The Los Angeles Times does this series called “The Emmy Contenders” where they sit down with possible Emmy contenders and they basically do an in-depth discussion/interview about the work. Very little personal information, very few questions about anything other than the possible Emmy contender show. Jamie Dornan sat down with the LAT to discuss his work on The Fall. Most of the interview is boring (seriously, I watched about five minutes yesterday and it was like watching paint dry), but Jamie did reveal one disturbing detail about how he prepared to play a serial killer on The Fall. His preparation? He stalked a woman in real life.
Jamie Dornan, who plays stealthy serial killer on the Netflix crime drama “The Fall,” took extra (maybe, borderline illegal) steps in getting into the mindset of the tortured persona. The 32-year-old Irish actor dropped by the Times on Monday for a live chat, and he found himself reluctantly revealing a tactic he used to better understand Paul Spector, the husband and father who moonlights as a psychopath serial killer with a fetish for tying up his victims before killing them.
“The first series, I did do a couple of things to try to get inside [his mind]. On the tube, which is our underground system” — Dornan began with his anecdote before stopping himself. “Can we get arrested for this? Hold on … this is a really bad reveal: I, like, followed a woman off the train one day to see what it felt like to pursue someone like that.”
Dornan said he kept his distance from his target, and once she reached her stop, lurked behind her for a couple of blocks. And the resulting feeling was one that helped understand Spector’s compulsion on some level.
“It felt kind of exciting, in a really sort of dirty way,” he added. “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?”
This bugs me. I think Jamie knew that this anecdote doesn’t make him sound good too. I guess we can say “well, at least he felt shame” or “at least he knew it was wrong” but it still bugs me. Imagine it’s not Jamie Dornan, imagine it’s just some guy. Some guy is staring at you on the subway and then he gets off at the same stop and he follows you for several blocks. It’s extremely creepy, regardless of his “motive.”
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Uh… VOM?! That is the only comment here really
Yes. It is. Revolting.
That is just beyond creepy and scary.
There is so much NO in his comments.
Friggin creepy as hell. He truly is into method acting which if true he needs to have sexy sex before doing the FSOG sequel. He was horrible in FSOG. Very flat and sexy. However, I love him in The Fall but his character does really interact with other characters. Great performance is series 1.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Let’s not get quite so melodramatic. He followed some woman a few blocks off an underground to see what it felt like. Then lingered a few minutes. Please, people. It’s hardly the end of the world. Half the heartbroken high schoolers in the world have done worse.
That really depends where she got off, busy street she probably didn’t notice, otherwise she may well have been extremely freaked out if she’d clocked him. Having had a stalker I’m very wary if I think I’m being watched, sadly a large number of women have had this experience and would not take it lightly if they realised they were being followed.
He also said that doing something that is inherent,y designed to intimidate a woman made him feel excited, whatever way you slice it, that is pretty f’ed up.
Motives matter. This guy is not a psychopathic killer who was stalking a woman while thinking about doing awful things to her when he got her alone in a dark alley. True that she didn’t know that – (and here’s where people will get all PO’d) – but he’s not responsible for her assumptions about him. He IS responsible for changing his actions if she informs him that it bothers her.
What if he just happened to be going in the same direction she was?? What if it was during a winter storm and he also happened to be wearing a ski mask? What if he had on a long, black trench coat? Oh no – what if it was a hoodie!? I mean – is he supposed to feel guilty just for being behind her?
He was an actor following a woman to see what it felt like to follow her. I think, actually, based on the way he talks about this, he would have been deeply apologetic and downright affected if he found out that the woman discovered him and was disturbed about it. Intentions matter… character matters, motives matter.
mytbean,
So if you’re being followed by a stranger and you think he might be dangerous, you would confront him by saying “Mr. Potential Serial Murderer, could you please stop following me?” Yeah, no… It doesn’t work that way in real life.
I don’t care what his intentions were. The woman had a right to privacy, and he deliberately ignored that in order to sate his own weird curiosity. It was selfish and insensitive, and that’s a pretty good indication that he’s lacking in moral character.
This in light of some of his other “comments,” I just don’t like the guy. I don’t think he has a good character.
Based on the headline I thought he was practicing his stalking for his role in 50 shades of Grey
50 shades of yuck…
Poor girl if she noticed him stalking her. It could have terrified her. Jerk.
Him finding it exciting is even worse.
Oooh boy… how long until he issues a statement of some sort trying to “clarify” what he was doing? This just sounds so wrong and beyond creepy.
what an unfortunate and poorly thought out statement this was
What an idiot. Yeah, I’m sure the woman felt the same way.
Screw you and your shitty franchise.
More like what an unfortunate and poorly thought out behavour this was. The statement at least reveals what a creep he is.
Guess the Christian Grey role was perfect for him, not sure why he, according to some people, sucked at playing the part.
But women will probably continue to fawn over him and find excuses why his behaviour wasn’t a problem. I mean, it’s for the sake of art, right?
Creepy. Really gross.
Hold up!! So, he was disgusted by people that partook of the BDSM lifestyle ( which involves consent and a lot of trust building between willing adults) and thought that was degrading to women and it bothered him so much that he spent the entire promotion of that movie talking about how some of the scenes were so uncomfortable for him. But he’s totes cool with stalking women in real life and had the audacity to publicly admit he thought it was exciting?
I hope they don’t give him an nomination, this is just going to encourage more creepy behavior all in the name of art or improving one’s craft. It’s amazing the sort of behavior people let artists get away with all because they are artists or for art.
YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!
I’m shocked (well, I guess not really) that he thought this would be something that would be great to share with the class….
he seems to think that his work in The Fall was so amazing and that it is so far above FSOG when in reality he played the same part in both. Every time he opens his mouth he comes across as pretentious, arrogant and dismissive. Interesting that nobody EVER mentions that dreadful New Worlds mini he did after the first season of The Fall – he’s like a block of wood in every thing he does.
Well that’s repulsive.
Nice of his publicist to get him a slot in the interview series but sorry, you’re no Elba or Cumberbatch man. Emmy voters would have to be dumber than usual to go for this.
This guy seems to be an example of actors who should only speak if they have a script. Creepy is not a strong enough word to use for this. And sadder still that he does not seem to understand just how creepy it is.
I guess he was just being method. It’s creepy but at least he didn’t break into a house.
She should thank him that a celebrity stalked her. Hey at least he didn’t rape her, right?
I was being facetious. You’re right at least he didn’t do that.
He should never do interviews.
Sigh. I have zero love for Jamie D. and yes, this is creepy behavior so I can’t believe I’m going to defend him but you can’t really look at it out of context. This woman he followed wasn’t impacted in any way – doesn’t even know it was her – and it gave him the basis for the role for which he’d got a nomination.
Following a woman in real life = actionable creepiness. Following a woman for a role, admitting it gave him insight, and leaving it at that = why, that little creep!
How exactly is doing it for his job any less creepy than if he was just doing it for sh*ts and giggles? Just because the woman doesn’t know she was violated doesn’t make the violation less serious. So, it’s okay to do shady things to other human beings as long as they don’t know, it’s for your job, and you’re getting nominated for it? Okay. Sure…
Agreed. And we don’t even know if the woman “wasn’t impacted in any way”. Jamie can’t know for sure if she did realize she was followed and if she was frightened.
If he can’t act without potentially hurting other people than maybe he should try to find another job.
Roles will probably be pretty limited if he can only play what he experienced himself.
WTF?
So it’s okay to stalk as long as the woman doesn’t notice it?
I can’t believe this guy thinks he can act and deserves an award.
Uh no, following a woman for any reason without alerting her to it before hand is unacceptable. What if that poor woman did notice? She deserved to feel uncomfortable so Jamie could figure out how to act? If she didn’t notice she didn’t deserve to be followed without consideration just for his frivolous little acting career.
She could have been flat out terrified. She could be a victim of stalking, in witness protection, hiding for her life from an abusive dangerous ex. He has no idea what effect his actions had on her. He’s lucky she didn’t turn around and mace him, or worse shoot him.
You absolutely no idea if or how it effected the woman. She may well have been acutely aware she was being watched and followed. I would likely have noticed because thanks to a creepy perv that stalked me for over a year I have become very aware of being watched and always on guard for it.
I didn’t know initially that I was being watched, he’d already been at it for some time by the time I found out. Did that make what he did during those months OK because I wasn’t aware of it?
The whole ‘getting into the mind of’ thing is bullshit anyway, it’s called ACTING you don’t have to do the things your character does.
This is very creepy but at least he knows it.
Yeah… I don’t think his self-awareness makes this any better. Women feel victimized and vulnerable enough as it is, especially in crowded cities and when they use public transportation.
Here’s why it was dangerous, despite his benign intentions: even if he was completely undetected, there was still a chance that this woman could have noticed him. What if she was a rape victim? What if she had a restraining order against an abusive ex? What if she, as a woman, simply had a longtime fear of being followed? He could have triggered some awful feelings and put her on guard for years to come.
Agreed
Especially as he is aware that it was wrong but he still doesn’t seem to be too apologetic about it.
-“I’m SORT OF not proud of myself.”
-It felt “exciting”
and
-It was “It was intriguing and interesting”.
Imho those are not the words of a man who truly realized that was he did was wrong.
It sounds more like he still thinks it was worth it “for the sake of art” and he only tries to play it down because he knows the audience might perceive it poorly.
I just feel like women already face so much crap in terms of public transport creeps, cat calling and sexual assault on a daily basis that it’s really thoughtless to do something like this and then tell it as a funny anecdote – regardless of how method he was being at the time. It trivialises the fact that a good portion of the female population have been followed off or made to feel uncomfortable on public transport – myself included more than once here – and even though he’s saying it was wrong, he still did it and contributed to the culture. Hope she didn’t notice and feel freaked out, but then again I hope she did – having your wits about you as a woman in a city (or anywhere really) is (sadly) really important.
I just don’t get this guy’s appeal, at all. He looks like a less likable and goofy Ashton Kutcher, and his acting is abysmal. Just watched 3 episodes of The Fall, all he does is well… nothing. He cannot do “normal” emotions when with wife and kids, nor does he sell messed up ones.
I think he’s pretty good as Paul. He’s supposed to emotionally suppressed because he’s a sociopath. I think he does love his family, because he’s so desperate to have one, but his impulses get in the way.
Well… I think that a serial killer is not always an obvious sociopath. From what I hear, Ted Bundy was a charming relatable sweetheart on the outside. I don’t know if Paul’s aloofness was set in stone by writers or his choice, but in either case, it doesn’t strike me as a challenging acting job, to walk around stone faced most of the time. It is possible this is the best way to portray this specific character, but it is not the way that would make me admire his acting skills.
I mean, compare him to Sherlock, another sociopath. Very much emotionally suppressed as well, but what a world of difference in overall impression. Yes, I realize that Sherlock is a protagonist and all, but hey, there are ways to even make villains a little sympathetic, he has a lot to work with, unlike Sherlock, he actually has adorable kids.
Yeah, the thing about sociopaths though is they don’t act like that. One of the criteria for psychopathy is superficial charm. They tend to be fast talkers, fairly outgoing, and generally just fun to be around (until they take all your money). Paul Specter, on the other hand, came off as either boring or painfully awkward.
@Timbuktu @marshmellow Good points! He is pretty glib and manipulative, though. I actually like the character quite a bit, because you see how conflicted he is by his double life. Even if JD isn’t the most emotive guy, I still think that comes through.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Rollercoaster, Paul Specter kind of reminds me of the guy on the phone with George Segal’s character. Monotone all the time.
…and just like that I’m off him.
I realize that’s the point but there’s still something possessive and claiming ownership about his actions. The needs and concerns of that woman didn’t matter to him just so he could get the experience for his acting. Not cool. Not so far from treating her like the nameless faceless meat women get treated like everyday.
Hopefully his next film role requires him to study punching himself in the face … Really hard
LOL
Or that Gillian Anderson gets to do it in The Fall.
LOLOL!
why would we have to imagine another guy and not Jamie? there is no difference there.
because we let Rob Lowe and John Stamos get away with their treatment of women and creepyness?
being handsome does not exclude men from being horrible, its time more people, especially young women, start to realize that.
This actually reminds me of an episode from Law and Order: CI wherein a method actor who landed a tole of a serial killer begab stalking woman and actually killing them. He should have kept this to himself. Maybe he will say that it was an April Fool’s joke.
I completely forget today was April Fool’s. Now I need to check all the stories on CB again and see if they managed to fool me.
I bet it was an exhilarating experience for that woman, too!
That is incredibly creepy. Can’t he just, I don’t know, try to IMAGINE what it would be like to do that? Isn’t that what actors do? Or if he really wanted to play it out, ask his wife or a friend if he can practice stalking them. Not some poor woman who had no chance to say no.
So I just started watching the Fall. I love Gillian Anderson and she’s great in it, but I’m not sure how much I want to keep watching. I’m 4 or 5 episodes in, and so far it’s all just women getting killed in horrible ways. I wish it was more subtle, and didn’t show so much of the actual crimes, it’s disturbing. Does it get better? Should I keep watching?
Also, I don’t find him at all attractive, I know when FSOG came out many said he was better looking in the Fall, but I’m not seeing it. And these interviews aren’t helping.
I wonder if at any point, the woman was like, “Dude, it’s Jamie Dornan!” and was less creeped out? It doesn’t sound like it; but it would be kind of funny if she identified him. Trying to think of how I’d feel being followed around by him.
Keep watching! It is pretty brutal, but it’s well written, and the turns that the story takes will surprise you. Stella is fantastic. There are even a few dryly funny moments in the second season.
I completely skipped series 1 and fast forwarded through gritty scenes in series 2, which thankfully, there weren’t too many of. Even without having watched series 1, it was a really interesting watch. I say keep at it and if the violent scenes bother you, just fast forward, it’s not as if you’ll be lost or confused.
OK thanks. I was watching it while I was doing other stuff so I didn’t fast forward the gruesome scenes, but I think I’ll try that from now on. That kind of stuff usually doesn’t bother me, but it is on this one for some reason.
OK bye bye whatever residual Once Upon A Time good feelings I had him (but mostly he had really great actors to work with and didn’t have to do a whole lot of work).
I don’t like this guy. Gut feeling.
I don’t know what to think about this. It’s pretty weird. I watched four of the episodes of series 2 of “The Fall,” just for Colin Morgan, because…dayum, Colin Morgan, and I don’t know, I think Jamie is pretty good in it, because his character is so creepy. But if he’s just a creep in real life, I guess there’s not much acting involved at all?
Moral of the story is…Colin Morgan.
Jaime, seriously. Never speak again unless there’s a script in front of your face.
and right on schedule here comes the pap walk. pics of JD and his wife out and about in London today looking oh so happy. Funny how these appear every time he’s done/said something stupid or been seen in any other light other than a truly devoted family man.
Wow, how totally method of him.
Classless, creepy jerk.
Longtime reader, first time commenter. Jamie Dornan needs to stop speaking. Everything he says comes off as condescending and pretentious and rather masogonistic. And I used to sort of like him until I realized he is probably just playing variations of himself. I watched both seasons of The Fall and he seriously has the same expression in every episode: male model stare mixed with aloofness. He just looks into the distance like in a fashion ad. Not trying to be mean, but maybe he should take an acting class? Also, this story is terrible and so reflective of male privilege. It doesn’t matter if the woman knew she was being stalked or what his intentions were. The action is wrong but he doesn’t seem to have considered this woman’s feelings, even now with time to reflect. While promoting the Fall he said something while Gillian Anderson was speaking in regard to the victims like: these women aren’t strippers. I’m paraphrasing but the implied judgement was evident. Sorry so long but quickly: I haven’t read 50 Shades but it’s like, Buddy, you cashed the check so stop complaining. Also, enough with his “I’m a father and a husband.” We get it. So are a lot of actors. It’s pretend. Ok. Rant over.
I’m about to sell out all of my feminist principles….. Jamie D doesn’t do anything for me. But if say Michael Ealy or Joseph Gordon Levitt stalked me in the train, I would be totally cool with it….
Yeah, but when Jamie does it, it’s creepy.
No you wouldn’t. If they smiled at you, struck up a conversation or you know normal human interactio, you’d love it but you’d be amazed just how quickly an attractive man becomes gross when you realise he’s a creeper. Nobody has ever enjoyed being stalked.
Dear Lego Colin Firth,
Women have the right not to be followed whether you’re doing it for a role or not. The fact that you think you can subject a woman to stalking as long as it’s for your own benefit says a lot about you.
This is why I carry a taser. Not cool or funny, even as “research” for a role.