Jamie Dornan reveals why he ‘shut off from world’ after ‘Fifty Shades’

Jamie Dornan details about his disappearance following the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey this week when appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

When the first Fifty Shades movie was released in 2015, it received negative reviews. The film currently has a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and director Sam Taylor-Johnson was nominated for worst director at the Razzie Awards that year.

Before the movie’s premiere, Dornan had garnered positive reviews from critics, especially for his portrayal of a serial killer in The Fall.

“[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,” Dornan said.

“I think I hid,” he said. “[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.”

Despite receiving negative reviews, Fifty Shades of Grey went on to become a box office hit and set the stage for the two sequels in the franchise, for which Dornan was required to reprise her role.

“It made so much money so like, films two and three were greenlit overnight,” the actor said. “It was a strange thing 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.”

Nevertheless, Dornan doesn’t regret the films: “I’ve just had very glowing reviews for recent work. 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,’” he said. “Regret that I did them? No.”