Jamie Dornan: BDSM Community Angry At Recent Interview, Remarks Compared To Homophobia

Jamie Dornan is ruffling some feathers in the BDSM community after seemingly dissing their lifestyle while doing research for his role in Fifty Shades of Grey.

The actor recently opened up about his research for the role, in which he plays the rich and eccentric Christian Grey. In a recent interview with Elle magazine, Dornan said he boned up for the part by taking a look at the lifestyle his character leads.

Dornan paid a visit to a sex dungeon, where he saw that BDSM lifestyle in action.

“I saw a dominant with one of his two submissives,” Dornan told Elle. “It was an interesting evening. Then going back to my wife and newborn baby afterwards … I had a long shower before touching either one of them.”

Those comments didn’t sit well with the BDSM community, who criticized Jamie Dornan for apparently marginalizing their lifestyle.

“Hahahah, how hilarious!” wrote blogger TheMarySue. “Sexual preferences that deviate from the norm are repulsive, even when all parties involved are consenting! Unless, of course, you can exploit and chronically misrepresent those preferences in a highly problematic film, in which case deviancy is hot, hot, hot!”

Others even compared his remarks to homophobia.

“To me it’s the equivalent of making a movie about gay people and making homophobic remarks,” Rumpus-founder and author Stephen Elliott told International Business Times. “For some people, BDSM is an orientation. Fifty Shades of Grey is based on people who exist. To make a movie based on those people and then call their desires disgusting, I feel like anyone with kinky desires should boycott this film.”

This is not the first time that Jamie Dornan has expressed a bit of unease about his Fifty Shades of Grey role. Though he once played a sadistic serial killer on BBC’s The Fall, Dornan told The Guardian that it was his role as Christian Grey that made him the most uncomfortable.

“There are a couple of classic knots I know now, and I’ve put them to good use far too many times recently. In fact I’d like to do a job where I don’t have to tie women to beds,” he said.

Jamie Dornan will have at least a bit more time to feel uneasy about his role as Christian Grey. Fifty Shades of Grey is set for release in February, so he will be making the publicity circuit very soon.