On its opening weekend, Fifty Shades of Grey made $81.7 million domestically. On its second weekend in theaters, the film dropped considerably… and yet it was still the #1 movie in America (and in many different countries). Fifty Shades made $23.2 million last weekend, a significant 73% drop in ticket sales. The drop was attributed to the fact that it was Oscar weekend and the fact that the East Coast was hit by another snowstorm. Still, the film is still doing really well overseas. Domestically, it’s made $130 million and internationally, it’s made $280 million. It’s a crazy-huge hit and the sequel will inevitably be made.
But as we discussed over the weekend, the sequel is already in major flux. The studio gave too much power to E.L. James, and Sam Taylor Johnson apparently wants out – Sam does not want to deal with E.L.’s crap for another film. And E.L. apparently wants to write the script for Fifty Shades Darker too, which… if it happens, will be an utter trainwreck. And now there are rumors that Jamie Dornan doesn’t even want to play Christian Grey again because… his wife has a problem with it? We’ve heard that before, haven’t we?
Will Jamie Dornan be coming back to play S&M businessman Christian Grey for two more films? Apparently not, according to some reports. Australian magazine NW claims to have the inside track on Dornan supposedly quitting the burgeoning franchise, which has broken all manner of box office records.
Seemingly the bad reviews and involved sex scenes – he’s married to actress Amelia Warner and has a 15-month-old daughter – may be giving the 32-year-old actor cold feet. The magazine quotes an ‘insider’ as saying: “Jamie said the movie would skyrocket his career. He tried to assure Amelia nothing would change but women all over the world now lust after Jamie. She hasn’t seen the film and I don’t think she will, to be honest. Jamie does not think his performance was bad – instead he blames Dakota and says it wasn’t possible to have chemistry with her. He says Dakota gave him nothing to work with.”
These are just rumours at the moment, with no confirmation from Dornan or Universal, but with many putting the fact that the movie wasn’t a total disaster down to Taylor-Johnson and scriptwriter Kelly Marcel’s efforts with the source material, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
The original source for this story is an unreliable Aussie tabloid, and while I might be willing to believe that Jamie doesn’t really want to do a sequel, that doesn’t change the fact that he has a contract. It was my understanding that both Jamie and Dakota are contractually obligated for two sequels, and if Jamie wants out, it will cost him. Big time. As in, his career would never recover. As for Jamie blaming Dakota for his bad performance… well, they seemed to have zero chemistry in general, but Dakota actually got good reviews and Jamie didn’t. Maybe he should just eat it and do the sequel and try to prove that he actually can act his way out of a paper bag.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
anyone who would blame whatever bad thing the movie has going on to dakota has some serious bull going on, she’s so plain and has no personality (it was cringe worthy to see her on the red carpet at the oscars!) but somehow she manages to be a decent-to-good actress and was in fact the only good thing in the movie imo. she’s making me watch a canceled show too (ben and kate) and she is so charming in it!
Considering the material, I thought she did great. He was a freaking robot.
To blame your costar is such a sign of weakness.
And yeah we saw his ass but she was naked the whole time. I’m not saying it makes her a great actress but I think it takes some big ovaries to do that for so much of a movie.
I wonder what convinced her. She seems like a shy and prudish girl. And I’m sure she didn’t do it for the money.
agree! jamie is such a robot in it. they might both cant stand each other, but dakota seems much more open to the idea of being friendly to one another. she at least created some sort of character out of nowhere and was in for the game (lip-biting!)
She can’t be that shy, she’s the product of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith! She also made David Letterman squirm which was pretty cute to watch.
If he is going to be such a stick in the mud then good riddance. It’s tripe, we know.
Women went in droves to see it and now the guy that was called “The Torso” and posed naked in Abercrombie ads doesn’t like the attention he’s getting from women? Oh suck it up!
Dakota is not your usual suck up starlet, she simply wants to work without having to do the “Hollywood” thing since she has lived it through her parents and saw the destructive results. And the role Anastasia is bland, she played her as she was written, all other character descriptions were in the characters head and very hard to be seen on film
Blaming the co-star is awful and he knew where he was getting into.
Well the “source” is known to be unreliable so he’s not blaming anyone.
I’ve read like the first 50 pages of the book and I’ll never watch the film but off topic: Dakota has the worst haircut ever. Dull color, sloppy bangs, wrong length.
I thought her hair with bangs was a wig for the movie, to give her that whole dishevelled-poor-hardware-working-girl-who’s-still-to-find-her-sexuality.
But there it is! Horrbile. That hair can ruin the most expensive and studied look.
A story I recently read from her stylist – yes, she has a stylist! – said that she cut her own bangs for the shoot that she was doing for the article. That says a lot.
Totally agree. When she first did the hair everyone said it was for her character, but she’s kept it! And did nothing with it for the Oscars, which I agree ruined her look.
He wanted the first movie to give him name recognition. Of course he doesn’t want to be typecast or stuck in this part for the rest of his life.
Name recognition and MONEY! Those are two great selling points to present to any partner. And she’s an actress. I’m sure she understood what the deal was. I call bs on the story.
I call BS on this story. Firstly, his wife must have known what was expected of the role and the aftermath was inevitable and secondly, I don’t believe for one minute that Jamie would blame Dakota for anything. He’s well-liked and not a jerk from what I’ve heard. If anyone should take the blame for the badly written character it would be E.L. James. She refused to change anything about the character and so Jamie’s dialogue consisted of direct quotes from the book. The director salvaged the movie despite the studio dropping the ball and letting James have free rein. I hope his people nip this crap in the bud.
I agree, Crissy. IF there is a shred of truth to this story, it is probably that he wishes he could get out of the sequels. His wife is an actress, and with this, of all films, she would have known the deal. Plus, this was a woman who was “married” to Colin Ferrell, so it isn’t like she is someone who is skittish about the misconceptions around film acting, love/sex scenes, etc. in any realm. This rumour probably stemmed from the fact that Dornan (and both Johnsons) seem to have felt it was a miserable experience, and E.L. James seems primarily to blame for that. I haven’t seen it, so I won’t comment on the acting of either party, but Dornan is a solid actor in The Fall and he was in Once Upon a Time. He seemed to have bit off, if not more than he could chew, something that was at least unsavory to him, and whether he saw money or stars in his eyes or what, that isn’t the worst thing an actor has done. Dakota Johnson is getting “good” reviews (in that “well, the film is horrible but she is probably the best thing about it” kind of way), but she is a charisma vacuum in all of the public appearances she has been party to, Sunday night being most notably with her mom. I doubt he or anyone is blaming her; I just think STJ, Dornan, and Dakota all wish this would go away.
Thanks Luce. I haven’t seen it either but the comments and embarrassment exhibited by both actors and the director says a lot. I think E.L. James’ ego ruined the whole experience for everyone. Sam Taylor-Johnson should have been the sole decision maker on this movie IMO. Jeez, it says a lot that she brought in a real screenwriter to overhaul the script and was overruled by James.
I have to agree with Chrissy regarding Jamie’s wife. They both would have to be dumbest people in the world if they did not know what taking this part would entail for Jamie. Both of them knew, so I highly doubt she is uncomfortable with what he had to do for this role onscreen. He comes across very uncomfortable with the role doing press for it, he and Dakota have NO chemistry off screen (so it’s not there on) and it was his performance getting the majority of the negative reviews…probably because he wasn’t comfortable. If there was a lot of tension off screen, I am sure it could have affected his performance.
I think the big reason why he might not be back for the sequel is that studio and EL James are wrangling over who will write the second screenplay. If enty lawyer’s tweets are to believed, and I doubt they are, he has an out on his contract if the second movie is not made within a certain time frame. He and Dakota are missing out on parts because the sequel should be filming soon to be ready for next year, doubtful it will happen with the screenwriter up in the air, as well as a director.
Basically EL James shot herself in the foot.
And if that is true, and he is blaming Dakota, perhaps he should read the reviews of the movie.
Honestly, I keep saying this, but the behind of the scenes of this film would make a better movie than the actual movie.
Luce
I think EL is the reason everyone is being said to want out of this whole mess.
And that timeframe will be exploited imo. If EL gets her way this willnot be rated for cinemas we go to.
Jamie as proven he can act. The Fall is amazing and he’s amazing in it.
To say he can’t act after seeing him in 50 Shades is like saying Bryan Cranston can’t act after seeing him in Malcome in the Middle.
And Dakota needing to refilm scenes over and over again was the main reason this film had a post poned release date. Also how Sam had to redo and rewrite scenes to make this film watchable to a small degree. Ana was the main character so the focus was on her. She got more attention and she got more redos. Taking that into account her performance should have been better imo, but again. She’s also doing the best she can given the material.
Ugh. I loved him in The Fall, but his 50 Shades promotional tour and reactions have made me really dislike him and find him so unsexy. He accepted the role and wanted the fame, now he has has to pay the price. Boo freaking hoo. No sympathy.
Exactly! He keeps saying things which demean the BDSM community, too, which really bothers me because he knew that he was playing a pseudo-lifestyle part. He’s awful.
This movie demeans the bd/sm community. EL demeans the community. I have a feeling he only knows of the community what EL shows. And that deserves the comments.
If you’re an actor, then aren’t you expected to you know act??
It’s a career that only few get to do and do it well. Was Bryan Cranston a meth dealer and the scariest man alive? NO! But he played the part and he was amazing.
If you can’t do it step aside and let someone else have the “privilege”. I mean this for any actor that can’t deal or live up to the hype.
By the way NOBODY expected much from you Jamie except look pretty so give us a break.
hahaha I loved this. I keep wondering why he’s complaining so much. Especially since he is doing a movie based on a BOOK. Even if they didn’t let him see the script (doubtful) he could’ve taken a trip down to, heck, even Wal-Mart, and bought a copy of the book for himself.
His career will never recover from this if he DOES do the sequels, so maybe he’s just trying to decide if it’s worth the money.
It’s a dead end honestly.
It really is. What a mistake this whole debacle is.
Or…put the rumors out there that you won’t do the sequel, get EL James in a tizzy, and ultimately force the studio to give you more money upfront and points on the back end to the tune of you being able to buy and sell Elin Woods (or make her your submissive) with billions to spare, and you’ll never have to work (or look for strange on the side, as it will come to you) again.
I suspect the damage to his career is already done. He gave a notable poor performance in a punchline of a movie. That’s not going to go away regardless of whether there are sequels or whether he’s in them. The best he can hope for at this point is to maintain a reputation for being professional – if he can get out of his contract due to production delays, fine enough, but if he can’t, I think he needs to stick with it.
If he left now he’d gain a bad rep, especially if he had a three deal contract. It would look like he is unreliable and in a Hollywood where ever actor practically needs a franchise, he’d be making himself look like a bad bet for any future franchise or any major movie. He needs to stick around and prove that he can carry a movie.
I kind of agree here. I think he would come out more unscathed by trying to get lawyers to let him weasal out of the deal before he cocks up his career anymore. His bad reviews may actually be thing thing that can help him.
Best takeaway: Clever, clever, clever Charlie Hunnam.
You don’t blame your co-star for a bad performance. Plenty of actors/actresses have overcome a lame co-star. Look at Dakota. She managed to do it.
this. if it’s true he seems very unprofessional, it’s nagl
Sick burn, bro.
There’s no way he got into this without knowing the commitment was 3 movies, whether he liked it or not.
Re: him and Dakota: it would be interesting to know what was re-shot, because word at the time was that it was because she wasn’t great and obviously that wasn’t the case with the finished product. Was Dakota the beneficiary of great re-shoots and Dornan now suffers in comparison? Or was he always kind of ‘meh’?
Maybe the re-shoots were because she wasn’t great in the original and then improved?
You know what? I don’t give a shite. I have no interest in this book, the film, or either of the actors.
This @$#!show is the best part of the whole thing! We don’t get to see this stuff play out in public very often.
The behind-the-scenes story of FSOG would be >>>>>>> better than either the film or the books.
I’d think there would be a contract. Of course they’re going to film two more films, there’s three books in the series. I haven’t seen the movie for many reasons, but Jamie knew what he was getting into when he signed on the dotted line. Whether he talked it over with his wife, I don’t know. But these books aren’t a surprise for anyone regarding the content.
Didn’t he have a three-picture contract? Just like Dakota? Good luck breaking that.
Yeah, if this is true, I think he’s stuck. A director can probably get out of a deal like that, but one of the 2 leads? Not so much. Hopefully they negotiated a lucrative deal for the sequels, they might as well make some money off this garbage.
How did anyone associated with this not see it was always going to have a tarnish to it? It’s not like the books weren’t well known before the movie was even discussed!
I’m shocked they didn’t tie the actors at least down to the 3 movie deal from the start
Robert Pattinson, Charlie Hunnam, Ryan Gosling really did dodge a bullet.
I’m sorry for Jamie because I watched him last week on Graham Norton and he seems like a nice guy.
Look, I get that 50 Shades is terrible. And Jamie is clearly embarrassed by it. But, you signed up for it, dude. You knew what kind of mess you were getting yourself into. Don’t get all huffy now.
I’m sure he is locked into a contract that includes sequels. Also, with the reviews his performance has gotten I doubt he is in demand. Most importantly, NW is full of shit. I mean even among trash mags NW is considered the least credible
My understanding is that his contract requires shooting begin by a certain time, and if he can get out of it due to delays, I think he’ll be okay. Otherwise, no, he’s stuck with the job.
I don’t have a ton of sympathy for him at this point. Dakota was bland on the press tour but apparently turned in a good performance. It sounds like he gave her nothing to work with rather than the other way around, so it’s uncool to try to blame this on her.
Dakota WANTS this and seems difficult, as evidence by her snapping at her mother on the red carpet.
I think Jamie is still in a state of shock. Whenever someone says they have to take showers before touching their wife and child again there’s some seeing your Grandma naked size shudders happening at work. I imagine that while he’s contractually obligated that the studio still better play nice and put a mediator between Jamie and James.
If his performance gets any worse it’ll be called “50 shades of why didn’t I read this sht before I signed on”
oh come on. melanie was being a mum and she was being a daughter, she didn’t snap. they were just squabbling like mother and daughter very often do.
I’d agree if the topic they were squabbling over wasn’t Melanie’s willingness to see her daughter dipped, flipped, and whipped on a silver screen.
You squabble over dresses, not your Mom not being eager to see you faking orgasms.
different families squabble over different things. those 2 grew up in hollywood, I’m sure their squabbling issues are really quite different than the “commoners”.
It was that, despite how ditzy Melanie Griffith can be, she knew it was a professional, extremely high profile event and the most prestigious that her daughter has been invited. Even when asked the silly question, MG quietly stated her comment and if Dakota disagreed or was irked, she should have remained her composure in such a public place rather than acting like a 13-year-old. It reflected poorly on DJ and I was one who thought she was getting too much crap during this whole press tour, but that illustrates true immaturity for someone her age.
He said he took the shower after going to a BDSM dungeon. I didn’t read that he had to do that after his scenes with Dakota. I think he should’ve researched more to see that he didn’t want anything to do with the lifestyle, even though the books don’t portray it accurately. He obviously shouldn’t have taken the job.
Seriously…we wanted to watch this movie today. But there were no tickets left?! For real people still reserve tickets for this movie. Now whe have to watch a better movie with better actors! It´s hell!
LOL at that picture of EL James!
Haven’t read fifty shades, but it can’t be as poorly written as the twilight books…..right.? The author lucked into millions. Too bad she won’t let the film makers do their job and gratefully count her $$$.
Girl, from a literary standpoint, it’s actually worse than twilight. Way worse.
Trust me. The Fifty Shades of Grey books make the Twilight books look good. Oh my!
It’s literally Twilight fanfiction. The chick is Bella and clumsy and awkward. Christian is Edward. There’s a guy at the hardware store that I think is supposed to be Jacob.
I seriously think my high school Gundam Wing fiction missed a boat here. I could’ve been a millionaire.
The EL James pic is hilarious. Looks like some drunk woman staggered onstage at a Beyonce concert and stood in front of the wind machine.
“You gotta make your own wind baby! You are Beyoncé! You ARE Beyonce!”
– E.L. James internal dialogue
@taterho-dying laughing at this image. Wish it would happen for real-love to see Bey take her down like an antelope with a limp
“Bey take her down like an antelope with a limp”
*choking laughing*
From what I’ve read of those books, E. L. James makes Stephenie Meyer seem like Margaret Atwood.
It’s much, much worse than the Twilight books. Whether or not people like Stephanie Meyer’s story, she at least told it in a reasonably polished way. 50 Shades took out most of the things that made Twilight work, added some very clumsy writing, and then wasn’t edited.
Actually, the twilight books are way better… which is kinda scary… I’m not even talking about the plot, but the actual grammar and syntax…at least, the twilight writer knows English…
no! Meyer’s grammar is better than James’, but don’t get me wrong, it’s still really bad!
I doubt this is true, but he seems like a truly dull awful person.
agreed.
Yes pouty baby, SINK. THAT. SHIP!! By all means!! these reports that they are having all these issues are HILARIOUS to me
Like Off GP I’m watching Sam’s next movie and His if this whole thing tanks
if it’s true his wife doesn’t want him to do it, that sounds very controlling to me on her part. I hope it’s just an excuse because he really didn’t like playing this role. still, don’t tell me he didn’t know what he got himself into because I’m just gonna laugh.
Actually, all these machinations are much more interesting than the movie😀!
If- and it’s a huge if- there’s a clause that releases them if such doesn’t happen by “x” date- that’s his out. It also entirely possible if the matter of a script and director doesn’t get resolved soon, Jamie may be too old for two sequels. Universal or James May then opt to recast.
He was fine in that role- it was way noticeable that Dakota had better dialogue to work with. Somewhere else someone posted that his wife was in Quills- if accurate, sure she can handle her hubs in the sequels- assuming they get made! Regardless of the scorn and derision heaped on James, it sort of fun watching a woman exercising Marvel-level control of a project!
Of course he’s doing the sequels. Jamie probably put this story out there because he wants a raise since the film did so well.
A couple of things and, granted, I’m not a JD fan (I think he’s gotten a pass for his looks when his acting sucks). First, I don’t buy that his wife is causing trouble. She’s an actress and she knows what goes on on-set. They both had to know (unless they were born under rocks) what kind of fan lunacy doing these films would unleash.
Second, for him to blame his co-star for his ineptitude is totally bottom of the barrel behavior. Even if it were true you never air that kind of dirty laundry in public, not if you want to be cast in anything else. Casting directors have long memories and they aren’t likely to ignore his history of bad behavior if his acting doesn’t make up for it.
I have no doubt that he wants out, particularly given his reviews. Did anyone consider that maybe the studio wants him out as well? It’s one thing to make a ton of money on a film but hard to get past those truly terrible reviews. Maybe they’ll both get what they want and come to an agreeable parting of the ways. The studio gets to cast someone new (really, would anyone actually care?) and he gets to go back to anonymity.
Sam was not a capable director at all IMO. FIrst of all i wasnt going to watch this movie but everyone said it was watchable and the director did a decent job, well she didnt. She wasnt able to et a performance from jamie at all and the film was all about Mr grey not ana. We all know he can act as in fall so this rests on the director IMO.
Dakoata was the only good thin about this movie and jamie was completed wasted. She was actually likable a lot and did a very nice job of playing a very irritating character and actually making her likable. So I wish they loose the director and find someone who will use Jamie efficiently.
I see you are putting the blame on anyone but your favourite. He’s bland, that works in The Fall but not here.
he is not my favorite at all. I only started watching Fall very recently and hes is superb in that. I always put the responsibility of actors performance on directors especially when you have talented actors. She failed to et the most important part of the movie right, and i put this on her. But again that’s my opinion, Ill never believe online critique of a movie again TBh
Were you typing all that on your phone?
It could use some editing.
Jamie was good in The Fall – only thing I’ve seen him in. Saw Dakota only once, spatting with her mother on the red carpet. Melanie seemed medicated, but her daughter came off as a brat.
I didn’t read the book, as “bad writing” bothers me far more than it entertains. If neither T-J nor Dornan wants any part of a sequel & EL’s difficult reputation circulates even more widely, maybe financial backing will evaporate. Box office attendance for this is certainly based on novelty, hype & curiosity about the shock value. Won’t a lot of that interest fade by the time another flick could be made?
He can just do the sequels and live off the money while he rebuilds his career doing small independent films. If he can act given good material he’ll be fine. I thought he was great in The Fall.
I don’t believe any of this garbage. He will do them both, unless all this gossip makes the studio want to change leads, and that might be what they are going for. I think he really liked Sam and wants her to direct, and if she doesn’t he is less enthused. I find it funny what people are saying about Jamie and Dakota in this movie. Both are okay, with Jamie who has had decent parts before and seems nice in interviews suffering from higher expectations. Christian Grey in the first book is a loner a*(&(hole, but really good at sex and in the movies with less sex he is just an a@#$@#$hole. The most intriguing part of Christian especially in the first book is his sexual prowess. It is BDSM lite where Christian is really concerned about the pleasure of Ana. I think people who say something else are really fooling themselves. Dakota’s part is written better, because it is her story, and Dakota is better than people think. Don’t fool yourself though neither is going to win anything but a Razzie for this. The only thing for sure is that E.L. James has delusions of grandeur.
That’s an intriguing observation- why do you think the CG part had the “higher expectations”? It seemed to me that Dakota’s dialogue got changed for the better, while Jamie had to quote line and verse from the book- and that didn’t help matters.
I don’t think the CG part had higher expectation, I think Jamie did. Dakota has been so stiff and bad at interviews everyone was expecting her to stink, not Jamie though. Jamie had so little to work with as they took out the few redeeming or even interesting aspects to CG. They brush over CG’s early childhood abuse and introduction to BDSM. His humor that was limited in the books is non-existent in the movie. The charm and sexual prowess are gone too. The BDSM lite seemed stupid the first spanking scene really made no sense and just seemed stupid the way he left not like the book which was stupid too, but made a bit more sense.
It may have made the movie move a bit better, but really Jamie had nothing to work with, but in reality he wasn’t going to have a lot to work with either way. In the books same as Twilight he is this Adonis that she can’t help falling for, and I just kept wondering what the hell would anyone see in him, and came up with money and he is pretty good looking, but it is hard to show Adonis on film.
If this gossip is set up to make them replace him, good for him as I can’t see with EL James writing the script it will get better. Her dialogue is pretty much an alcohol infused dialogue, which she originally admitted to, now she thinks she is Shakespeare. I guess that is what 100 million copies sold does to you.
Couldn’t reply to your reply to me below-so will put it here. Along these same lines, it felt to me that the critical long knives were out long bef anyone saw this movie. If Jamie didn’t have a slim body of work already, he would be toast- he doesn’t have 10 years to put these “rip another a##%e” reviews behind him. I hope the Louis Drax movie gets a decent release in the US.
I could not agree with you more about him not having anything to work with! I’ve been waiting to run across someone else who agreed with me, I was starting to think I was imagining it so I reread the book. Nope, he was a much more interesting character, and more sympathetic. And when he told her about his background in the book, she wasn’t sleeping and they talked about it. I think leaving that out did his character a major disservice in the film. There is a small part of me that wonders if the filmmakers hated the character, what he stood for, the way women around the world held him in such high regard, and stripped him of these things in the movie to fck with them. Instead elevating Anastasia, like a show of ‘girl power’. There’s no arguing that her character was better written. And did you notice that nobody ever had an orgasm? There’s no way that wasn’t done on purpose. Another way to mess the audience. I’m convinced the filmmakers HATED the material and the people who love it.
Nothing like finding someone who sees what you see! My theory is that James wouldn’t let them “mess” with the CG character at all- if true, that would go a long way for the movie being all Ana, all the time. If you insist on the male lead being a cypher of a character, the creative team will focus their energies on the character they can flesh out.
Everyone who is associated with this film is embarrassed by it, save for the sub par writer and the actress who is trying to be more than Melanie Griffith’s daughter. Jamie is sooooo good in The Fall. He needs to distance himself from this dreck as quick as possible so people can see what a great actor he is. No one should make a sequel and anyone who pays to see it should be embarrassed for themself.
If his wife, an actress, really has an issue with her husband, an actor, doing sex scenes on screen (it’s not hard porn, is it?), she should get herself a Kirk Cameron or something. He won’t kiss anyone but his wife.
But anyway, I hope this is all made-up. If not, it’s very unprofessional.
I could be wrong, but Jamie said repeatedly in many interviews that his wife reads everything he is sent, and since she was an actress, he values her opinion and she told him he should go for it. I think if she hadn’t approved of him doing it, he would have turned it down.
Blaming his coworker. What an asshole. From what I hear she did a better job then he and was naked the whole time. He didn’t do much except collect the paycheck while his costar “who gave him nothing to work with” did all the work. What an arrogant piece of shit. I hope his career doesn’t “skyrocket” ever.
That last photo is hilarious. The only one vamping for the cameras like a movie star is the one not involved in film at all, i.e. the fanfiction writer.
He can act…in some things. He was scary in the first season of The Fall. Actually, for real, scary.
I went into the movie expecting Dakota Johnson to give a terrible performance yet she played the role perfectly! Jamie, on the other hand, had NO charisma on screen … I can’t think of any scene where he even seemed remotely sexy. If this is true and he leaves the franchise, it’s no loss. They will find a better actor.
What a mess.
And right on cue here comes the pap walk. Photos of Jamie and Amelia “out and about” in London today looking oh so happy and down to earth. His PR people are saying the possibility of his leaving are “conjecture”, not exactly what you’d call a blanket denial.
Can you imagine how pissed off he was that he didn’t get asked to do either SNL or the Oscars? He would have sold his soul for a crack at either. Since the studio is the one that works to get their pet of the week asked to host SNL or be an Oscar presenter isn’t it odd that only Dakota was asked? If his reviews had been good even his denigration of the material would have been overlooked and both of them would have been there. I still say the studio wants him gone as much as he does, they’re just looking for the right way to spin it.
If there was a mutual parting of the ways, that would already have happened- “creative differences/another direction/scheduling conflicts” ad infiniteum. I tend to agree he wants more $$$, and Universal is sandbagging him in order to bring James in line. Now the rumors of him being in the Dr Strange movie I do find intriguing- if that’s in the mix, can see him actively looking to pull out of the sequels( yes, realize terrible pun- couldn’t resist)!
Lainey has a piece about how he’s stuck now. If he tries to bail he’ll be seen as being ungrateful and a contract-breaker. If the studio sacks him they come off as being spiteful so it’s a no-win for either side. The only way out of this would be for the studio to dump the whole project and given the amount of money already on the table that’s not likely. So both sides will have to suck it up and make it work.
This whole week seems like a ploy his PR people dreamed up to get more $$$. Put it out there that he’s leaving and everyone starts crying and begging him to stay. Finally that looks to have been shut down but who knows what happens next? One thing is for sure, his PR people aren’t doing him any favors.
Did she really get good reviews?
Sure, he was wooden, but god, she was detestably dull. The Anastasia character is still pretty strong-willed in the books, but this chick pretty much murmured her way thru that flick.