Jamie Dornan talks about ‘Fifty Shades’ role, it’s consequences

Jamie Dornan stated on a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was fully aware before accepting the role of the BDSM-loving businessman Christian Grey that movie critics would make fun of the Fifty Shades of Grey movies. The film trilogy, in which Dornan and Dakota Johnson appeared, earned $1.3 billion worldwide but only had an average Rotten Tomatoes rating of 15%.

“It wasn’t an instant yes by any means,” the Heart of Stone star 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 first went in for the part of Christian Grey, but Charlie Hunnam won the part. Hunnam later withdrew from the film, which opened the door for Dornan to reappear.

“When I didn’t get it, I felt a bit of relief because I knew that guy is going to get wrecked here,” the Fifty Shades of Grey star 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.”

Dornan was questioned about his participation in superhero movie tryouts elsewhere during the interview. The actor claimed that, shockingly, he had turned down all superhero roles save for Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. In the end, Henry Cavill was cast in the part.

“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.”