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Jamie Dornan shares a Fifty Shades review that he ‘doesn’t entirely disagree with’

Actor said it was ‘strange’ knowing the franchise would inevitably be negatively reviewed

Ellie Harrison
Thursday 26 November 2020 09:26 GMT
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Fifty Shades Freed UK trailer

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Jamie Dornan has reflected on the critical panning of the Fifty Shades of Grey films, saying there’s one “really bad” review he sort of agrees with.

The actor played wealthy businessman and BDSM enthusiast Christian Grey in the franchise. All three films in the trilogy were received disastrously by critics, at the same time turning Dornan into a global film star.

In a new interview with Variety, Dornan revealed: “I went through a bad stage with Fifty Shades of reading a couple of really bad [reviews], but then just finding them funny and letting them drive me.”

He added: “One of them was ‘Jamie Dornan has the charisma of oatmeal’, which – some people like oatmeal, so I thought it was kind of harsh. I remember that stuck with me, and I don’t entirely disagree with it either.”

Dornan described Fifty Shades of Grey as a “monsterly successful franchise that was not critically loved”, adding: “It’s a strange thing going into those films knowing that you’re going to be in a franchise that will probably make so much money and get negatively reviewed, because those books made so much money and were really negatively reviewed.”

The star can next be seen in Wild Mountain Thyme, a romance co-starring Emily Blunt. 

The trailer for the film has already been mercilessly mocked on Twitter for its “awful” Irish accents, forcing its director to come out in defence of the movie.

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