Fifty Shades of Jamie Dornan (13 page)

Although it may have sounded big-headed, Jamie was far from it. In the same month as the CK Free advert was released, Jamie agreed to a rare interview with the
Daily Mail
newspaper, and the real man behind the good looks and rippling torso was revealed for all to see. ‘The guy who is paid to just be pretty is also the sort of chap you’d like to have a drink with – if only he wasn’t going on to a party in his capacity as the face of Calvin Klein’s new fragrance, CK Free,’ the journalist noted. ‘He describes CK Free as being for “guys of a certain age who are able to let loose and do what they want before they’re tied down” which makes Jamie an excellent choice.

‘Hot model Jamie is single, he is chronically shy, he is sharp and he is level-headed. So if you’re a normal woman who likes normal men and fancies the one they call the Golden Torso, do track him down.’

But could Jamie remain ‘normal’ and ‘level-headed’ forever? He’d done well to keep his ego in check thus far but with Hollywood calling with some major roles just around the corner, surely it was just a matter of time before his inner diva was unleashed?

‘
Y
ou spend a few years as a model, leaning against walls and looking depressed while someone takes a photo of you, but God forbid you can also act. I’m not saying that I’m a good actor, not for a second. But this idea that there’s no way you can do both – well it’s always going to bother me and it’s something I’m going to fight!’

Although Jamie had indeed put in a tireless battle over the years to achieve a bona fide acting career, with every audition his agent had put him forward for, he had taken another hit to the ego. Jetting to Los Angeles for auditions during pilot season had been one of the most ‘dehumanising’ experiences of his life and despite hundreds of read-throughs for TV and film roles, Jamie didn’t feel he’d benefitted much from the experience. The expert model had instead resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to get any better at undergoing the terrifying process of auditioning in
front of casting directors. ‘I’m still not one of those people who are good at auditions. Even after I got my first acting job, thanks to Sofia, I still went a while without working. If you ever wonder why some actors end up taking shit jobs, it’s because they have to pay the mortgage – or because they just want to work.’

Jamie was desperate to make acting his trade and finally in 2011 he had the massive breakthrough he’d been dreaming of since leaving school at eighteen. He had won a part in a high-profile American TV drama. Some ten years after striding out of his family home in Holywood with a promise to his family that he was going to achieve his childhood ambition of being an actor, glory was his. Jamie had walked into the audition room and impressed immediately. The job was his and the Dornans were both thrilled and relieved for him.

Jamie knew how lucky he was to land such a coveted role, realising he could have followed in the footsteps of thousands of other wannabe actors before him who had spent years playing mediocre parts. He, at least, had scored just a handful of small roles while still gaining worldwide fame as a model, before hitting the big time. ‘Being in LA for pilot season you read some really, really awful stuff. I could have very easily ended up in something rubbish,’ he said. ‘I find it hilarious when actors are like, “Yeah, I just read the script and thought I had to do it.” You just get lucky if you get in something good and then you try to pass it off that it was your plan.

‘You’ll be in some audition room with a casting director for some bad, bad film and you see some quite famous actors’ audition tapes for that same project. Then they’ll end up in
something independent and classy that gets nominated for some award and then they will act like they would never go up for something like that; but they actually did, they just didn’t get it.’

Jamie’s own ‘lucky’ break meant that he could at last put his modelling career behind him – forget it even. ‘I’ve been quietly looking for a way out of it for a while,’ he admitted to a magazine at the time. ‘I’m trying to categorically say that I don’t want my photograph taken any more.’

Jamie was to star in US TV series
Once Upon A Time
, created by the much-lauded writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz of hit shows
Lost
and
Tron: Legacy
. Unlike his history of audition flops, Jamie had instantly impressed the dynamic duo. ‘The minute we saw Jamie, we loved him and thought, “That’s the guy”,’ Kitsis said. ‘He’s very talented.’

He was to play the part of Sheriff Graham in the fairy-tale drama screened on ABC, who would later materalise as the Huntsman from Snow White. Based in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, the show’s plot revolved around its residents who were characters from fairy tales transported to the real world and robbed of their memories by a curse.

Instead of worrying about being typecast as the Calvin Klein model playing the role of the show’s heart-throb sheriff, Jamie excitedly took up the challenge; it was an interesting concept, the script was gripping and the cast was impressive. ‘I got lucky with
Once Upon A Time.
That was the first job I did when I committed to being an actor. Before that it was just something I did now and again and got enjoyment out of it,’ Jamie explained.

Showing once more that he had taken his first steps on the
rung of the celebrity ladder, Jamie joined social networking site Twitter, where he was soon to converse with fellow stars of the show. Just before jetting out to Vancouver in Canada for the start of three months of filming, down-to-earth Jamie tweeted: ‘My last Sunday in London before heading to Vancouver for “Once Upon A Time”. Mixed emotions.’

On arriving on set in the picturesque town of Steveston in nearby Richmond a few days later, though, any pre-filming nerves were quickly allayed after meeting the cast and crew. Famous Brit actor Robert Carlyle, star of blockbusters
Trainspotting
and
The Full Monty
– who played Rumpelstiltskin in the series – quickly became a firm friend. ‘Bobby’s a legend on every level. You know a great actor when it’s all so effortless,’ Jamie said of his newfound friendship with Scottish actor Robert Carlyle. ‘We bonded quickly – a lot of people from Belfast and Glasgow do because they’re similar places.’ The close-knit cast also included Hollywood actress Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White, Jennifer Morrison – famous for her role as Dr Allison Cameron in TV show
House
– as bondswoman Emma Swan and Josh Dallas, who took on the role of Prince Charming. The latter became good friends with Jamie, as the pair tried to outdo each other on collecting ‘followers’ on Twitter. ‘I’m in competition with @joshdallas for number of twitter followers. He’s beating me, which is unfair because I’m a slightly better guy,’ Jamie wrote before jokingly re-tweeting a fan’s reply: ‘He’s a great looking guy but you are so much cuter, just sayin’! @JamieDornan1.’

For Jamie, with no drama school experience to draw on, it was a plunge in the deep end but he was learning quickly on the
job. He had a measured on-screen quality, having honed a style of acting from watching films, in particular Hollywood stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in movie favourites
The Godfather
and its sequel.

Preferring their ‘less is more’ approach, his modelling career had also made him master of the long, lingering look and Jamie’s ‘Dornan Furrow’ was now creeping onto the small screen. ‘I don’t want to be showy. I’m not interested in that and I don’t want to do it,’ he said of his style of acting.

It was a huge learning curve for the handsome clothes horse and Jamie embraced the gritty role, particularly the challenge of flitting between the two sides of his character: that of sheriff and the Huntsman. ‘He’s a bad ass, he’s a pretty mean guy and as it transpires he’s been raised by wolves and has had very little human contact and has very little understanding of humans and only has respect for animals,’ Jamie said of the complex role. ‘The joy of this show for many of us is that we do have two characters to play and that you’re conscious of the other one constantly; when you’re playing one you’re thinking of the other one.’

Co-star Jennifer Morrison was also taken with the show, citing that
Lost
fans would be taken with the plot, which she explained as: ‘Basically, it’s as if every fairy-tale character ever written is real and actually exists, but they’ve been cursed and they don’t know their true identities. They are living in our reality not knowing who they truly are. And because [of that], they’re never going to have their happy ending.’

Jamie also felt true job satisfaction during dramatic scenes opposite Lana Parrilla, who played the town’s mayor Regina and
counterpart the Evil Queen. ‘If you’re a vulnerable character and you’re standing up against something and having your say then that feels pretty amazing. My character is the victim of bullying by the Evil Queen and everyone wants to stand up to their bully. Rarely do you get the opportunity to do that, so I’ve enjoyed those scenes where I’ve got to put her in her place,’ he said.

As if
Once Upon A Time
hadn’t given him enough opportunities already, it also meant the chance of working with a wild animal – a wolf – another plus for his future acting CV. ‘The wolf was amazing to work with although I was little allergic!’ Jamie tweeted. ‘It’s been a real eye opening process, I’ve never worked with a wolf before […] we’ve been quite lucky with him but sometimes he’s hungry and he’s grumpy and he’s bored and he doesn’t want to stay on his mark but don’t we all, we often don’t want to do that, so why should a wild animal!?’ he added in an interview.

Despite fourteen-hour days with regular all-nighters, Jamie was enjoying the three-month shoot in Canada and settling into life of a jobbing actor well. ‘The weather in Vancouver makes Ireland look like Florida,’ Jamie noted on his Twitter page soon after arriving, before admitting a few weeks later, ‘Another cracking day on set of Once Upon A Time with Jen Morrison, Lana Parrilla and a lunchtime set visit from Ginny Goodwin #ilovemyjob.’

A month into the project, Jamie was starting to miss London. He tweeted: ‘Eight hours time difference can be a killer! Need Rugby World Cup to start to take my mind off it. #homesick’.

Exhaustion was also beginning to creep in, as he admitted:
‘Been shooting for 13 hours today on #onceuponatime. Still another scene to do! And same again tomorrow. Exhausted. Employment’s tiring!’

However, all that hard work was worth it. When the series premiered in America in October 2011, it netted ratings of 12 million a week. It also garnered thousands of devoted fans – and not just for the show but for Dornan too. It may have looked initially as though Jamie had been typecast as the show’s eye candy but many were as impressed with his acting skills as his good looks. ‘Thank you all for your kind words! Don’t stop watching #onceuponatime. As I’ve said before ANYTHING can happen in fairytale land! X’ Jamie tweeted as the show was being aired. ‘Made it to over 10,000 followers! Bizarre stuff. I probably know 17 of you. The rest, I thank you, and I’m sure you’re lovely.’

Even copycat versions of the leather jacket he wore in his role of Sheriff were flying off the virtual shelves of online clothing stores. Jamie’s role had been written in for seven episodes and no one was expecting such a backlash when his character was killed off by the Evil Queen, with many of his newfound devotees taking to the internet to complain. ‘I miss him in every episode. Graham/Huntsman was an awesome character. None of the new characters have made up for the void that is having no Jamie!’ one fan wrote on YouTube. ‘Why do the hot guys have to die in this show? Jamie Dornan was my favourite,’ blogger Jessica Standen wrote on a fan forum. Another wrote, ‘Now that magic has been brought to Storybrooke they have to find a way to bring Graham back. I mean these are the writers of LOST we are
talking about. They do whatever the f*** they want and I want this pretty man back on my TV every week!’

‘I really do like that show on ABC #onceuponatime but I just feel that there was something missing in the last episode,’ Jamie teased on his Twitter page as the eighth episode of the series was aired.

‘By the way, I AM still in Once Upon a Time. I’m now @Jared_Gilmore (Henry)’s body double. I do all his stunts. Honestly,’ he added as his fans started to complain of his absence.

Jamie had become a household name and a stream of press followed, with magazines and newspapers clamouring for one-on-one interviews to which Jamie occasionally agreed. ‘Model-turned-actor Jamie, 29, is starring alongside Robert Carlyle in US fantasy drama
Once Upon A Time
. So we cosied up in bed (where else?) with the hot Northern Irish lad,’ an interview with
The Sun
newspaper proclaimed.

‘Love from the fans is flattering. That’s what makes the show. They are so essential to everything involved with
Once Upon a Time
,’ Jamie said. ‘If I have them on my side, that only can be a good thing. I’m not going to take all the credit; Graham’s a well-written and interesting character. The reaction to Graham’s death … I’m pleased that people are so concerned, but I don’t think we need to be calling the FBI or anything.’ In fact, fans’ concerns over Jamie’s untimely death in the hit series had now taken a bizarre and sinister turn, and the executive producers and show writers Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis had even started to receive hate mail and death threats for writing him out. ‘I think death is a big deal, obviously. Killing off a main character is something we did
with Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan), and I still get death threats about that,’ Kitsis revealed. ‘I think people can be pretty hairy from what those boys tell me [Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis] I don’t want to induce any sort of hatred or anything and I don’t want those guys to be massively under fire from, you know, crazy fans because of what they did. But it wasn’t solely their choice. But I guess, I should essentially take it as a compliment that people care that much. A bit of hate mail’s OK, but the death threats – that’s too much,’ Jamie said of his fans’ extreme behaviour.

Jamie was a hit and the producers, not wishing to ignore the public outcry over the sheriff’s demise, wrote him back into a series of flashback scenes. His first reappearance on the show would be the following year in the season finale episode ‘A Land without Magic’. ‘Hope everyone in the states watches the season finale of ‘Once upon a Time’ tonight. It’s a goodie,’ Jamie wrote to his Twitter followers as he made his return to the show.

The show was so popular that UK broadcaster Channel 5 had bought the series and a month earlier had premiered
Once Upon A Time
to a healthy audience of 2 million.

Success on home turf was important to Jamie and the show’s writers again admitted how important he was to the cast, promising that he would be kept on the roster as a guest star for as long as Jamie wanted. It was an enviable position for any actor to be in. ‘I would say there is definitely a chance of his coming back,’ Kitsis confessed soon after Jamie’s one-off return to the show in 2012. ‘He may be dead in the present, but he’s alive in flashbacks, and we would love to see him back all schedules permitting.’