We’ve all been waiting patiently to get a glimpse at the Fifty Shades Freed promo shoot photographed by the uber talented, Nino Munoz. And last week, we got our wish.
New pictures and interviews with Jamie popped up in two Spanish magazines last week, Fotogramas and GQ España, as well as ELLE US, in their February issues. Read each of them below!
FOTOGRAMAS
IN FIVE ANSWERS… JAMIE DORNAN, FREED AT LAST
Fifty Shades Freed, the third and last film of a saga that has converted this ex-model into a sex symbol, wishes to expand his horizons. An Irishman from Belfast, born in 1982, Jamie Dornan starred in Fifty Shades in 2015. He will also star in Robin Hood by Otto Bathurst, Untogether by Emma Forrest, and A Private War by Matthew Heineman, next to Rosamund Pike. In James Foley’s Fifty Shades Freed, will Christian Grey be able to adapt to married life? By the way, in the film’s soundtrack, he will be singing a Paul McCartney’s song.
1. Music against tears. “Following my mothers death, when I was only 16, I turned all my emotions into music. I sang with a friend in Sons of Jim. Yes, before being a model, I was a musician. Surprise!”
- A Hidden talent. “Playing rugby. When I was just a kid, that’s all I would think about. A couple of broken bones made me think twice.”
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Welcoming and saying goodbye to Mr. Grey. “At first, I doubted a role that would trap me for the next 3 or 4 years. In the end, I accepted because I assumed that in reality it was just another character. And it’s always better that people in the streets at least recognize you than to be invisible, don’t you think? Today, I’m a little sad to say goodbye to him, but I’m also looking forward to see what the future holds for me.”
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A comic about to explode. “I’ve never been a fan of handcuffs or whips. I’m a normal guy. In fact, I love comedies. I wish they would offer me a role in one.”
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In love with Kim. “I grew up loving 80s films. I wanted to be Bruce Willis (John McClane) in Die Hard. When I met Kim Basinger (Mrs. Robinson), I became paralyzed. I didn’t have the guts to tell her that when I was a kid I was so in love with her. I would fantasize about her in 9 1/5 Weeks.”
GQ ESPAÑA
The most wanted man in the world (to many faithful readers) returns to the movies to say goodbye to his character of Christian Grey in Fifty Shades Freed, his last movie in the saga created by E.L.James.
To portray a character like Christian Grey is like a double edged sword. On one side, it’s a great opportunity, that if you take advantage of, it could possibly turn into a global phenomenon. On the other side, it’s one of those characters that can define a career… maybe for worse (the star of Fifty Shades of Grey is not precisely a classic leading man). Although we get the feeling that this does not affect Jamie Dornan (born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1982). He’s said it himself that if this literary character with a passion for BDSM, discredits his work, it will be other roles that will help him rise above. He’s done it before. With a modelling career of several years, he overcame the prejudice that follows a guy with “looks” like his and truly get a grip of what he passionately loves: acting. It’s interesting to review this improbable icon precisely today, with the premiere of Fifty Shades Freed this February 9th, the third part of he film adaptation. If we review all the interviews he gave in 2014, we discover a more positive Jamie Dornan, blinded to his earlier critics of his role as Mr. Grey. The others after, nevertheless, show us a more simple, but more authentic and sincere, one that recognises that maybe his role in the first film of this saga was possibly the worst in his curriculum. So what? What if he has better ones? The one he keeps talking so proudly of is The Fall, the British intrigue series in which he gave life to a family man/rapist/murderer and earned him great praise. The reviews he obtained for the Netflix movie of The Siege of Jadotville were also satisfactory, but not so much for The 9th Life of Louis Drax, by the Alexandre Aja.
But where will we see him in the months to come? Besides the last film of the erotic franchise, and in which we imagine he’s more comfortable (we also believe he’s glad to be moving on from it, due to his previous statements), Jamie Dornan has other film projects. Among them, Robin Hood: Origins, a new adaptation to the Sherwood forest hero (note: Jamie won’t be the main character, Taron Egerton will); and My Dinner with Hervé, HBO’s tv film which centers around the french actor Hervé Villechaize (Peter Dinklage).
At this point, there is no doubt that Jamie Dornan is an international star, as well as the most wanted man in the world if we go by the feelings he causes in a movie theatre. Perhaps we stand before one of the most captivating actors of his generation, and of course one of the most intelligent. Let’s hope of course, to see him portray a role in which he shows the determination of that Belfast teen; hurt at the age of 16 by the death of his mother, trapped in that neighbourhood kid with model looks who loves sports and who decided one day to say yes to acting. If he doesn’t get there, he’ll survive. Hollywood doesn’t owe him anything, but he also doesn’t owe Hollywood anything either.
ELLE UK
GREY’S ANATOMY
Fifty Shades star Jamie Dornan talks stripping down, reading up, and the truth about Zoolander.
Jamie Dornan has made a career out of being objectified. Before he was cast as Christian Grey, the physical embodiment of a billion housewives’ sexual fantasies in Fifty Shades of Grey, he appeared in a Calvin Klein campaign, with Kate Moss draped over his yoked chest. The New York Times dubbed him the Golden Torso. Still, news of his casting didn’t excite the millions of rabid readers who’d made E.L.James’s BDSM trilogy a golden hit. First, fans were upset he wasn’t Ryan Gosling (or Ian Somerhalder or Alexander Skarsgard). Then, once they’d seen the film, they were angry he hadn’t gone full frontal. Co-star Dakota Johnson joked about mounting a campaign saying “Everybody wants to see the D.” (More on that below.)
Dornan, 35, grew up in Northern Ireland, the son of a renowned gynaecologist. But Jamie went the other way, dropping out of University, playing in a band, and dating Keira Knightly before struggling to break into acting. In 2012, he put down roots in the English countryside, where he lives with his wife, actress and singer Amelia Warner, and their two kids. While his work often requires brooding masculinity, Dornan reveals a side of himself that’s at least a dozen shades lighter.
ELLE: “Being cast as Christian Grey was supposed to change your life overnight. Did it?”
JAMIE: “No.”
ELLE: “Seriously?”
JAMIE: “(Laughs) My life has changed immeasurably since Fifty Shades. But not as a direct result of Fifty Shades. Four days before we started filming the first one, Millie and I had our first child. Two weeks before filming the second and third films back to back, we had our second child. This crazy career transition, I guess I could only see it as something that took time away from my kids. It’s a job. A job that I love and that I find very rewarding. But it is just a job.”
ELLE: “A job that requires covering your junk in a modesty pouch…”
JAMIE: “Let me tell you a modesty-pouch story. You’re sort of presented with a few options and sizes. They’re all skin-coloured, but, like, if you’d gotten jaundice. That colour. Like an ill person. I picked one out. Everyone had left the room. As I was putting it on, I saw a little label stitched inside. It said, “INMATE #3.””
ELLE: “Wait. It was used?”
JAMIE: “I very nearly puked. As my genitals came to a rest at the bottom of this thing, I thought, someone has worn this. I actually called the wardrobe assistant. I was like, “Dude, what the fuck? This is secondhand?” He said, “No, trust me.” But he lost my trust.”
ELLE: “I heard the studio offered you an additional $1 million to go full frontal. True?”
JAMIE: “It was $30 million, to show one testicle. (Laughs) No, that whole thing with offering more money to go nude? That didn’t happen.”
ELLE: :”Why not do it?”
JAMIE: “I don’t know if i said I wouldn’t. You see my arse quite a lot. That doesn’t really bother me. You see a lot of Dakota’s tits. I would show my tits if I had them. I just thought, we don’t need to be flashing the rest if it’s not essential to the story. We’re not making porn as much as people think we are.”
ELLE: “Your wife hasn’t seen any of the Fifty Shades movies. Still true?”
JAMIE: “True.”
ELLE: “Is it strange to work on something for three yeas and not share it with your partner?”
JAMIE: “No. I mean, I share the day. I talk about the job. She’s close with Dakota, and she’s close with Sam (Taylor-Johnson), who directed the first movie, and with the producers. She hasn’t seen it, but she’s included. She just doesn’t feel the need to watch it.”
ELLE: “You got your start as a male model. Did people assume you were like Derek Zoolander?”
JAMIE: “I genuinely believe Zoolander isn’t that far off from some of those dudes. If I meet a male model now, I presume he’s stupid. A lot of them are. I used to get offended. If people knew you were a model, they’d start talking slightly slower, like you literally were the third guy along in Darwin’s evolution of man. But I’m not ungrateful. I was in my twenties, and I was getting paid to lean against walls and look like I wanted to hit people.”
ELLE: “Was there a time a photographer or booker crossed the line?”
JAMIE: “Yeah dude. Fuck. Early on? Fuck. You’d be sent to these dodgy little apartments around London. “Oh, this up and coming photographer wants to meet you and take a couple of Polaroids. It’ll be really good for your portfolio.” I remember one guy, I don’t know his name. He was like, “Let’s take some pictures.” Yeah, okay. Fine. Then he goes, “Take off your trousers.” I said, “Look, I kinda want to leave.” I was getting dressed. He kept coming in, acting like he’d left something in the room. There was nothing in that room except a chair. Then he stopped me at the door, and, I’ll never forget this, he said he was going to make spaghetti bolognese for us and open a bottle of wine. I called my agent and said “Don’t ever fucking send me to one of those creepy bastards again.””
ELLE: “What great lesson did you learn from your father?”
JAMIE: “Dad wanted to be an actor. He failed his final exams at school; he failed the first year of university. His parents wanted him to be a doctor. Eventually, he fell in love with the idea once he specialised in obs and gynae. But when I dropped out of uni and said I wanted to be a model, but I kind of wanted to be in a band, but essentially I wanted to be an actor, he said, “Life’s not a race to the far end. You’ve got time.””
ELLE: “Last question: What book turns you on?”
JAMIE: “I don’t think I’ve ever been turned on by a book. Maybe I’m not reading the right sort of stuff. I read a lot of Paul Auster. I’ve certainly never been aroused by it.”
English translations and transcriptions courtesy of Santa Valdez and Jamie Dornan NI. Thank you, ladies!
