Though he generally manages to fly under the radar, Jamie Dornan has had to deal with a potentially dangerous fan in the past.
Dornan, 41, rose to international fame when he played billionaire-with-specific-sexual-tastes Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. And while the films opened some doors for him, they also put him in the path of some unhinged fans.
While speaking with British paper The Independent, Dornan revealed that the fame and rumors surrounding the franchise led to a disturbing encounter. “I’ve been involved in situations where it’s impacted my family,” he said. “I had a situation… a stalker-type situation before Covid. That was f-ing scary. Someone turned up at my house when my kids were there. It was not something…The more I can block that out, the better it is for me and the family.”
Fifty Shades
Jamie Dornan in ‘Fifty Shades Freed’. EVERETT COLLECTION
Dornan also addressed ongoing conspiracy theories that he and Grey costar Dakota Johnson have a secret relationship and family (in reality, Dornan has been married to Amelia Warner since 2013, with whom he shares three children). “I tried to put walls up around [the fans], to really try and not let that in,” he said. “I’m pretty good at just blocking any of the noise associated with whatever fandom is – not letting it affect me, or more importantly my family.”
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His time in the Fifty Shades franchise was marked by boffo box office combined with behind-the-scenes strife, largely due to author E.L. James’ differing creative vision from original director Sam Taylor-Johnson. But Dornan also revealed that his past history as a model meant he was often only considered for romantic heroes like Christian Grey in his early days as an actor.
“All I’d ever get to audition for was, you know, ‘the count who comes in on a f-ing horse and ravages the woman’,” he remembered. “I’d come from modeling, so I thought those were the only types of roles I was going to do.”
The opposite has proved true with Dornan playing everything from a serial killer on The Fall to a lovestruck himbo in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar to a dad fighting to keep his family together during the Irish “troubles” in Belfast. He’s hoping to avoid projects that might bring him the level of notoriety of Fifty Shades in the future.
“There’s never going to be anything like Fifty Shades again,” he said. “It felt very much like its own thing, particularly because it focused in and around sex. But there are obviously other jobs that bring insane scrutiny, like superhero stuff, or f–ing James Bond – any of that stuff. I’ve done pretty well to avoid that sort of s– so far.”
Though he also doesn’t rule out the possibility of finding himself in a project of that nature at some point. “I think if you’re an actor of a certain standing, who has a certain sort of recognition, you’re going to be in those conversations,” he noted. “I’m not saying I’d never do anything super high-profile again, or a big [intellectual property] with all eyes on it. I probably will. But I’m also really happy with where I’m at right now.”
“I can live a pretty normal life for the most part,” he concluded. “I can sit on the Tube and I’m fine. I’m an ambitious person, and I have a fire under me, but in the last 10 years or so, I’ve realized I don’t want big peaks all the time. That doesn’t interest me. I’m happy to keep ticking over as I am, then one day just disappear and play golf for the rest of my life.”
