I did not know that Jamie Dornan and Robert Pattinson were once roommates as young actors in London. I presume someone somewhere has written a fanfiction about these two beautiful men living together and so forth; if not, please commence, Internet! Just kidding. But I guess it makes sense that they were friends, coming up together at the same time. They also shared a flat with Andrew Garfield, Charlie Cox, and Eddie Redmayne during this period. Prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Jamie was promoting the Netflix action movie Heart of Stone, slated for an August 11 release. Obviously the actors are not doing any promotional work anymore. Wired released an interview on YouTube recorded prior to the strike with Jamie and his co-stars Gal Gadot and Alia Bhatt. In it, Jamie talks about his friendship with Rob Pattinson and how he used to be jealous of Rob’s early success with Twilight.
Jamie Dornan has nothing but love — and a hint of jealousy — for longtime friend Robert Pattinson.
In a new WIRED interview with Heart of Stone castmates Gal Gadot and Alia Bhatt, the Irish actor, 41, reflected on his relationship with the Twilight star.
“I’ve known Rob forever,” he said. “He’s a really good friend. I love him. I think he’s one of the most interesting and exciting actors around.”
The Fifty Shades star explained that he was envious of Pattinson, 37, who was making a name for himself as vampire heartthrob Edward Cullen when the pair — as well as pals Andrew Garfield, Charlie Cox and Eddie Redmayne — were roommates over a decade ago.
“I probably at one point was quite jealous of him, like early on when we were all friends back in London and Rob was just like going places and we sort of weren’t,” he admitted, referring to Pattinson’s Twilight fame.
“You love him,” Gadot chimed in, teasing her costar. “You love him so much.”
“I think he’s amazing,” Dornan agreed, adding that the Lighthouse actor is “the nicest guy in the world.”
It’s sweet that they’re still friends. In my view, Rob became a movie star (or what passes for a movie star in this day and age) and Jamie didn’t get to quite the same level of fame for one reason: Rob is interesting. Rob is chaotic, and always has been. He constantly says absurd things in interviews, he prefers to play weird characters whenever he can, and he subverted expectations and didn’t get swole to play Batman. (He trained for three months prior to filming, but he didn’t go the full Chris Hemsworth superhero routine.) You truly never know what’s going to come out of that young man’s mouth. Jamie is beautiful, but boring. He’s also a good actor when given the right material but he isn’t as good at being a celebrity and I don’t think he takes as many risks with the roles he chooses. Nevertheless, there are far worse fates than being a square-jawed leading man who has little to do besides look stoic–it’s nice work if you can get it. As an aside, I find it amusing that both men played a version of Edward Cullen–Rob played the Original, and Jamie the Sadist Redux since Fifty Shades is based on Twilight. Fifty Shades is much worse than Twilight, but it’s just funny to me that they’ve both played that character.
Photos credit: Avalon.red and Getty Images
Jamie Dornan is understandably jealous of Robert Pattinson. I remember reading an interview where Jim Cattrall was asked if she could have taken the lead female role in 50 Shades, and she was like ‘hell no, Dornan has no charisma, nothing that sets him apart, no discernible sex appeal’.
Samantha was right. On the other side, Pattinson oozes sensuousness, especially when he sings and plays the guitar, at which I find him better than acting.
They both have the sex appeal of cardboard to me.
“ They also shared a flat with Andrew Garfield, Charlie Cox, and Eddie Redmayne during this period. ”
Ooh! That must have been a fun flat! They’ve all had success on some level.
You mean he didn’t see his brief and heartbreaking stint as the Sheriff on Once Upon A Time as a success equal to Twilight?
(That’s where I first saw him and the role I always associate him with)
I remember being pretty jazzed when he showed up there!
I’m so interested to learn more about their days as roommates! That could be a book for sure. I’d definitely read it.
Maybe they could do a project like The Wine Show, where whoever’s available drops in for an episode or several and interacts with whoever else is around that episode as they explore whatever the show is about.
I don’t know if I’d categorize him as boring. He’s fantastic in The Fall. He’s also hilarious every time he’s on Graham Norton.
I was going to say this. He’s always absolutely charming and very funny on Graham Norton.
Yeah, he’s wonderful in so many projects — The Tourist was another series that was so good — and really charming in interviews. Robert Pattinson definitely has more range (or at least picks up a bigger variety of roles), but Jamie is a really great actor.
I agree that Dornan is a very talented actor and his part on “The Fall” was terrifyingly convincing.
Dornan was spectacular in The Fall. I’ve personally never seen Pattinson be as good in anything, but I also haven’t seen that many of his films. Despite looking like they do, they were both born to play weirdos.
I need an Actors Roundtable purely about this flatshare!
The Rover, Cosmopolis, and The Lighthouse are all good ones to check out some of Pattinson’s slightly less mainstream work.
Also, Good Time. He’s fantastic in it.
A normal and honest feeling given circumstances. I’m glad it didn’t overtake him or the friendship. And that he’s also found success.
Ok Pattinson looked pretty ripped in the Batman movie. I think he just passed on the PEDs, and good for him. He looked like what most men look like when they work out hard, and he looked good!
I think if Jamie Dornan played creepy weirdos like he did in the Fall he’d be much more interesting. Ultimately, timing is everything and Twilight came out at just the right time. So Rob made f-you money and could make whatever weird movies he wanted. And he did actually try the heartthrob route with water for elephants. In his filmography, that movie actually stands out as maybe his most conventional.
Unfortunately for Jamie, copies that come along later will never replicate the success of the first one. I hope he got the bag though and can make interesting projects going forward. He’s got kids to care for though so I get maybe shooting for something a little more commercial.
I do hope one of them gives an account of their time living together, but I want to know whether Tom Sturridge was there also!!
I need a movie about that flat. And them all playing themselves
Holy cow, all those guys together!? I love Charlie Cox too! I loved him as Owen on “Boardwalk Empire.” He’s a great actor and so handsome, IMO. They all are. Well, maybe not Redmayne. He’s sort of quirky good-looking, but also a fine actor. And they all seem like nice guys from what I can tell. Garfield might be my favorite out of the lot.
I’ve never seen the “Fifty Shades” movies. I read two pages of one of the books and couldn’t get past the atrocious writing. But I’ve seen Jamie in a couple of other things, like “Belfast,” and I think he’s underrated as an actor. But he’s doing just fine now. I’m pleased for him.
Seriously, someone needs to….write about that flat. Gold mine.
Charlie Cox was desperately handsome and charming in that adorable film Stardust!
Yes, Stardust is heart-warming, and funny and he was wonderful in it. I really like him as Daredevil as well and his short stint in She-Hulk was the icing on the cake.
Tom Sturridge was part of that gang too. I am sure there are great stories to be told there!
They’ve all ended up being pretty successful, even though there were lots of different routes they took to get there. And I don’t think any of them have been problematic over the years.
I love them all. There’s just something more humble and interesting about British actors compared to their American counterparts. I don’t know what it is but it’s a no to all the ‘Chris’s and Ryan’s’ and yes to these guys.
I second this! These guys appear to have real inner lives! They all appear to have read books (more than one even!) written by women lol
I think they all did well in Hollywood , Jaime, Andrew, Rob, Eddie, Charlie. I’ve seen at least one of their movies and/or shows. That’s when so many of these British actors had a full invasion of Hollywood and they were just the trend(which I always believe that Hugh Laurie paved that way when he was brilliant in House. So many Americans at the time were shocked He was British and not American) .
IMO though I think even Robert is a bigger star than any of the 3 leads from Harry Potter.
Now, if I look at the casting esp with the popular teen dramas like Outer Banks and The Summer I turned pretty(which me and my niece loves and watch together via FaceTime each week), they’ve gone back to having North American actors playing the American teen roles. Going back to the old school teen movies and shows of the 80s and 90s. And the cast for both shows has incredible chemistry and has become a very diverse cast which I love.
Robert Pattinson should play Elon Musk. They are so alike.
I can’t believe how incredibly successful they all became.
Oh come on, Jamie was fantastic in Barb & Starr and terrifying in The Fall besides being in FSG. He’s got range and he was terrific as a guest on Graham Norton. I found Pattinson to be less interesting than a ball of styrofoam in Twilight although I loved him as Cedric in Harry Potter 4 and in Tenet. They both have pluses and minuses, the former being mostly that they are just so crushingly handsome.