Jamie Dornan Reveals the 'F—ing Difficult' Part of Starring in the 'Fifty Shades' Movies

Jamie Dornan is well-known for his role as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades movies, and the actor recently opened about the most "f—ing difficult" part of starring in the franchise. While speaking to British GQ about his newest film, Belfast, Dornan reflected on Fifty Shades of Grey, and offered his perspective on how the series was received. "There's nothing like Fifty Shades in terms of, it was based on books and we were staying very close to these books," he began.

"These books were loved by fandom. Really loved, obsessively loved and despised by every critic,"  Dornan added. "Real critics hated the books." He then continued, "You know that you're going to have these movies that are for the fans, that the fans are going to love, that are gonna make a ton of money. But you know that the critics will be just you know licking their lips and that's exactly what happened. And we knew that was going to happen so you're watching that play out and at times that's f—ing difficult."

While having a lead role in Fifty Shades was not always an easy job, Dornan is still very grateful for what it has allowed him to go on to do. "The thing is every move I have made in my career, post those films, I have only been able to do because of those films," he explained. "Because all of the stuff, like Belfast, Beyond Private or any like well-received more independent stuff I've done the last five or six years, they're only budgeting, they're only paying for those films to be made off my name because I'm in a franchise that made 1.4 billion dollars. That's how that works. It's all part of it, it's given me so much, so of course, I don't regret it."

Fifty Shades of Grey, the first film in the novel-inspired series, was released in theaters on Feb. 13, 2015. The first sequel, Fifty Shades Darker, was released two years later on Feb. 10, 2017. The third and final film of the trilogy, Fifty Shades Freed, opened on Feb. 9, 2018. While Dornan's assessment of the franchise's critical receptions is fairly accurate, it was a massive hit with readers and audiences. The Fifty Shades movies grossed over $1.32 billion worldwide, making it the seventh all-time highest-grossing R-rated franchise.