Jamie Dornan won’t apologize for his time on Fifty Shades of Grey!
The 39-year-old actor starred as the brooding, dominant billionaire Christian Grey who falls in love with the young, inexperienced Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) in the franchise between 2015 and 2018. While the three films went on to gross a whopping $1.32 billion worldwide and become pretty popular, it was still met with some less than stellar reviews over the years. We mean, it pretty much got ripped to fifty shreds! However, Dornan couldn’t care less about what the critics have to say … somewhat.
In an interview with British GQ published on Friday, the former model revealed that while there may have been some hesitation at first, he ultimately has no regrets about taking on the role after Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam had dropped out. He explained to the publication:
“Ultimately, no. I mean, I understood the job and the reactions. I was in the running for it for a long time, remember. It wasn’t some split decision I made on a whim. I was beaten to it the first time by Charlie Hunnam and I felt a certain amount of relief when he got it, to be honest. I thought, ‘This would have been fun, but it would have been a strange ride. Better not to be on that ride.’ But he pulled out and then I got a call. And I got it. And there we go. I had to confront that choice again.”
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When pushed further, Dornan added:
“Look, put it this way: it’s done no harm to my career to be part of a movie franchise that has made more than $1 billion. Every working actor would say the same thing. It’s provided — a lot. There’s no shame in saying it’s transformed my life and my family’s life financially. I am very, very grateful for this and always will be. And the fans loved it.”
That’s certainly all that matters, as the fans are the ones who kept shelling out the money to see it! But the one thing he would like to change about it? The fact that it has become the butt of everyone’s “joke”:
“But I take issue with the whole thing being just a bit of a joke. Everyone involved worked as hard as they could on those films, including myself.”
It takes a village — especially to make a film franchise as big as Fifty Shades became.
While the films opened up so many doors for Dornan since, The Fall alum knows he’ll always be associated with the movies — which only pushes him to move forward in his career:
“Whether A Private War, Anthropoid or Belfast, or whatever comes next, the line in the press is always, ‘It’s the best thing he’s done since Fifty Shades. As if I am still needing to prove myself; I am still paying penance for that choice to get me back to where I was beforehand. Look, I get it, and, to be honest with you, it spurs me on. It lights a fire in me. If that means people saying, ‘Oh, actually he’s not that bad,’ well, so be it.”
Love his attitude about this! What are YOUR thoughts on the Fifty Shades franchise? Let us know in the comments (below)! Also, you can ch-ch-check out the entire British GQ profile HERE.
[Image via Universal Pictures UK/YouTube]
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