It was undoubtedly a role that changed the trajectory of his career, but Jamie Dornan may have regretted - even temporarily - taking on the role of Christian Grey.
Dornan, as you may recall, stepped into the role in the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' franchise after the original actor Charlie Hunnam dropped out - but in a new interview on Desert Island Discs, the Northern Irish actor said that he and his family went into the hiding after the film was released in 2015.
The Sam Taylor-Johnson-directed adaptation of E.L. James's novel was roundly panned by critics - and Taylor-Johnson even won a Razzie for her work on the film, which nevertheless was a huge box office success.
Considering Dornan had gone into the franchise as a respected actor following the success of TV series 'The Fall', the negative attention proved surprising.
"[I was] coming off the back of career-altering reviews for The Fall, and BAFTA nominations, and all the madness The Fall brought to ridicule," he said. "I think I hid. [My family] went down to Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s place. They weren’t there; they let us have their place in the country, and we sort of hid there for a while and shut ourselves off from the world a bit."
Dornan revealed that he was contractually obliged to appear in any potential sequels, and "It made so much money so like, films two and three were greenlit overnight. It was a strange thing," he said, "because there’s a bit of ridicule here - and I’m now contracted to do two more, knowing that there will be much more damnation to come."
However, he did say that he doesn't hold any negativity towards the three films, despite finding it hard to shake them over the years. "I've just had very glowing reviews for recent work," he said. "And there won’t be any that don’t mention 'Fifty Shades' in them … A lot of reviews are like: ‘He’s great, but lest we forget when he wasn’t great here. Regret that I did them? No."
