What Fifty Shades Of Grey's Jamie Dornan Learned From Pal Twilight’s Robert Pattinson

Jamie Dornan was known to fans of Once Upon A Time and other TV projects before landing the lead in Fifty Shades of Grey. However, it was after joining that franchise that his popularity skyrocketed, leading to plenty of opportunities in Hollywood after the third film was released. However, it turns out Jamie Dornan actually learned a bit from his pal Twilight’s Robert Pattinson as he was figuring out what to do next in his career.

During a recent interview, Jamie Dornan confirmed that he is, in fact, friends with Twilight star Robert Pattinson and has been following him throughout his career. He was around when the actor hopped from a major franchise to doing obscure stuff and really respects what Pattinson did in movies from Cosmopolis to The Lighthouse.

Rob’s a friend of mine, and I have nothing but respect for him in the way he’s done that, knocking out a David Cronenberg movie and doing all of this really obscure stuff.

Jamie Dornan took note and has embarked on a similar path with his Fifty Shades Freed follow-ups. He starred in a slew of independent projects including A Private War and Endings, Beginnings opposite Shailene Woodley. While his name has been connected with bigger budget movies such as Robin Hood or Trolls World Tour the actor also told Variety he “love[s] the energy” of indie movies, also saying he enjoys the “sort of kick, frolic, scramble-to-the-finish-line every day” required of working on smaller films with smaller budgets. He’s previously said indie films are where he’s “most comfortable” as well.

There’s a second way Jamie Dornan may follow in Robert Pattinson’s footsteps as well. While his time post-Fifty Shades has been peppered with mostly independent projects, he might pull a Robert Pattinson on us once more down the line. Dornan, in fact noted that while he’s trying to ride the independent train for now, he’s open to doing a different type of franchise movie should it come down the pipeline.

If there’s an opportunity to show what I can do in a different world, in a franchise that has a different audience than what Fifty Shades was, then I’d be crazy to not consider that.

If you are familiar with the pattern of Robert Pattinson’s career, he did the major Twilight films, which wrapped with Breaking Dawn - Part II and then he shifted into indies such as the ones mentioned in this story. After he’d taking a few years to really get into meaty acting roles, he then signed on to Matt Reeves’ The Batman and will (hopefully) play the Caped Crusader through a series of planned movies for Warner Bros. Perhaps Jamie Dornan will land another big budget role that’s equally high-profile in a different franchise down the line?

OK, I gotta say this just because I think it could be interesting casting: The last time James Bond was from Ireland was when Pierce Brosnan took a gander at the gig, and the 007 role will be vacated very soon. There are worse possibilities than Jamie Dornan to my way of thinking, but we’ll just have to wait and see how that particular puzzle shakes out.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.