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Jamie Dornan majorly broke onto the scene in Fifty Shades of Grey, though he actually played a popular character with a fanbase on ABC’s Once Upon A Time first. Since then, however, he hasn’t sought higher profile projects on either the big or small screen, recently revealing that after playing Christian Grey he’d rather stick to indies and there’s a big reason why.
That is where I feel like I am the most comfortable. It brings you closer, rather than a big studio movie where there’s four different setups and a guy on a crane that you’re never going to meet. It’s a much more close-knit environment, and I would try to do that my whole career if I can.
Dornan’s been busy lately promoting his latest moving Endings, Beginnings, which puts his character in a love triangle with Sebastian Stan and Shailene Woodley’s characters. All three have had experience with major franchises – Fifty Shades, The MCU, Divergent – but as Jamie Dornan told THR, it’s the independent film scene he really craves.
While playing Christian Grey opposite Dakota Johnson’s Anastasia Steele, there was really a big spotlight on the actor as E.L. James’ rabid fanbase and a slew of people into the movies as well read up on the movies. The franchise as a whole ended up making over a billion dollars for parent studio Universal and that studio has already bid for the movie rights to James’ next release The Mister.
Obviously, the appetite for those types of works is very large. Some actors, like Dwayne Johnson or Ryan Reynolds, seem to relish working in big movies, while others prefer to take a step back and do indie work after being in huge gigs, like Robert Pattinson was doing, at least in the years between Twilight and his recent The Batman gig. Some actors, like Scarlett Johansson or Emma Watson, have found a balance between both types of roles.
As for Jamie Dornan, a lot of people are still interested in the actor, whether or not he’s filming sex scenes in the Red Room. However, he has been asked about whether or not he could ever return to playing Christian Grey again, particularly given the fact that E.L. James has a whole separate set of books written from Christian’s POV.
Unsurprisingly given the quote above, he’s said he has struggled with fans only seeing him as Christian Grey and also said he “probably won’t” ever take even a similar gig again. (Though he does seem grateful for the experience.)
To speak for myself, and I'll speak for Dakota as well, it's another job on another set. I probably won't ever take a job with this much attention and scrutiny and public opinion directed at it again. And that's fine! From a practical point of view, you just move on to the next and keep your head down. But listen, it's given us so much. The work that I've been doing has been a million miles from that, and not even by choice. You just keep plugging away, doing good work, and trying to better yourself.
Besides, Endings, Beginnings actually sounds fairly steamy, as it follows Shailene Woodley’s Daphne as she explores romances with two very different men she could see two different futures with. So, it may be an indie, but it’s fairly on brand for the Irish actor, after all. If you haven’t already, you can check out the trailer below.
Endings, Beginnings released on VOD on April 17. You can order it now.
