saying he/she is grateful has become a cliché, Christie really means it. "It means there's a shift in our culture and our way of thinking about how women are perceived," she says. "People want to see a more diverse representation of women than the homogenized ones we've had so far."Christie, 36, is far from homogeneous. Standing six foot three, she contended for years with the perception that "if you were taller than average, you couldn't act on-screen.

But you've got to hang in there because things change." She had a role in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in 2009, then a friend told her "there was something online about me being in an HBO show." Christie researched Game of Thrones's Brienne of Tarth, the loyal-to-a-fault soldier who stars in the series' most riveting battle scenes, and thought, If this remains in audiences' minds, this could work to change the way we view women on television.Needless to say, Christie got the part, and is currently commuting to Belfast filming Game of Thrones's sixth season.

Shooting is physically rigorous, given that she wears full armor in almost every scene. The crew has given her armor a nickname, "The Car." "Yep, 'Gwendoline's wearing her car again,' " she says, laughing. "That's how Brienne will die. She'll be run over by a car." In Star Wars, Christie's character, Captain Phasma, a Stormtrooper, wears silver armor that ripples like mercury. Fans have already nicknamed her "The Chrome Trooper." "It's so cool that they've taken something as iconic as a Stormtrooper, but they've made it sexy silvery chrome," she says. "There's a woman inside of it, and she's a member of the dark side."Christie is a woman of such genuine enthusiasm, she sends text messages in all caps. "I'm a lunch box!" she hoots of her debut as Star Wars merchandise. "I've peaked!" Suggest that she wear her Phasma outfit to her boyfriend, designer Giles Deacon's, next London show and she replies, "I'd wear it all the time, in the way that Andy Warhol never changed his outfits. Didn't he say that stars should never change their look because they become iconic? I'm just living that Andy Warhol quote. All I'm doing."

She credits her height—a good six foot seven in heels—for one thing: "You can get to the bar easier. You can catch the bar person's eye, and mouth what you want, and by the time you're there you've got it. I'm like a human plow. I also have a selfie-stick arm. To get the same angle as I get with my selfie arm, you'd need a crane."Always comfortable in the fashion arena, Christie recently scored another casting coup, starring in the Fall 2015 Vivienne Westwood campaign. As a teenager, she'd admired Westwood's independent stance. "Revolutionary, rebellious design; and a strong, activist mind-set." Westwood, who has dressed Christie for events, also invited her to walk in her Fall 2015 show in Paris. "I almost collapsed on the spot," Christie recalls. Westwood told her, "I've got no idea who you are, but they say that you're in a famous television program. I've never seen it, but I think you're very good." (Christie was shot by Juergen Teller after the runway show.)For Christie, what she dared to pursue—in both film and fashion—is coming to her at warp speed. "Daring to me is to step outside the confines of conventional thought." She cackles. "In heels."Read more at:short prom dress uk