Actor Jamie Dornan shot to stardom with the 2015 erotic drama film Fifty Shades of Grey. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the film is an adaptation of E. L. James’ novel of the same name. It features Dornan as billionaire Christian Grey, who starts a whirlwind relationship with college student Anastasia “Ana” Steele (Dakota Johnson).
Upon its release, the film received generally negative reviews and the cast was heavily ridiculed for their performance in it. In a recent interview, Dornan spoke about dealing with the negative reviews of the film while it emerged as a commercial success. Dornan detailed how he hid himself while the film was in theaters and shared his honest feelings about the project. Here is what Jamie Dornan said about Fifty Shades of Grey.
Jamie Dornan Talks Dealing With the Ridicule of Fifty Shades of Grey
Jamie Dornan recently appeared on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs, where he discussed the highs and lows of his career. During the conversation, Dornan was asked about his starring role in 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey, which was his breakthrough project. Although the film was a box-office success, it was initially ridiculed by critics, especially for its acting.
Dornan revealed that it was difficult for him to deal with the negative reactions since he had received critical acclaim for his performance in the BBC drama series The Fall prior to starring in the film.
“I think I hid. I am coming off the back of career-altering reviews for The Fall to just ridicule almost.”
Dornan made the above statement sharing his reaction to the negative reviews he received for the film. Dornan revealed that he and his wife, Amelia, retreated to the countryside home of director Sam Taylor-Johnson, to avoid the negativity and ridicule. Dornan added:
“We sort of hid there for a while and just shut ourselves from the world a bit and then sort of came out the other side.”
From Dornan’s words, it is clear that it was difficult for the actor to deal with the overwhelming negative reception of his role in the film. Nonetheless, the film grossed $569.7 million at the global box office becoming a blockbuster. As a result, Dornan’s decision to simply wait out the storm of negativity proved to be the right one.
Jamie Dornan Does Not Regret His Role in the Fifty Shades Trilogy
After the first film’s success, Dornan reprised his role in two sequels, which adapted the latter two books in E. L. James’ Fifty Shades book series. During the radio show, Dornan spoke about the challenges of returning for the sequels after being ridiculed for his performance in the first one by stating:
“It was a strange thing because then you are like there is a bit of ridicule here and I’m now contractually doing two more of them and knowing that there would be more of that damnation to come.”
The negative critical reception doubled down for the sequels, but they too were commercially successful. Despite his time in the Fifty Shades franchise being marred with ridicule and negativity, Dornan regained the praise of critics with projects such as Belfast and The Tourist. As for his role in the Fifty Shades trilogy, Dornan stated that he did not have any regrets.
“I have just had very glowing reviews for recent work and there wouldn’t be many of them that don’t mention ‘Fifty Shades’ in them. A lot of reviews are like he’s great but lest we forget when he wasn’t great…But regrets that I did them, no.”
Ultimately, the Fifty Shades films led Dornan to stardom and were huge box office success. They have become ingrained in modern pop culture for reasons good and bad. Moreover, Dornan emerged from the critical firing of the films relatively unscathed and managed to stabilize his career. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Dornan does not regret the role of Christian Grey.
The Fifty Shades trilogy is streaming on Max.
