Fifty Shades of Jamie Dornan (9 page)

On the back of his role in
Marie Antoinette
, his agent also sent him out to Los Angeles during pilot season – a time between January and April when TV studios cast, produce and test out new shows. Competition is fierce, and the rounds of auditions are relentless and cut-throat, as hundreds of wannabe actors try to get their feet on the first rung of the movie industry ladder. ‘It was one of the most dehumanising things anyone could ever go through – on an entertainment level, that is,’ Jamie said.

Directors and TV producers in Hollywood were at least polite, which for many made the blow easier; for Jamie, however, this just made him feel even more deflated. The Irishman often walked away from auditions quietly convinced that he’d landed the role until his agent got a call saying that he had once again been unsuccessful. ‘There’s no such thing as a bad meeting in LA. You walk out thinking that you have the job,’ he explained. ‘I think I’ve only ever had silent “nos” out there.’

For the time being, at least, he had plenty to focus on; his busy schedule was packed with music and modelling, and the latter couldn’t have been going any better – on paper at least. ‘I’ve never felt massively satisfied from standing there while someone
takes my photograph. It’s never given me a thrill,’ he confided in an interview with the
Evening Standard
magazine years later. ‘But it would take a very foolish man to turn down the stuff that was offered to me. You’re in your twenties and people are going to give you a silly amount of money to lean against a wall with your head down.

‘F**k me, you’ve got to do it.’

Still down to earth as ever, behind the scenes the model was enjoying an incredibly normal life. ‘I still cook spaghetti bolognese and I love a good book.

‘My perfect evening in would be with my mate Jake and my sister Jess eating tomato and mozzarella followed by my spaghetti, it’s the best in the world! For pudding we’d have cheesecake, drink Pinot Noir and watch South Park on TV,’ he said. ‘My daily grooming routine is a ten minute shower, a cup of coffee and then I go.

‘I always have a book on the go. I couldn’t live without books, I don’t understand people who don’t read.’

Defying the stereotype of a pampered supermodel, Jamie admitted that although he liked to keep fit with morning press-ups, he wasn’t into the kind of preening you’d expect. ‘I cut my hair myself. I don’t have any hair products, I use whatever is to hand.

‘I like playing golf but I’m not really into going to the gym, not when I can go for a walk outside.’

His easy-going attitude and undoubted professionalism appeared to be paying off. Select modelling agency, who had handled Jamie’s career from the start, was now seeing a steady
stream of requests for the young fashion star who could now command £10,000 a day.

Next up was Nicole Farhi’s spring ad campaign in early 2007, which saw Jamie star in a series of black-and-white photos in a range of well-cut suits and tailored jackets. Jamie’s good luck followed with an advert for Aquascutum, alongside stunning supermodel Gisele Bündchen. The quintessentially English label wanted an image overhaul – from country-set staple to brand of choice for the sexy, modern go-getter – and chose ‘uber-suave’ Jamie and Gisele to play the smouldering ‘power couple’ at the centre of their new branding.

Key pieces in the collection included clothes based on original designs worn by Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Lauren and Lauren Bacall in luxurious fabrics. The shoot was at sprawling country mansion Cliveden House in Berkshire – made famous in the 1960s for the Profumo affair – with legendary photographer Mario Sorrenti at the helm. Best known for his spreads of nude models in the pages of upmarket magazines
Vogue
and
Harper’s Bazaar
, the steaminess of this project was no exception, and Jamie was quickly directed into producing a set of sultry shots with the Brazilian beauty. ‘Jamie is a real pro, he can produce “sexy” in a second,’ a fashion industry insider said. ‘For the camera he oozes seduction effortlessly and at the same time makes female models feel at ease; he’s friendly, polite and a joy to be around. He’s one of the best male models around.’

The campaign was a massive success thanks to the undeniable on-camera chemistry between Jamie and Gisele. ‘We are thrilled by this new campaign,’ said Aquascutum president and CEO, Kim
Winser. ‘Gisele and Jamie are the perfect pairing to communicate our creative vision for the new season.’ As the photos of the handsome pair in well-cut, luxurious outfits draped around each other and oozing sex appeal hit the internet, fans online gushed, ‘They are so hot! Yay! I love them!’ Another wrote, ‘Stylish, sexy, classy and eye-catching, Jamie looks stunning!’, while a fashion journalist commented, ‘These two look like they’re made for each other. Jamie Dornan is exquisite.’

Hot on its heels was Jamie’s new contract as the face of Bvlgari eyewear. Posing in a series of black-and-white shots wearing the famous designer glasses, Jamie again attracted reams of online attention from both men and women. ‘He’s so hot,’ one male fan drooled on a fashion website. ‘I don’t normally go for a man in specs but he’s changed my mind.’

Unsurprisingly, Aquascutum was back for more of Jamie less than a year later. ‘Last season they turned up the heat for fashion label Aquascutum on location at the quintessentially British Cliveden House and this season, Gisele Bündchen and Jamie Dornan are back to do the same for the brand,’ an article in
Vogue
proclaimed in July 2008. This time the pair’s photocall was to pose against the scenic backdrop of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral – and the photos wouldn’t look out of place in the new
Fifty Shades of Grey
movie.

‘In one shot, the woman – dressed in clinging black dress and spike-heeled Manolos – lies seductively across the man’s lap,’ a journalist said of the campaign in Britain’s
Daily Telegraph
newspaper. ‘Elsewhere, she is captured in executive-style sharp tailoring in an office overlooking St Paul’s, while he is pictured
straddling an MV Agusta F4 – the “Ferrari of motorcycles”– in a chic trench.

‘Nom doms? Bankers immune to the credit squeeze? Or a power couple in the clutches of a passionate affair?’

Aquascutum’s Kim Winser added at the time, ‘I love the passionate electricity; power is such an aphrodisiac.’ Jamie was indeed a powerful presence in the studio but while he was pulling in fans with his pouts, he was having little luck pulling in real life. He was desperate for a girlfriend, but he was the first to admit that he was useless in love. ‘I really need a girlfriend,’ he admitted earnestly in 2007. ‘I can appreciate going out and having fun with whoever but there’s a real side of me that needs the relationship part.’

Jamie liked the stability that a steady girlfriend afforded and while he loved going out drinking in bars with friends, he enjoyed staying in with wholesome food and a good film on the TV just as much. Few could believe he remained a single bachelor. The press was adamant that Jamie – one of the most desirable men in the world after romancing the formidable Keira Knightley – must have been dating someone.

Within months of splitting from the Hollywood actress, the rumour mill started with stories that Jamie had his eye on other beautiful women. Whenever he starred in a campaign, the model was alleged to be having a dalliance with another new actress or model, even if the details were wildly exaggerated to make the story grittier. There had been Sienna Miller, of whom he admitted thrice-over that she was ‘just a good friend’ who lived round the corner and shared his love of good food and
a gossip. A few weeks later, Jamie had supposedly ‘hooked up’ with Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan after the pair were seen huddling together in a quiet corner of a Calvin Klein-sponsored bash in New York to celebrate Kate Moss’s new advertising campaign. They were later allegedly seen holding hands, which sparked rumours of a string of dates in the American city.

Dornan later denied even having met her. ‘I know who she is, I’ve seen her movie
Mean Girls
but that’s it. There’s no Mrs Jamie at all,’ he said at the time. Despite his denial, Jamie made it into Lindsay’s ‘sex list’which she allegedly penned in 2013 on a boozy night out with friends. The actress was said to have scribbled down a list of thirty-six famous men that she had bedded since becoming famous and the countdown of her best-known lovers included Jamie. A source who claimed to have watched her write the document during a booze-fuelled session at the exclusive Beverley Hills Hotel, said, ‘It was her personal conquest list. She was trying to impress her friends with the list and then tossed it aside.’

Whether there was any truth in it or not, within weeks of reportedly dating the blonde actress, Jamie was onto another woman. This time, he had struck up a close friendship with
Footballers
’
Wives
beauty Lucia Giannecchini, after meeting through friends. ‘She’s trying to keep her blossoming friendship with Dornan top secret,’ a source told the
Sunday Mirror
newspaper in an article about the actress’s new love interest.

Next up, the rumours that he was romancing Kate Moss surfaced again and due to the ongoing speculation, even years later, that they had been an item, Dornan felt compelled to
comment on it whenever he gave an interview. ‘I think it’s quite hard to meet someone special in London,’ he explained. ‘There’s a whole pool of attractive women in London but I find it intimidating. London is so vast so it makes it hard to know where the nice ones are or what kind of people they are going to be. It was a lot easier when I was at school and you knew everyone you pulled.

‘I never dated Kate Moss.’

There was also the added problem that people had started to comment on how well he passed for straight, thus insinuating that he wasn’t interested in women at all. ‘The amount of people who think I’m gay is astounding,’ he added. Nevertheless, girls were certainly flocking to him, even if he didn’t quite know how to handle it.

At the V Festival in 2006, glamour girls Alicia Duvall, Caprice and Jodie Marsh allegedly begged the organisers to introduce them to the up-and-coming star, while the then single popstar Lily Allen also made a beeline for him before swapping mobile numbers so that they could meet at a later date. ‘Lily rushed over to Jamie who was sitting with a couple of friends. She introduced herself and started nattering away to him,’ an onlooker said of the chart-topping daughter of comic Keith Allen. ‘He seemed taken aback at first but soon they were getting on like a house on fire. They had a couple of beers together and then got out their mobiles and typed in each other’s numbers.’

Even if a long-term romance wasn’t on the cards, he was certainly enjoying some one-night flings and his playboy reputation was now at full throttle. The Calvin Klein hunk was
spotted kissing Australian model Gemma Ward in the Louis Vuitton VIP room at London’s trendy Movida Club a few months later, before chatting up her supermodel pal Lily Donaldson. Meals out with stunning brunette model Lily Aldridge also followed. Even though he wasn’t actually dating her – she is supermodel Saffron Aldridge’s half-sister and her best friend is singer Taylor Swift – it was quite clear Jamie was now circulating with the cream of London’s society girls.

He was also hot property with Hollywood A-listers, and
O.C.
star Mischa Barton made her feelings known to Jamie after being introduced by mutual friends at the Cartier Polo International in Windsor. Jamie and the pretty blonde enjoyed a day together at the exclusive sporting event before going onto the after-party at London’s plush China White nightclub where they spent the night ‘giggling and laughing’ in a quiet corner of the exclusive bar.

Talk of an ongoing romance was nothing more than speculation but Jamie was soon out wining and dining another beautiful woman – this time supermodel Lily Cole. Jamie and the stunning redhead indeed made a beautiful couple and they both clearly enjoyed each other’s company; they lived within ten minutes of each other in West London and had a shared passion for eating hamburgers, despite their enviable slim physiques. The duo had gone together to an Armani fashion show in the capital, where Lily, who had taken a break from her social and political science degree at Cambridge University, was also modelling. Both had a string of mutual friends inside the fashion industry and it was clear that the press loved the idea of
the celebrity pairing. ‘She is quite taken with Jamie. They were having dinner at Locanda Locatelli near Oxford Street recently and couldn’t take their eyes off each other,’ a source told the
Mail on Sunday
newspaper. ‘Backstage at Armani Lily wouldn’t let him out of her sight.’ One of Jamie’s admirers wrote on a fan page, ‘It’s an unusual pairing but they’re both brainy so maybe it works,’ while another observed, ‘He’s too shy and worried about rejection to go out with anyone. Lily and him know each other through work.’

Jamie was adamant that there was no one special in his life. Friends of the model, meanwhile, claimed that amidst his evenings out with friends and potential lovers, his sister Jessica had tried but failed to reunite him with Keira. She had remained in touch with the actress, since they had plenty in common to justify being friends. ‘Keira and Jessica got on well when she was dating Jamie and the two women remained chums,’ a source told the
Daily Express
newspaper. ‘With Jessica’s help, Keira has met up with Jamie as a friend and has even been to see him in his new home. Jessica would do anything for Jamie from cooking for him to propping him up emotionally.’

It was true that Jamie hurt after losing Keira, but he didn’t want to go back; it had been too hard for the model to cope with being the underdog in their relationship. Although they met up for a few meals here and there over the course of the next year, they simply drifted out of each other’s lives for good. ‘We’re great friends and we do meet up but I’m not heartbroken, do I look it?’ he said at the time. ‘I don’t think so. I’m just getting on with things, as is she.’

Keira was indeed making great strides without Jamie and rumours of marriage to her new partner, actor Rupert Friend, were starting to do the rounds. ‘It’s all very well for Keira Knightley who’s been prattling on about her plans to buy a London house with her boyfriend Rupert Friend,’ columnist Adam Helliker wrote in the
Sunday Express
, ‘but spare a thought for lovelorn model Jamie Dornan who has not found a girlfriend since the actress flung him out of her bed. Quite why handsome Mr Dornan, 25, should have subsequently experienced so little success in his boudoir form is something of a mystery.’