‘Belfast’, the film with which Jamie Dornan wants to say goodbye to Christian Gray

Jamie Dornan’s new movie, an Irish story of the passage from childhood to adulthood, It is named after the Northern Irish city where Dornan spent the first nineteen years of his life.

Based on the childhood experiences of the writer and director Kenneth Branagh, the film narrates the story of Buddy (Jude Hill), a 9-year-old boy, his beloved father (Dornan) and his protective mother (Caitriona Balfe), who ask if they should stay in Belfast after a conflict erupts in his neighborhood over sectarian violence.

Belfast it’s shot in black and white, directed by a five-time Oscar-nominated man and starring Judi Dench as Dornan’s mother; in other words, it’s a far cry from the “Fifty Shades of Gray” franchise, the trilogy that launched Dornan years ago to fame.

Since its screening at the Telluride Film Festival in late August this year, The film received such positive reactions and criticism that many experts considered it one of the main candidates to win the category of best film at the Oscar award. a hypothesis that was partially fulfilled with those recently announced Golden Globes nominations. Belfast is nominated for best picture and Dornan for best supporting actor.

Dornan’s eyes are such a dark blue that they appear to be all pupils, giving his on-screen gaze an otherworldly look that his most notable roles make the most of. Belfast make the most of his ethereal gaze: When Pa’s family is threatened, Dornan’s eyes widen, hurt, and then harden into a stare.

“I believe that his presence on the screen is truly capable of conveying danger, both concern about his potential closenessas well as his personal ability to produce it, ”Branagh wrote in an email.

Every time young Buddy looks at his father, it is as if he is gazing at the sun itself, and Branagh leans on that hero worship, filming Dornan in black and white as a literal big screen idol who sings Everlasting Love in the central scene of the film. Although Pa is based on Branagh’s father, Dornan has imbued him with the characteristics of his own father, a man whom he also adored growing up.

The actor left Belfast just as he was about to turn 20, three years after her mother died of pancreatic cancer. Had passed that in between aimlessly and drinking too much until his worried older sister enrolled him in a modeling reality show, which sounds logical.

He didn’t win the show but, after moving to London, He still rose rapidly through the male modeling ladder, that is, he posed with Kate Moss, dated Keira Knightley, and was nicknamed “The Golden Torso.” by this same newspaper. Before that 2006 photoshoot for The New York TimesRemember being out all night “I would like to say that I have matured since then, but I’m not sure I have”he commented.

Dornan had always wanted to act, but was afraid to start worrying, so he stuck with modeling until it started to set. “I do not think that being there taking photos is so interesting as to do it for several decades”added. “If it satisfies you, and you can honestly lie in bed saying, ‘I feel great about what I’m doing,’ then great. But I wasn’t ”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Qdbbo0Tlw

Once he moved on to acting and began to worry about his career, things got tough. Her first audition was to play an earl who catches the eye of Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette (2006), and he got the role right away. “I was very lucky to start at that level; then I hardly worked for eight years “Dornan said. “It was that weird thing about them showing you the carrot, and then they take it away, and they even take the crumbs away, and you say, ‘Oh God, wasn’t there a carrot here a minute ago?'”

He was looking for a project that would stick for a long time, and even when he landed a series regular role as the handsome bailiff on the fantasy series ABC, once upon a time, it was abruptly eliminated after nine episodes. But it was then that he met Warner, whom he credits with having been a stabilizing influence on his life and career. And not long after getting married, Dornan landed his assassin role in The hunt, a job that put him on the radar of Hollywood casting executives looking for the right man to play a handsome sadist.

Did playing Christian Gray provide you with at least a degree of security in your career? “No,” said Dornan, “because of the unique package that featured Fifty Shades of being a highly maligned project, since the books were what they were: how loved they were by the fan community and how harsh they were criticized. That is unique in itself ”.

You are trying and have been for a while (even before The hunt, auditioned for Superman, a role he lost to Henry Cavill). Landing a superhero role now would offer him a chance to return to the movie franchises not as a desperate newcomer for a foothold, but as an established actor who has shown what he can do. And he knows that this narrow path exists because Robert Pattinson has managed to travel it, going from being the heartthrob of Twilight to an independent film star with such panache that he took another turn and used his newfound credibility to land the title role in The Batman Next year.

Dornan is honest about the movies he covets, and has met with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige to put on his cape and tights.. “I am more ambitious than I have ever hinted at,” said Dornan. Part of it is becoming a parent. “It’s like a need to deliver and provide, very caveman: I have to triumph for these precious little people. Also, since my father died, an extra fire has kindled inside me, an extra spark of wanting to be successful. “

That desire is not to win the love you never had. “Dad would tell me that countless times every day of my life, so I’m not looking for that,” Dornan said. “But for some reason, since he’s gone, I have a weird thing about wanting to prove something to myself, to demonstrate some kind of succession that is impressive.”. And now that he’s channeled his own father, shouldn’t other heroes be on the table?