Fifty Shades of Jamie Dornan (18 page)

With news that E.L. James had sold the film rights for all three books in the trilogy, Jamie had also secured plenty of work and cash for the future – perfect for a man about to start a family of his own. And although not everyone was satisfied with Jamie playing Christian, public feeling had been nothing like the reaction that Hunnam had provoked. ‘He was horribly attractive in
The Fall
,’ said Jane Crowther, editor of
Total Film
. ‘He demonstrated real darkness; he was really creepy. Terrifying, actually. That push-pull of attraction and revulsion is interesting. I hope he’ll bring that darkness to
Fifty Shades
, so it’s not just a silly, sexy romp.’

Author E.L. James was also getting incredible feedback from fans who were complimenting her on choosing the former Dior model. ‘Good choice my lady!!! You did good :)’ one wrote. ‘OH. MY. GOOOD! Great news! He’s perfect for the role! We. Love. You!!!’ another gushed.

The cream of Hollywood was also backing her choice, with stars praising the author on Twitter. ‘I’m a monstrous Jamie fan. Wasn’t allowed to be attracted to him on The Fall because he played a sex murderer. 50 Shades is my big chance!’ wrote actress Lena Dunham. ‘Congrats to the sweetest person/scariest actor
I know! 50 Shades of Grey just got real. So f***n psyched,’ said Hollywood star Kate Mara, while esteemed writer Bret Easton Ellis wrote: ‘I think that Jamie Dornan is the perfect choice to play Christian Grey. Smartest casting decision in a long time.’ Even his ex Keira Knightley agreed that he was the perfect choice to play the sexy fiend. When asked about her former lover’s raunchy part, she bashfully admitted, ‘He’s very good looking, all the girls will love him.’

Erika was over the moon with her casting. ‘There was a huge online reaction when Charlie Hunnam was initially cast as Christian. It was very mixed and I had to get off Twitter. And then he dropped out. It was disappointing, but it is what it is. Now we have Jamie, and that’s great. It’s been interesting with Jamie, the fan reaction has been so positive.’

Jamie’s family were also thrilled with the news and celebrated with a Sunday roast at his house in West London. Hardly the lavish celebration one would expect from a now legitimate Hollywood actor, but it was again testament to his down-to-earth attitude and long-held tradition that family came first. His father Jim was justly proud and, having read
Fifty Shades of Grey
himself, was the biggest supporter when his son decided to go for the role. Unlike Dakota, who admitted she wouldn’t want her parents to watch her in the sexually explicit film, Jamie said that his ‘liberal’ family wouldn’t be shocked by his on-screen goings-on. ‘I’m a fairly worldly guy. I grew up in a very liberal place. I’m not saying we had a playroom, but I’m not shocked by [the sex in the book]. It’s essential to tell the story. I can’t believe films that don’t invoke the sexual side of it. So it works for me,’ he
said. ‘My dad was all for it. I don’t come from a cagey family,’ he added to
GQ
magazine.

Jim himself commented to the
Daily Mail
newspaper, ‘Jamie might be playing Christian Grey, but he has inherited a total respect and commitment to women and women’s rights. We are all that way in the family. Jamie and my two daughters are very pro-women – I have influenced them with that. As with the role Jamie’s playing, a lot of people are into all sorts of things, and I don’t think we should knock anything that people consent to.’ His two sisters were also incredibly proud of their younger brother and his father Jim confirmed that despite his newfound super fame, they were as close as ever. ‘They are very protective of him but it’s almost the other way round, he is of them, he’s a great brother, we are a very tight family and they all look to each other and I think when they lost their mum it does bring them very closely together. That bond will be there forever and they love him and are very proud of him,’ he told a Seattle radio show.

With so much expectation heaped on him, from fans to film producers alike, one would have expected Jamie to be nervous about playing the sadistic billionaire. After all, spending almost an entire film half-naked, sometimes with bondage whip in hand, would fill many with terror – not so Jamie Dornan. A few weeks before filming was due to start, he seemed unflappable. ‘I certainly don’t fear it,’ he said. ‘I already got a glimpse into working with the director Sam at the test, and I’d met Dakota by then. So I had a glimpse into how I felt it would be if I got the part. None of it scared me,’ he admitted.

The movie, after all, wasn’t going to be a porn film, and Jamie
had years of experience stripping naked for the camera. It was second nature to him. Having read the script, he was also keen to point out that it wasn’t going to be as raunchy and X-rated as the book. ‘In some ways, it’ll break some boundaries. But at the same time they want to put bums on seats. They can’t alienate an audience. It’s got to be watchable,’ he explained. ‘It can’t be hardcore. I wouldn’t have signed up to it if it was. You’ve got to make something a large amount of people can go and see. It’s not going to be grotesque.’

With that in mind, his main aim was to try to please as many of the book readers as possible, as the ultimate challenge was not being hated by the public when the film was finally released. ‘I just want to please a decent percentage of people who read the book because people hold the book so close to their hearts, so, you know, I’m not going to please everyone but I hope I’ve done a good enough job and I’m not totally hated at the end of it,’ he added.

Jamie’s main challenge at the time, however, was learning his lines. With a film start date set for the beginning of November and having landed the lead role less than a month before, it was near on impossible. Filming in Vancouver was pushed back to December, along with a rescheduled release date from August to 13 February 2015 – in time for Valentine’s Day weekend. Movie insiders claimed that the move was less about production and more about Universal Pictures wanting to maximise on branding and box office sales by tying in with Valentine’s Day. ‘They will be hoping ‘50 Shades’ becomes a Valentine’s weekend “date film” or for those that are single, it will provide an opportunity to
go out on that day and indulge in a little bit of kinkiness. The merchandise they could sell around this time would also be incredibly profitable. Rescheduling was a very wise move,’ an insider revealed.

The studio was even worried that their original August date would be hampered by women going on family holidays abroad. It released in a statement: ‘We see this movie as a global event. The strength of this book is really worldwide, so we want to be able to take advantage of women who are invariably on vacation with their families during the month of August in Europe.’

With a release confirmed a day shy of Valentine’s Day, a first peek of Jamie and Dakota together, as Christian and Anastasia, appeared on the front of American glossy showbiz magazine
Entertainment Weekly
two weeks before filming started. The former Dior model posed in a grey suit with a protective arm around his brunette co-star while a silver-grey tie hanged whip-like from a protective hand cupping her shoulder. It was a powerful image – and the public seemed impressed. ‘The perfect Christian. Jamie Dornan is sizzling!’ one critic wrote. ‘Mmm, Mr Dornan will see you now!’ a fan gushed on a
Fifty Shades
fan site. ‘I literally can’t wait for the film to come out now, roll on February 14th 2015, I will be there in the front row Jamie.’

Much to the public’s delight, there was more good news in store for Jamie fans. Movie bosses were toying with the idea of releasing an explicit version of the film, as well as its fifteen-rated release, where the model would be seen romping in X-rated scenes as ‘dirty’ as the kinky book. Producer Dana Brunetti said,
‘Everybody could go and enjoy the 15s version, and then if they really wanted to see it again and get a little bit more gritty with it then have that 18s version out there as well. It’d be great for the studio too because they’d get a double dip on the box office. What we’re kind of hearing from the fans is they want it dirty.

‘They want it as close as possible to the book. We want to keep it elevated but also give the fans what they want.’

However, closer to the film’s release there were plans to give it an eighteen certificate, with a possible unrated cut on DVD. ‘Well, there is going to be a lot of sex in the film,’ screenwriter Kelly Marcel explained. ‘It will be NC-17 [the equivalent of a British 18 certificate]. It’s going to be raunchy. We are 100 per cent going there … We did go through and decide which are our favourite moments and which are not. Most of them are in there, but I can’t say more than that.’

Jamie added to the excitement by admitting that he was champing at the bit to get stuck into the sex scenes, explaining that it was ‘essential to tell the story’. Producer Dana was delighted that the thirty-one-year-old was so keen to get cracking on the sadistic scenes. ‘You have to get actors that really want to do it as well, and that was a really difficult process. A lot of them didn’t want to do it just because of what they either thought that it would require or what it will require, or what it will make them into. It’s gonna make them into huge stars,’ she said.

The film had now been cast and Jamie was in good company. Fellow cast members included US actor Victor Rasuk as the aspiring photographer Jose Rodriguez, who is also Christian’s love rival, and
True Blood
star Luke Grimes as Christian’s
younger brother, Elliot. British singer Rita Ora had landed the role of Christian’s adopted younger sister Mia, while American TV beauty Eloise Mumford was starring as Anastasia’s roommate and best friend Kate Kavanagh.

Jamie only had a few weeks to prepare for the part before leaving for Vancouver. As well as starting the arduous task of learning lines, Jamie was training in the gym to ensure that Christian had the rippling abs and strong, powerful thighs that his female fans would be looking for. ‘I’ve never felt that Christian needs to be some kind of monster, but I think it’s very clear how he conditions himself and looks after himself,’ he told
Entertainment Weekly
. ‘I take decent enough care of myself anyway, so obviously I’m gonna up it slightly with training, but we don’t have any intention to really bulk up. I don’t think it’s appropriate.’

His co-star Dakota had joined him in a gym routine, desperate not to be shown up by Jamie’s enviable muscular physique in their countless nude scenes together. ‘Obviously, I want to look good naked,’ she said. ‘I totally understand now why people exercise because it kind of f****** feels awesome.’

As someone who had spent most of his working life in a pair of freshly pressed underpants, Jamie now had to get used to wearing a suit. Although his character lived in immaculately tailored outfits twenty-four/seven, the model-turned-actor clearly tended to pull them from the back of his wardrobe for special occasions. Jamie’s closet of jeans, jumpers and old shirts seemed as far removed from his alter ego’s as he could get. ‘My one staple in my wardrobe is this old blue shirt that I bought
in J Crew about five years ago, I think it’s got stains under the armpits, I still go for that most days,’ he admitted. Not so for the movie role of the year; Jamie was being measured up by the wardrobe department headed by Oscar-winning costume designer Mark Bridges for a collection of fine designer grey suits. While he couldn’t prepare for it beforehand, by the end of the three-month film shoot, being well turned out in a snappy suit was something that had started to feel second nature. And the fashion industry had started to speculate if top designers had been allowed to dress Jamie Dornan in his iconic role. ‘With major fashion labels like Armani and Prada playing a role in recent movies, I have to wonder whether the
Fifty Shades
wardrobe will serve as a form of product placement? I wonder if the execs at Calvin Klein are clamouring to get Christian Grey into a pair of their tighty whities,’ one journalist mused.

However, for Jamie the actor, stepping into one of Christian’s suits was not only a way of portraying the image, it was also key in getting into the role … adopting his ‘look’ was essential for getting into the character’s headspace too – as was preparing for his raunchy sex scenes, which he did by watching box sets of
Sex in the City.
While still filming
New Worlds,
Jamie, along with his co-star Joe Dempsie, carried out some research by watching the US sitcom which starred Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie. ‘Joe and I watched all the
Sex And The City
box sets – twice. That helped,’ he admitted.

Jamie and director Sam Taylor-Johnson had also started to map the complicated character out together. ‘I think there was so much to Christian that we covered. Someone who is careful to
keep himself in shape, someone who spends obscene amounts of money on presenting himself […].

A lot of that work was done in the gym and with costume. We didn’t talk about particulars of the way he would move but I’m quite awkward in a suit because I don’t have an opportunity to wear a suit very often, and this is a guy who lives in a suit – the best suit. That has to have an effect. But when you end up in a suit for 80 per cent of the filming process, you become pretty comfortable with it.’

Preparing for the role also included performing a complete character assassination of the sadomasochistic businessman: who was this alluring Christian Grey? Where did his knowledge and lust for bondage come from and why does he get off completely controlling virgin Anastasia’s life? For Jamie it was important to try to understand where his motivation came from. Building up a picture of Christian’s dark past was relatively easy. He was neglected by his prostitute mother as a child, physically abused by her pimp who beat him up and used him as an ashtray as a young boy, and as a teenager was sexually abused and ‘dominated’ by a friend of his adopted mother. The key for Jamie was identifying that Christian was a ‘broken’ person. ‘I see broken people as those who have been through hardship – whether it’s really ugly hardship like abandonment, abuse, something definitively life altering, like Christian Grey,’ he told
Interview
magazine. ‘There are reasons for these people being the way they are, and that’s what drives them.’