When the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, Jamie Dornan was in New York, about to shoot a new TV series.
But as production shut down on “Dr. Death,” the 37-year-old actor flew back to his home in England, where he’s been in self-isolation with his wife and three children.
Dornan, the star of the “Fifty Shades” franchise, recently joined Instagram, posting a funny video with his face covered in blue paint for an upcoming role — a leap for a normally private person. This week, he’s been getting ready for the release of his latest film, “Endings, Beginnings,” a drama directed by Drake Doremus, which debuted at last fall’s Toronto Film Festival.
In the movie, Dornan plays an Irish writer smitten by a woman (Shailene Woodley) that both he and his best friend (Sebastian Stan) meet at a party. “Endings, Beginnings” is now available in homes on digital.
Since starring as Christian Grey in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Dornan has zig-zagged as an actor, choosing character parts in independent movies such as “Anthropoid” and “A Private War.” And he’s psyched about his first major comedic turn in “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” a comedy written by and starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.
Dornan spoke to Variety about “Endings, Beginnings,” which was largely improvised, and why he wasn’t typecast after “Fifty Shades.”
How did Drake Doremus first approach you for “Endings, Beginnings?”
I love Drake’s work. We were at the same agency so his name popped out a few times. And then we ended up doing an advert together. I did this Hugo Boss campaign, like a perfume campaign, and Drake directed it. We went to Azerbaijan four days before Christmas a few years ago, and we just hit it off. We were very much aligned in our thinking and approach to art, but also to golf. He’s a big golf fan.And we were like, “it’s great to do this commercial and everyone’s getting paid and it’s a beautiful piece of work, but it’d be great to do a real movie together.” We played golf when I was in L.A. and became friends. He was always saying he had this project that he had in mind for me.
From co-writer/director Drake Doremus, the relationship drama Endings, Beginnings follows Daphne (Shailene Woodley), a 30-something woman navigating love and heartbreak while also exploring what she wants out of life. After finding herself attracted to best friends Jack (Jamie Dornan) and Frank (Sebastian Stan), for very different reasons, she ends up on a journey that will teach her more about herself than she ever could have expected.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Jamie Dornan talked about the experience of improvising his role for the length of the film, how he thought about running for the hills on the first night of the shoot, having a filmmaker like Drake Doremus to guide him, the love on set, what surprised him about his character, and what he thought of the way the finished film turned out. He also talked about how excited he is for people to see his first foray into comedy with Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar, with Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, how he came to voice a character in Trolls World Tour, and what he’s looking forward to with his next project, Dr. Death, once he gets to shoot it.
Collider: It seems as though doing a film like this, where you essentially have a detailed outline and you’re improvising, would be equal parts exciting and terrifying for an actor. When this project came your way and you thought about that aspect of it, what was that internal back and forth like for you?
JAMIE DORNAN: Truthfully, the first night that we were shooting, I thought about running away, like running for the hills. I was just so frightened. I was so scared. I felt so at ease with the people, but then, I just thought about having to improvise. I’d done a little bit of improv before, in various realms, but never for a whole movie. There was also something about improvising and it not being comedy. Usually, it leads towards making people laugh. It was about doing it in a way that was truthful for the character and truthful in the response to who you’re in scenes with. Having not done it on that scale before, it was purely terror, at the front of my mind. It was only that first night, and then you find a rhythm with it. I found Jack’s voice within myself, fairly quickly, and then it was a joyous experience. I loved it. But, it was that first night. There was a 60-page skeleton script, where it would say, “Jack talks about why this happened.” And then, it was for us to make it up, on our own. For the first couple of takes, I said every single word that was in that skeleton script. I just said every suggested thing, and then (director) Drake Doremus came over, straight away, and was like, “Okay, forget everything in the script. You have to find your take.” I was like, “Oh, shit, okay.” That’s when I nearly ran for the hills
Now that you’ve seen the finished film, how different did this turn out from what you thought it might be, when you started? Because you really did get to explore this in a way that you don’t usually with a film, did it feel like the movie that you thought it would be, or did it feel very different, in any way? DORNAN: I’ve never watched a movie before, where I had no idea what was gonna happen. There were so many ways in which we performed every scene. It could have been edited so many different directions, so that was an interesting thing to watch, for the first time. I feel like it definitely has as much love and hope and spirit as was in that skeleton script and the conversations that I had with Drake, very early on, and all of the feelings that we had on set, with Shailene [Woodley] and I and Sebastian [Stan]. There was a lot of love on that set. It felt like we were all in this mad experience together, and I feel like that did come across. So much of that is Shailene Woodley. It was so incredible to watch her do her thing. There’s not a second in the movie that she’s not it. It quite literally is just her. She’s carrying this whole thing, and it’s a lot. Emotionally, there’s a lot going on, and there’s so much going on in her character’s story. I thought the way she handled that quite beautifully ended up being portrayed in the final film. I was very aware, when I was doing those scenes with her, how beautiful her work was, and I think that came across in the final cut of it
A brand new shoot that was taken during the Hugo Boss promotion in Amsterdam back in November has been released today, which was accompanied by a new interview. The full thing can be read below the cut and the photoshoot can be accessed by clicking on the images below
Jamie Dornan tells Louise Wise why pushing boundaries is part of his DNA
The Risk-TakerThe day I meet Jamie Dornan, the Northern Irish actor admits he did a personality test online that very morning, for fun. “The test said, ‘Are you someone who likes to take risks?’ And I ticked ‘Strongly agree’,” says the Belfast-bred 37 year old. He didn’t even have to hesitate. “I feel like I’ve probably always been like that. Not in some sort of reckless way. But I guess I’ve always liked testing boundaries a little bit.”
That is one way to put it. In the three mega-successful Fifty Shades movies, adaptations of E.L. James’ erotic novels, Dornan set hearts a-flutter and knees a-knocking as the infamous Christian Grey. In the BBC’s hit series The Fall, meanwhile, he was even more unsettling as a worryingly sympathetic serial killer. And in 2020 we’ll see him pushing more limits, admittedly in a different vein. In one upcoming film, he has to improvise most of his dialogue; in another, he tries out comedy. Both are scary firsts for him. And then there’s that unexpected cameo in.. Trolls World Tour.“I kind of asked to be in that,” laughs Dornan, straight after his photoshoot for EDITION – he has an easy, jokey manner which immediately balances out the fact that he is, let’s face it, intimidatingly handsome. The reasons for the request aren’t hard to find: he has three young daughters who are “just obsessed” with all things Troll, and he knew he’d get brownie points back home to star in this animated movie sequel. “I was like: ‘I’ll do anything. I don’t even need a line!” (To be clear, though, he does have some – as Chaz, a “troll who loves jazz”.)
If Trolls may seem the unlikeliest addition to his CV, it is also very Dornan: unpretentious, down-to-earth, and ultimately family-minded. Also, he knows by now to trust his instincts. Over the past decade he has steadily carved out a career in film and television, after making that tricky transition from being one of the world’s most sought-after models. He still does modelling work selectively, becoming the face of BOSS The Scent last year, but he focuses primarily on acting (other acclaimed film credits include Marie Antoinette, Anthropoid and A Private War).
“I like people who are a bit more linear and direct and know what they want,” he says, describing why he ultimately prefers acting. Modelling can be fun, he says – and he’s always sure to thank those who helped him on his way – but “you know, long conversations about your hair being ‘sexy, but smart – but not too smart and not too sexy…?'”. He opens his eyes wide. “There’s just a lot of faffing about, which I struggle with.”
BluRay quality screencaptures of Jamies role as Chaz in Trolls World Tour have been added to the gallery. His role was only small as expected but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. The film will be released on VOD in a few days time in America, with it available to rent now for 48 hours in the UK respectively
In a world where everything is a little odd to say the least at the moment, this is certainly not one of the things we could’ve saw coming now or ever in fact. In the words of Jamie in his comeback post “Self isolation made me do it”. He can be followed on the username @jamiedornan and a category has been made in the gallery for his posts
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, due to the impact of Coronavirus, more and more events, businesses and films have had to be cancelled/rescheduled. This has unfortunately impacted on Trolls release next month which means it won’t be in cinemas as planned. Dreamworks have announced that it will be releasing a number of titles on VOD for families to rent on demand with Trolls included in the lineup with the view of releasing it once the worst of the pandemic is over. More information about it can be read below via an official source. The status of Barb and Star is not yet known but hopefully by July, things may start returning to normal
It also looks like per Millie’s Instagram, that Dr Death and Carmen production has had to temperoraily close down meaning they’ve likely left New York for home with a view to return when it is safe to do so. This hasn’t been officially confirmed but it looks to be the case
With movie theaters in the New York Tri-State area and Los Angeles closing and total box office reaching previously unheard of lows in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, NBCUniversal has decided to shatter the long-guarded theatrical window, at least for now.
The company announced plans on Monday to release a number of its newest films—including The Hunt, which stumbled badly over the weekend in its debut frame, and pre-coronavirus hit The Invisible Man—to on-demand services as soon as Friday, with rentals costing consumers $19.99 and lasting for 48 hours. The forthcoming Trolls World Tour, which remains set for theatrical release on April 10 despite theater closing and occupancy restrictions around mass gatherings in a push for social distancing, will also receive a simultaneous digital rollout next month
Source; x
Yesterday Jamie and Millie attended the World Premiere for A Quiet Place Part II in New York to support their friends Emily Blunt and John Krasinski. Jamies Anthropoid co-star Cillian Murphy who also stars in the film was also in attendance. High quality images have been added to the gallery thanks to my friends Sara and Ali ♡
A brand new photoshoot taken late last year when Jamie was in Holland to promote Hugo Boss The Scent Absolute, has been released for the March/April 2020 edition of Esquire Netherlands. A few images from it which have already been released have been added to the gallery along with scans from his interview, thanks to Aimee. The images from the shoot will be replaced with higher quality versions if/when they become available. Until then, enjoy!
Magazine Scans (2020) > Esquire Netherlands [+003]
