Jamie Dornan said on a recent episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he was fully aware film critics would ridicule the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movies before he accepted the role of the BDSM-loving businessman Christian Grey. Dornan starred opposite Dakota Johnson in the film trilogy, which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide but averaged a paltry 15% Rotten Tomatoes score.
“It wasn’t an instant yes by any means,” Dornan said about accepting the role, in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike. “It needed to be talked through. I sought counsel from friends, family, a lot of actors.”
Dornan originally auditioned for the role of Christian Grey but lost out to Charlie Hunnam, who ultimately dropped out of the movie and left the door open for Dornan to come back.
“When I didn’t get it, I felt a bit of relief because I knew that guy is going to get wrecked here,” Dornan said. “He maybe felt the same… suddenly there I was, but with way less time to make a decision. I got cast five weeks before we started filming. I knew that it came with all that baggage… that the realty was it would make a ton of money and the fans would love and the critics would despise it. That’s what happened with the books and that’s what we were making. We were staying truthful to the books, and we knew what that would be.”
“Movies that are made for the fans that fans love can be seen as a success,” he added. “I’m grateful that Dakota and I have managed to come out [in the years since] and make work that people still like and have had some of those said critics do a bit of a 180.”
Elsewhere in his “Happy Sad Confused” interview, Dornan was asked about which superhero movie auditions he’s been on over the years. The actor said he’s surprisingly stayed away from superhero auditions except one: Superman for Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel.” Henry Cavill ended up landing the role.
“The only one I auditioned for is Superman,” Dornan said. “That was way back when, like when Henry Cavill got cast. That’s probably 12 years ago or something. I wore my own suit there. Was that a mistake? They were Superman pajamas, they weren’t an actual suit. I remember an early audition for that. I got nowhere near putting the [real] suit on… I’ve had meetings with heads of studios that do those things and would talk about it, but I never got deep in any audition process for them.”
Dornan currently stars opposite Gal Gadot in Netflix’s “Heart of Stone.”
