Jamie Dornan: How Mr. Grey Got His Role Back
Jamie Dornan is back as Mr. Grey. In fact, he was caught having a steamy kiss with co-star Dakota Johnson. As it turns out, however, the two were just back on the film set, or so People later clarifies in its article with a spoiler alert. So it’s back-to-work for the dynamic duo, this time to complete the sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades of Darker.
Jamie Dornan has a wonderful chemistry with Dakota Johnson, thus wrote Emily Longeretta in Hollywood Life. This is definitely one of the reasons why he has been able to reprise the role of Mr. Grey or Christian. Back when he was still taking the rounds to promote Fifty Shades of Grey, he wasn’t even sure he would get the role back, a trepidation that many of the couple’s fans shared at that time. However, with the movie grossing well over $500 million worldwide, as per Box Office Mojo, it only makes sense that the flick’s producers may not want to make any major casting change. As they say, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Definitely, it took more than the luck of the Irish to achieve such a feat. Dornan is one of many Ireland-born actors who have been able to make a name for themselves in Hollywood. The biggest driver of the film’s success is the novel from which the former was adapted. The second factor is most likely the combined total of all publicity stunts pulled to attract moviegoers, with screen chemistry between Dornan and Johnson being the close third. The fourth factor is most likely Dornan’s acting background or record, which convinced those responsible that he was the best man for the job.
It is kind of an actor’s previous audience following him onto his next film venture. For example, Hayden Christensen was probably chosen to play Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars because of his performance in Life as a House, although there would have been other reasons. Christensen, though, failed miserably in his Darth Vader role. However, it is easy to forgive him because the script he was given was bad. Even a tried-and-tested actress like Natalie Portman could not manage to rise from the ashes of simply bad movie dialogue. Dornan, for his part in the Fifty Shades trilogy, made it to the recent Razzie Awards as Worst Actor of the Year alongside Johnson, writes Huffpost Entertainment.
Jamie probably saw it coming. If he could choose to accept a mint role like Paul Spector in The Fall, there was probably no doubt in his mind that he would never be nominated for an Oscar for playing the dominant character of Christian. The bottom line is, sometimes actors will accept a project because of the hunch that it will become a huge box office hit, rather than take one which advances their acting mileage. Oh well, that’s why there’s free will, even in Hollywood; so get over it.
It is all part of growing up as an actor. Besides, there is always the opportunity to redeem oneself, like Richard Gere vis-à-vis his role in Pretty Woman. Sarah Bull writes in Mail Online how Gere considers the flick as his least favorite. Which leads one to wonder, will Jamie Dornan, decades from now, have any regrets about Fifty Shades of Grey? Or will he, like the wise man, learn to forego the what-ifs in life.
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[Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images]
