Jamie Dornan: ‘I value time more than money. My mom died when she was 50. I don’t just want to work’

Jamie Dornan, 42, makes a reassuring first impression. He’s an obviously handsome guy. But he doesn’t take himself too seriously and, perhaps most endearingly, is willing to scavenge for food.

We’re in a photo studio in north London, waiting for toast. Dornan’s slice pops up with such force that the slightly burnt bread flies across the room and lands under a nearby table. Without a moment’s hesitation, the actor kneels down to find the slice; he picks it up, gives it a blow and returns it to his plate. “It’s the three-second rule,” laughs the star of the Fifty Shades of Grey saga and Belfast, biting into the crust.

Later, Dornan walks onto the set in a pair of voluminous gray knit trousers by Loewe, for which he is an ambassador. They are so wide, heavy and clown-like he has to shuffle across the floor like an amateur ice skate. “Not sure I’d pop out to the shops in them, but they’re bold and audacious, which can never be a bad thing,” he says.

The balance between statement-luxury and alt-masculinity fits him well. He reclines on a chair, rolls the pants to his knees, and exudes charisma. He is used to being photographed. A model in his youth, the actor has starred in successful campaigns for fashion giants such as Dior, Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein. In 2015, Vogue included him on its list of the 25 best male models in history. But Dornan is never entirely happy with the process: “I’m sincerely uncomfortable having my photograph taken.”

Question. Really? Why?

Answer. Because I think most people are, I think it’s strange if you’re not.

Q. Yes, but I wouldn’t imagine you to be like that, especially when you see the end results

A. I don’t want to see the end results.

Q. You don’t?

A. Not particularly. I might not be able to avoid the end result, but I hate the process. When I first started modelling, I grew up in an age of Polaroids when there was so much more trust with everybody.

Q. And it was framed in the camera, not in post-production.

A. Exactly. Nowadays, especially if you’re doing an advertising campaign, they’re stopping and having a trial by committee after every image. The trust is all gone, and I find it really sad.

Q. Tell me about your relationship with Loewe. You’ve said it’s a good fit.

I feel comfortable with [creative director] Jonathan Anderson. We’re from the same part of the world, and I immediately feel comfortable with people who have a similar or early life experience to me. I was going to say we sound the same, but I think he goes more northern Irish when he’s around me. His accent is kind of funky now.

Dornan returns to the set. John Lennon’s paternal ballad Beautiful Boy plays in the background, and he adopts a tender expression. Then Frankie Valli sings Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, and he goes into seduction mode.

It is this mix of intensity and vulnerability, and his ability to move from one role to another — from the taciturn Christian Grey to more nuanced characters such as the amnesia-struck protagonist in The Tourist — that is the key to a career that is, by now, well established. In The Fall, Dornan received praise for his portrayal of serial killer Paul Spector, a complex and deeply troubled character. How does a handsome former model defy expectations and be so convincing in a role that demands such nuance?

“I read a lot of dark books and tried to kind of insert myself into the mind of someone like that - what makes them have so much hatred within them. Often, it’s a litany of things that have happened in their childhood, but sometimes it’s not. With serial killers and multiple murderers, it usually stems from some abuse as a child. But Jesus, that couldn’t be further away from who I am as a person!”

Q. Photographer David Sims says you’re one of his favorite people in the world.

A. He did? That’s lovely. It’s really lovely considering the amount of people David Sims has met. I think he’s a genius. Look, I’m Irish. I’m someone who struggles — actually as an entirety, as an island, we struggle — with praise.

Q. Why is that?

A. I don’t know, there’s just something embarrassing about it for some reason. I grew up in an environment where having a big ego was really frowned upon. So, I think comments like David’s could be deemed as potentially feeding this ego that you’re not allowed to. But now and again, compliments come from such high esteem that you’d be mad not to accept them and be touched by them.

Q. Is it a Northern Irish trait to be skeptical?

A. I think there’s an inbuilt skepticism across the board with me and people I grew up with. I’m not sure what that’s born from. I don’t know what that it is, but I definitely recognize it. I think it’s to our detriment that we’re a wee bit scared of change. In many ways, there’s a backward-looking lens back home that can be problematic. I think a lot of that is bored out of fear.

Q. How do people react when you come home?

A. I’ve never distanced myself hugely from Belfast. I’ve made a point of trying to stay very connected to it. Yes, I don’t live there, and haven’t lived there for 23 years, but that’s circumstantial. I’ve married an English woman and had three posh English kids, but I own a property back home, and most of my mates are there. I’ve never lost any of my friendships because they’re so disinterested in what I do. It doesn’t elevate me in any way. I’d like to think that I’ve been respectful to home. I wouldn’t say I’ve flown the flag, because a flag is a very controversial thing where I come from. Ha!

Q. Do you feel Irish or British?

A. I’ve only ever been told I’m Irish, but my next-door neighbor could feel the exact opposite. That’s just the complexities of the place. It’s a complicated place, obviously.

Q. We are seeing an Irish renaissance in the world of actors.

A. Jesus, yeah, big time.

Q. Do you know them all?

A. I know Paul [Mescal], Barry [Keoghan] and Cillian Murphy. Andrew Scott I’ve known forever. I have to say, there is a genuinely lovely and truthful bond between all of us, of support and pride. It could just be a look across the room. If you think about the last four or five years, from Belfast to The Banshees of Inisherin, and all the individual stuff that people are doing, it’s very different to when I was starting out. I remember Cillian saying something interesting. He said that when he was growing up, the only people that made money from film and TV in Ireland were Liam Neeson and Jim Sheridan. Now you’ve got whole generations coming up, kids doing big things, so it’s really exciting to see what follows.

Despite the self-confidence he appears to exude when walking into the studio alone, without an entourage, or posing for a photographer, Dornan admits to experiencing bouts of anxiety. “I think it’s good to be a little bit fearful. I’m just about to start a new project, probably one of the biggest things I’ve done, and this is the period where I’m always the most ragged.”

Q. It’s the fear that drives you on, right?

A. Absolutely. But I think it’s healthy to be anxious and have a fear, otherwise we’re just floating through life without any great stakes. The thing I just finished shooting is this Netflix drama called The Undertow. It’s been the longest job of my life so far, and arguably the hardest. I was playing identical twins, so I took on two roles. It’s probably out at the end of this year.

Q. What about the idea that actors these days are polymaths? That you’re no longer sitting around waiting for the call? Would you include yourself in that category?

A. It would probably be remiss not to, just because I do have other things going on. I’ve got the Loewe stuff, the Diet Coke thing, and there’s other things outside being a day-to-day actor that I’m involved in. It sounds like a tired thing to say but I really don’t want to be just one thing. I’m not a kid who grew up wanting to be an actor. Yes that is my primary focus, and I love it, but it’s not the only thing I want to do.

Q. You’ve had an unusual acting trajectory. Fifty Shades of Grey didn’t quite go to plan, but then along came The Fall which was a pivotal moment, and then The Tourist which was phenomenally successful.

A. In a way, I don’t look into that so much. You go with your gut, and what’s in front of you. I’m really appreciative of the times I have a hit on my hands. But then there are other things I’ve done, which were equally strong, that didn’t get the same attention. I’ve also done stuff that wasn’t great that’s got too much attention. It’s peaks and troughs.

Q. You made her debut in Marie Antoinette. It was an incredible first film to be in, wasn’t it?

A. Can you believe that was my first ever audition? I’d only had an agent for about four days. But I really, really wasn’t looking to act. I had a bit of an eye on it, and I knew I had something within me, but I wasn’t actively pursuing it at all. It was a happenstance thing. My girlfriend at the time, Keira Knightley, had an agent who said I should pursue it. So, I went for the audition and suddenly found myself having drinks at the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz in Paris with Sofia Coppola and Roz Katz, the producer. We had a couple of Martinis, and before I knew it, I was in a movie.

Q. From Hollywood, Ireland, to Hollywood, California.

A. I didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on to be honest with you. Someone was watching that film on the plane recently when I was flying to New York. I was watching it from behind, watching my bits, thinking “who the fuck is that, and what is he doing?”

Q. Did you recognize that you were flailing?

A. Yes, I could see the fear in my eyes. Sofia had done a clever thing where she had kept Kirsten Dunst and I apart. We didn’t meet until we meet in the movie for the first time. I honestly didn’t know what was going on. I had these lines to say and I didn’t know when to say them. It was a bit mad. So, I can see the fear in my eyes looking back. I’ve seen Kirsten recently and we’ve laughed about how scared I was that day.

Q. You were so young and inexperienced. What made you think you could do it?

A. I’m a very determined person, I have a real will to succeed. I feel like I’m someone who lives with a fire under my hole, as they say in Belfast. I do, I’ve always felt like that. I’ve talked to therapists about this sort of thing. I think a lot of it is from not being the biggest at school. I’ve never been bullied in my life, thank God, but all I cared about school was sport and rugby, and I still care about these things massively today. But if you are the small kid and you care about rugby it’s a tough environment to be around. So, I always thought I had something to prove. I think I’ve carried whatever that is — a kind of “fuck-you, watch this” attitude — through my life. I always feel like I’ve got a bit of a point to prove. I’m a very competitive person. If you and I started having a competition, throwing a bit of rubbish into that waste bin over there, I would really want to win.

Q. It’s not normal for male models to make the transition into acting. I can only think of one, Boyd Holbrook.

A. Boyd Holbrook. Jesus, he’s done really well. We used to hang out with each other in New York, way back, when we’d go to these dive bars together. I always struggled around other male models. I didn’t feel like I fitted in. I wanted to talk about rugby, they wanted to talk about skateboarding and smoking weed. Again, I didn’t really know where my place was. I bumped into Boyd at a Film Festival recently and we had a real laugh, it was lovely. We were both really congratulatory with each other, like actors are, the way people outside the acting profession think is gross. But I think Boyd is doing some really cool stuff. I’m really proud of him.

Q. There are photos of you and Keira Knightley doing the rounds, looking like the perfect Y2K celebrity couple.

A. Those were the days of proper paparazzi. It was really out of control back then. Actually, it was really fucking ugly to be honest. It was bad enough for me, although I could take it more, but Keira was just a kid. She was 18 and I was 20 when we got together. If you’re an 18-year-old girl and have three lads hiding in bushes throughout the night outside your apartment, it’s really dark. So if I see one of those images, which I often do on Instagram — they follow me around — I find it funny with some of the clothes we wore, but I also think about how ugly that intrusion was.

Q. What are the biggest misconceptions about you?

A. I think I’m really good at burying my head in the sand. I sincerely, and I’m not just saying this for effect, don’t have a notion what people think of me. I almost don’t think I know what my mates think of me. I generally have no fucking clue, and I like it that way.

Q. Is it because you don’t care?

A. I sort of don’t care. I make new friends really easily. I’ve got amazing people in my life. I’ve literally never fallen out with anyone. I hate arguing, I really hate it. I’m bad at it, I go really quiet. I’m confrontational to a point with men, protective and all of that stuff, and I can get quite bad road rage, but for the most part I’m quite against confrontation. I’ve spent my life avoiding it.

Q. So what do you value?

A. I value time way more than I value money. My mom died when she was 50. I don’t just want to work, work, work.

Makeup and hair: Joe Mills J. Set designer: Sean Thomson. Photography assistants: Damian Flack and Jake Milsom. Styling assistant: Rui Santos. Set designer assistant: Rufus Wilkinson.