Jamie Dornan for Elle February 2015 Issue

Jamie Dornan reunites with photographer Liz Collins to a shoot a feature for the February 2015 edition of Elle. Discussing his role as Christian Grey in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey film, Dornan confesses that not everyone is happy with his casting. He shares, “The other day, this woman came up and started shouting at me, ‘Matt Bomer’s the real Christian Grey. And I was like, um okay. I mean, even if you cast Matt Bomer, or alexander Skarsgard, or Charlie Hunnam, or any of those other guys–we’d all just be doing our best, you know? Christian Grey–he isn’t a real person. He’s a superhero–a myth. He’s like Bigfoot! He’s unbelievable. He’s unattainable. There’s no actor in the world who could live up to that.”

 

But the Fifty Shades role is a triple axel. "I wonder what it is about this set of books that has, excuse my pun, penetrated the global market," he says in his soft-grained Irish brogue. "What is it that's just so on the pulse of what women want?"

He help himself to some soppressata. "I think a lot of people try to undermine the whole thing," he says. "But it's hard to undermine something that's so successful. Mass appreciation doesn't always equate to something good. Think of Hitler! But I think, in this case, it must. It simply must. There's got to be merit in it if so many people agree."