It is no news that Jamie Dornan was made famous with the Fifty Shades film trilogy, even though the film series was also probably the only one of his career that was as brutally criticized.
Despite that, the movies gained massive approval at worldwide box offices, becoming a film franchise worth $1 billion while its overall budget still rested somewhere close to $150 million at the most.
However, while general audiences seemingly approved of the trilogy with the gradual passage of time and the release of the Fifty Shades of Grey sequels, critics weren’t swayed and continued to slam him over his performance.
In fact, it all went to the point where Jamie Dornan had to go into hiding to get away from all the negativity that poured down on him after his first film with Dakota Johnson hit the theatres.
Jamie Dornan Had To Go Into Hiding After Doing Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades of Grey undoubtedly brought about Jamie Dornan in a whole new and never-seen-before avatar as well — something that ended up granting him all the much-awaited fame he had been longing for.
However, that movie was also the one that forced The Fall actor to go into hiding to avoid critics slamming him over the film. Recently, he shared the same story with the host of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. He said:
“I was coming off the back of career-altering reviews for ‘The Fall’ and Bafta nominations and all of this sort of madness … and then I was brought to just ridicule, almost.”
Continuing, he revealed how he fled to a rural house with his wife and kids to get away from all the negative criticism.
In a situation as critical as this, it was none other than filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson who helped Dornan out by offering his family an empty house in the rural areas.
“They let us have their place in the country and we hid there for a while and just shut ourselves from the world for a bit and then came out the other side.”
But while Jamie Dornan was trying to hide from all the brutal backlash that critics showered on him over his performance in the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey went on to gross a whopping $570 million at worldwide box offices over its budget of a meager $40 million (as per The Numbers)!
Yet, this massive success brought forward yet another worrying news for Dakota Johnson‘s Fifty Shades Saga co-star: the creation of sequels in the works, which Dornan nothing short of dreaded.
Fifty Shades of Grey‘s Success Only Made Jamie Dornan More Worried
While the filmmakers were having the best time of their lives as the very first installment from the Fifty Shades film series garnered an immaculate success at the box office on its minimal budget, Jamie Dornan was having a hard time keeping up with this reality.
Sharing how Fifty Shades of Grey “made so much money, so two and three were greenlit overnight”, The Tourist star expressed just how wary he felt of the entire situation since more sequels meant all the more, and perhaps, worse criticism. He said:
“It was a strange thing because then you are like: ‘Well, there is a bit of ridicule here, yet I’m now contractually doing two more of them’ – and knowing there would be more of that damnation to come.”
Nonetheless, at the end of the day, Jamie Dornan agreed to work in all three films from the Fifty Shades franchise and ended up becoming one of the most renowned actors of all time as the saga crossed the $1 billion mark on its budget of mere $150 million (via The Numbers)!
