Docker networking question: re NAT

newbie here… I’d like to implement a docker container on Ubuntu and simply use the host native IP interface for communication to the container. It appears that the bridge interface implements it’s own IP interface which would normally means NAT (network address translation) would have to occur between the container and the hosts native ip interface. To me, a bridge interface would mean a layer 2 extension or no NAT, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Can someone explain if I can avoid translation as it breaks my application.