Jamie Dornan has been taking method acting to a whole new level. The 41-year-old actor, best known for his roles in the Fifty Shades franchise and Oscar-winning Belfast, once admitted to having “stalked” women on the London underground in preparation for his starring role in the TV show thriller The Fall.
Dornan, who played a sadistic serial killer and stalker in the series, revealed in an interview with the LA Times in 2015 that, in preparation for the role, he “followed a woman off the train one day to see what it felt like to pursue someone like that.”
The actor continued to state that he kept his distance from his target, and once she reached her stop, lurked behind her for a couple of blocks. The resulting feeling helped Dornan understand his character’s compulsion on some level.
“It felt kind of exciting, in a really sort of dirty way. I’m sort of not proud of myself. But I do honestly think I learned something from it because I’ve obviously never done any of that. It was intriguing and interesting to enter that process of ‘what are you following her for?’ and ‘what are you trying to find out?” Dornan continued.
The Fall, which also starred Sex Education’s Gillian Anderson, was filmed and set in Northern Ireland and received positive reviews from critics and the public. On Rotten Tomatoes, 95 per cent of 20 critic reviews were positive for the series one. Its consensus was: “Less sensationalistic and more provocative than most police procedurals, The Fall is unapologetically sexy with pressure-building tension driven by plausible characters and motifs.”
While method acting is nothing new, I think going as far as to stalk someone through the streets of London might be taking it slightly too far Jamie babes.
Dornan is currently starring in a new drama thriller series The Tourist, with the second season having just dropped on the BBC.