14 DAY TRIAL // Jamie Dornan knows that the trilogy of novels “Fifty Shades of Grey” can hardly qualify as literature, just as he knows that it’s been billed anything from “sick” to “degrading” and “misogynistic,” so he’s eager to have potential buyers of tickets for the movie inspired by it distance the film from the source material.
The British actor is featured in the February 2015 issue of Elle UK in an interview that touches on the two roles that helped him become a name few people haven’t heard yet: that of Christian Grey in the upcoming “Fifty Shades” movie and that of psychopath Paul Spector in the TV series “The Fall.”
He gets very, very defensive about the former.
“Fifty Shades” is not anti-feminist
Here’s the thing about the “Fifty Shades” books: while they might feel like a guilty pleasure reading, they’re simplistic and questionably written. They’re also infuriating in their depiction of the female lead, Anastasia Grey, who exists only to please her love interest, Christian Grey, a man she knows nothing about but for whom she’s willing to put aside everything that makes of her a distinct individual.
No matter if you like the raunchy story or not, there’s no denying that the narrative is degrading to the female character. But the movies – or at least the first one that’s already been shot and will be out on Valentine’s Day – won’t be that, Dornan is eager to stress.
He believes that the anti-feminism in the books comes not from the portrayal of the character (both on her own and in relation to others), but solely from the fact that she becomes Grey’s submissive and agrees to be spanked and tied, while she’s “instructed” in the many ways of lovemaking.
“I can understand why people say tying a woman up and spanking her is misogynistic… But actually, more men are submissives than women. Very powerful men,” Dornan says. “[It’s] a far bigger scene than I imagined: in pretty much any city in the world that you could name, people want to get spanked with a paddle with studs on it.”
An unconventional love story
Dornan recently admitted to doing some “research” into the role (after all, he does play the “big bad wolf,” if you will) and that it included a visit to one of the underground clubs where S&M shows were staged for select (and generous with their money) audiences.
That, apparently, is enough to make him think he knows this universe: hence the promise that this world actually includes more male submissives than female, and his conclusion that, because of it, “Fifty Shades” is not misogynistic.
This flawed argument aside, he returns to another that he’s used before: namely that the story of Christian and Anastasia, such as it is with whips and paddles and ties employed differently than they were meant to, is a love story.
It might be unconventional and raunchy, but it is a love story nonetheless. “I mean, we are going to tell a love story, you know, it can’t just be what happens in the Red Room, that’s not a film. There’s so much more going on than that,” he says.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” also stars Dakota Johnson (who is yet to do any heavy promoting for it), and will be out on February 14, 2015.
