It wasn't just the once off neither. They regularly get hammered in each others company.

Dornan has reportedly been booze buddies with Pattinson for a number of years, but he's unsure whether seeing the global fame his pal experienced after starring as Edward Cullen in the Twilight Saga will 'benefit' him once Fifty Shades of Grey comes out and catapults him into the stratosphere.

He said: "I've been around Rob long enough to see what it's been like for him. I don't know if it's been a benefit to witness that. Whatever that is. By the way, it's not the same thing. We're not the Twilight franchise. We're a different thing. Whatever my situation is, it's going to be different from Rob's. They are incomparable... I don't remember what we talked about the last time I saw him. I think we just got drunk.'

The 32-year-old - who has a 14-month-old daughter with wife Amelia Warner - admits he is astonished by how many people have warned him life will change when the long-awaited raunchy movie finally hits cinema screens but he is ready to accept whatever comes his way.

He added in an interview with the new issue of Variety: "I'm astonished at how many people are telling me my life is going to change. Everyone that I meet, especially in LA. People who run studios or other actors or people who are strangers. Everyone has been saying that to me, 'Are you ready?' I don't have a good answer to that, because I don't know what I'm meant to be ready for. Whatever happens, happens. I'll just roll with the punches."

While trying not to get murdered on the red carpet...