In short
Podcast Episode Summary: How To Fail With Elizabeth Day - Failure Throwback: Jamie Dornan
Overview This episode of "How To Fail With Elizabeth Day" features a revisit to a previous interview with actor Jamie Dornan, originally recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown in November 2020. Jamie discusses his experiences with failure in various aspects of life, including his career, personal challenges, and the impact of his upbringing in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
Key Themes and Discussions
Connection and Context
- Personal Connection: Elizabeth Day expresses a personal connection to Jamie, revealing they attended the same school in Belfast.
- Backdrop of The Troubles: The discussion touches on growing up in Northern Ireland amid socio-political unrest, highlighting how these experiences shaped their identities.
Jamie Dornan's Career and Failures
- Early Career: Jamie describes his transition from modeling to acting, initially finding success with notable roles.
- Initial Success vs. Long-Term Struggles: Despite a promising start, Jamie experienced a challenging period of auditions and competition, noting that most actors face significant setbacks.
- "Once Upon a Time" Setback:
- Jamie was cast in "Once Upon a Time," only to learn his character would be killed off shortly after the pilot.
- This initial disappointment ultimately led to his acclaimed role in "The Fall."
Personal Challenges
- Grief and Loss: Jamie shares about losing his mother at a young age and the subsequent loss of friends in a tragic accident, emphasizing the profound impact of grief on his life.
- Therapy and Healing: He discusses how therapy has been instrumental in dealing with his grief and navigating his mental health.
Fatherhood and Identity
- Being a Father: Jamie reflects on the challenges and joys of raising three daughters, expressing a sense of purpose in his role as their father.
- Expectations and Identity: Jamie connects his experiences as a father to his broader reflections on identity, failure, and societal expectations.
Insights on Failure
- Embracing Failure: Jamie emphasizes the importance of embracing failure, stating, "You're sort of nothing without your failures," and that personal growth often stems from setbacks.
- Managing Expectations: He discusses the importance of managing personal expectations to mitigate feelings of disappointment, especially in the competitive world of acting.
Key Takeaways
- Value of Connection: The importance of maintaining friendships and connections throughout life's challenges.
- Growth Through Adversity: Acknowledging that failures can lead to greater opportunities and personal growth.
- Navigating Fame: The complexities of fame and how it can impact personal identity and relationships.
- The Role of Therapy: Highlighting the significance of mental health support in processing grief and life's challenges.
Conclusion Elizabeth and Jamie’s candid discussion about failures, personal struggles, and the journey of self-discovery resonates deeply, showcasing how failures can lead to growth and resilience. The episode serves as a reminder that sharing failures is a crucial part of the human experience, ultimately paving the way for healing and connection.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
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0:24Hello, it's Elizabeth here. And to continue my seasonal offering, here's another of my favorite How to Fail episodes from the archive. This time it's the wonderful Jamie Dornan, which was recorded in November 2020. I adore this episode for a number of reasons. One is that Jamie Dornan turned up to my house and that's in and of itself is a cause to celebrate. But also it was one of the first interviews I recorded in between lockdowns where we could finally do it face to face as long as we kept a social distance. So that was very special. And then the other special thing about it is that we discovered we had so much in common.
1:06Jamie Dornan and I actually went to school together at the same school in Belfast, and we share some really interesting memories about that time. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you love it. And here he is, the man himself, Jamie Dornan. The actor Jamie Dornan once said that mass appreciation doesn't always equate to something good. It's true, of course, but this is a man who has had to get used to mass appreciation, whether he likes it or not. Starring as Christian Grey in all three of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie adaptations brought him to the worldwide attention of millions of excitable fans who had devoured the E.L.
1:45James books on which the franchise was based. But Dornan has always been a multifaceted actor. In the critically acclaimed BBC drama The Fall, his portrayal of Paul Spector, a serial killer with an incongruously happy family life, was extraordinary both for its chilling nature and for the way it toyed with our preconceptions. Later, he played photographer Paul Conroy in A Private War, the biopic of the late great war correspondent Marie Colvin. It was, Dornan recalled, the most emotional job I will ever do. He and the real life Conroy are still friends. Despite his success, Dornan did not start out as an actor.
2:28He was born in Hollywood, the one in County Down, and was the third child of Lorna, a nurse, and Jim, one of Ireland's leading obstetricians, a man who has delivered over 6 ,000 babies. After school in Belfast, Dornan became a model, and a highly successful one at that. The New York Times dubbed him the Golden Torso after he appeared in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss. And yet Dornan has said in the past that he never had much luck with the girls at school because he looked too young. His sister's friends called him cute, which he hated. Today he is married to the musician Amelia Warner and the couple have three daughters.
3:09They live their lives out of the public eye and when Dornan is recognised back home in Northern in Ireland, it is more often than not because someone wants to tell him that his father delivered them. This suits him just fine. As he said in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph in 2014, nobody sane wants to be famous. Jamie Dornan, welcome to How to Fail. Thank you very much. I didn't know where to look there, but I got through the introduction. You were visibly squirming and you're actually blushing slightly. It's very sweet. Yeah, I mean, I'm not someone who loves hearing praise about themselves, I think.
3:49I find it very difficult. I find it, yeah, embarrassing, I think. Embarrassed by praise. How sane do you feel today, given that quote about you'd have to be insane to want to be famous? I feel like often I don't feel very famous. I only ever feel famous when I'm somewhere where people know I'm going to be. And there's a response to that, to that understanding of the location, whether that's a premiere or whatever it is for a movie I've done, and then you see people have come to support you and the fellow cast, whatever it is, the movie itself, and you see a collective of people there for you and a hunger sometimes maybe for you, that that's when it's real.
4:32And all other times I don't get that. I don't feel like that. I don't think I put myself in a position to experience that. So I usually feel pretty sane because I don't feel that famous. Has it ever got scary, your level of fame? No. I mean, I remember saying, I did this interview for like GQ or Details or something, before the first Fifty Shades came out. And they said, what's your biggest fear with the movie coming out? And it was nothing about how it would be received, which we knew would be great for the people who love the book, and the total opposite of that, for people who don't understand the book or weren't up for the movies.
5:08And it was very true to that, the response. but I remember saying I was scared of someone killing me on the red carpet. Wow, that was probably unexpected for the journalist. It was, she was quite taken aback by it. But at that time I genuinely believed it. I thought, someone's probably just going to kill me here. It was just a dark place to put your mind. But I must have believed it to say it. Well, when you were thinking that, was that after you'd played Paul Spector in The Fall? Ah yes so my mind's probably more open to darkness than it had been previously and more accepting and more knowing what people are capable of maybe as a result of playing someone like that.
5:51That performance was so phenomenal Jamie. I loved The Fall so so much and you mentioned there that idea of going to quite a dark place. How much research did you do into the mind of a serial killer? Because as I said in the introduction, one of the fascinating things was that Paul Spector existed as a family man alongside committing these brutal crimes. Yeah. I mean, it's funny you said it there, like in terms of getting inside the mind of a serial killer. The first book I read was called Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. Alan Cubitt, who created the show, changed my life. He sent me a few different books that he sort of had recommended to read.
6:31and I read them. They're not hugely digestible books, I've got to say. You know, they're tough. They're not enjoyable to read, really. They're not, I couldn't put it down situations. You know, they're kind of, I can't wait to put it down because I want to go to sleep in 10 minutes. I don't want to go to sleep with this in my mind. But hugely beneficial to trying to build the character and take not all aspects from these particular subjects that they were about and other guys that I've been told to sort of look into beyond those books. take bits from them really but build on what Alan had created and what I felt was appropriate to take from what I'd read but make it its own thing you know because every one of these monsters does it their own way much of the way Spectre did it was on the page already and I think that aspect of it that fact that he was a grief counselor by day and you know this strong you know family man Alan and I argued about this I always felt that he did have love for his kids particularly his daughter there's a special bond there Alan and he probably right because he created it only he really knows but he felt that Spectre was incapable of love but um I always tried to insert love into those scenes with with the kids and I think that's what made it all the darker you know was seeing that juxtaposition between the loving family man and the serial killer I think that's what made it hard to watch for people you're surrounded by women in your life aren't you I have from birth to right this day, I've only been surrounded by women at home.
8:05What's it like being the father to three daughters? Because I often wonder how much of what we stereotypically think of wrongly as sort of girl stuff and boy stuff is innate. Sure. Listen, I wouldn't have a clue how to parent a boy. I just wouldn't. It's not what I know. All I know is three little magical beings that we share our home with that fuel our every move. And there's been times where one kid, particularly our eldest, has been leaning more towards a sort of tomboyish attitude and been into things that you wouldn't classically expect a girl to be into maybe. And that got me thinking that, well, it really is like they're shaped into, you know, being into girls' things and boys' things.
8:53Maybe it's not innate, but then that ends up just being a bit of a phase I think I can only speak for my own kids and then they do fall in line with what's kind of expected of little girls a little bit I mean the eldest would be less so I mean the youngest we don't really know yet but the middle one is definitely more girly in a sort of classic sense a sort of terrible phrase than the elder one but society is so much no matter how much we try to change the sort of goalposts in terms of like trying to tell people their one gender the next we're miles off but not affecting kids you know it's still everything is pink and blue as much as we try in our own home to not advocate that we can't control everything they see and hear and when they're at school and play dates or wherever it is or watching tv that influence is beyond our control a lot of the time you know i feel like i'm here to be a father to girls i feel like that's my my calling you know.
9:51That's such a lovely thing to say. That's just what I have and I feel like it is meant. I do. I feel like I'm meant to be a daddy to those three wee girls. Tell me a bit about how you feel on failure generally and then we all get onto your specific failures but is it something that you've always embraced or that you found quite difficult to confront? I think probably as I've got older being more capable of dealing with it kind of like everything in life the older you get the more capable you become learning along the way I guess is part of that and I'm a believer in that with failure you know you're sort of nothing without your failures and there's nobody who gets to any kind of considered high position or impressive position from the outside looking in who hasn't failed massively it builds us it makes us it colors us and it's essential and I I think I wear my failures like a badge of honor a little bit because there's so fucking many of them, you know, particularly as an actor.
10:52You know, there just is, you know, there's very few people who fresh out of the blocks just get a great gig. I mean, funnily enough, my first ever job was a brilliant gig. And then you realize that it's actually not really like that. And then you fail a lot in between, but it stands you in way better stead for when good things do eventually happen. And sometimes they don't happen. I have a career where vast majority I don't want to say fail but like maybe don't get to continue on that path because of lack of work there's horrible statistics about actors at any given moment there's only like four or five percent employed there's none employed at the moment during lockdown I struggle sort of how to judge failure some people especially in my game where there's people who maybe consider their career failure because they're always striving to have the same career someone else or better career than someone else or when they left drama school or whatever it is they thought they'd have a certain career and they don't but they have a career and they put food on the table and they provide and they have a mortgage and all the things that people strive for but in their head it's a failure because they expected something else for themselves but from the outside looking in people are like you're a huge success you know you're never wanting to work you can provide but everyone's version of success is personal to them I think so everyone's failure is personal to them you're so right and our expectations and how we express them to ourselves and our internal narrative that's the key to being happier I think managing expectation so that you're not feeling disappointed when you don't reach it exactly the key but do you regret any of your fashion failures Jamie I only ask because because there are quite a few paparazzi photos of you from the early days in your career when you were dating Keira Knightley, who I'm obsessed with, and you were wearing sort of seatbelt belts and kind of baggy jeans and vans trainers.
12:45Listen, I don't like you putting an S and making belts plural because I had one seatbelt belt. It's very infamous. I have a stylist I work with when I'm doing stuff, Jean Yang, who's a magician, amazing woman. And she is based out in LA and she styles me when I have press and stuff to do these days. and she brings up that green belt so often. It's hard to defend the indefensible. It wasn't glaringly bad at that time, I don't think, that belt. Am I allowed to talk about another podcast on this podcast? I don't know, only if you criticise it. No, I'm kidding. Of course you're allowed. My wife obviously listens to your podcast, but she also listens to The Hilo, which I've listened to a bit myself.
13:28And I know those girls have... Millie will just come in sometimes chuckling and say, yeah, they brought you up and they were sort of digging through old paparazzi, which you're about to do right in front of me now, which is dreadful. Seatbelt belt. I actually had a seatbelt belt. So you're okay. You're in good company. I remember being delighted with myself when I bought that in Camden one day. Because also you wore baggy trousers then, like baggy, big, dreadful looking jeans. Levi's Twisted, I remember buying those, thinking they were class. And they really, really weren't. I remember being with Kira one day and we were walking through Camden and they were genuinely falling off my arse, which is kind of how I wore them anyway.
14:03but it was to a point where I mean it was like I needed help and there you know shining in the sunlight was this green awful shade of green seat belt belt and I thought bingo here we go that'll do the job not only will it serve a purpose I'll look great turns out I didn't it's a bit like when you were talking about how fatherhood is your meaning like that seat belt was you were destined the two of you to find each other. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, I was pretty delighted when I lost it, I have to say. I don't know what became of it. That's one of those things you probably give to a charity shop and they don't even put out on their stall.
14:44They're probably just saying, no, listen, no one's going to want that. You said in past interviews that Keira Knightley gave you very good advice on how to handle fame. Not great fashion advice, but she did tell you, I think, to keep your childhood friends close. Yeah, and Ciara was good at that and still is very close with Bonnie, who's her best friend from school. She had a nightmare time of it when we were kids. She was literally 18, I was 21 when we met, and it was 17 years ago now. She just got an awful time of it. Paparazzi were horrendous and it really was that every single day leaving her apartment or my apartment and hiding in bushes and all that sort of stuff, it was kind of gross.
15:24It wasn't kind of gross. It was really, really gross and invasive and not fun for young, very, very young people to be going through, for anyone to be going through really. But particularly vulnerable 18 year old girl who's only trying to work out the world, you know, and then you've got to deal with that every day. I didn't have that issue, I have to say, because I have always had the same group of mates from school. I just had then and still have the same group now, mostly boys and a few girls from school that I'm just are sort of everything to me, really. So I'm very lucky and fortunate in that way.
15:56Talking of school, that brings us on to your first failure, which is your failure to do that well at school. And fun fact, we both went to the same school. Yes. Although I am older than you, so I don't think we ever coincided because I left in the third year. But you went to school in Methody in Belfast. Yeah. So tell me what happened about that school. I don't look back on school and think that it was a failure because when I was at school I felt that I was there to gain friends and play sport and sort of come out the other side with this sense of being part of a group and having a structure of friends in my life.
16:39I was very aware of that at school I really felt like I should be I want to be like friends with everyone and it wasn't even to be popular it was just to actually have friendship and probably particularly boys because I have two sisters and I was always sort of longing for brothers basically not that listen I love my sisters are brilliant but you do there's a part of you that always thinks if you've only got one sex siblings of like what would it be like to have the other I really wasn't at school in my head to get an education that was just not it's terrible I tell my kids very differently now as a parent but I didn't see it as school being about that as much as my parents tried to drill into me that that's very much what school is meant to be about I didn't see it that way and as a result I did no work I really mean that in the truest sense of the word no work I really didn't I don't say that with any pride at all as I said before it's not a message I will pass on to my kids but you know when it came to like revision for stuff and your mates would always be like, yeah, I've done nothing.
17:42Yeah, absolutely. I've just done nothing. I'm not ready for this exam at all. And I'd be going, no, I've done nothing. And I'd be like, yeah, no, me too. No, no, I'm serious. I've literally, literally done nothing. I haven't opened a book. You know, if I've had study time, my dad comes in to check an hour later to make sure, you know, I was literally like sort of making, you know, study graphs and coloring stuff in and, you know, mucking about my Game Boy or something, you know, just anything but revision. and the proof was in the pudding a wee bit like I didn't do very well in my exams and all my friends who said they hadn't done work but actually had done did a bit better than me and then everyone else who worked very hard did a lot better than me I also had an issue with school about how exams were like I always felt like it was kind of just a memory test a lot of time you're being prepped for the particular questions that were going to come up sometimes the exact questions that were going to come up and the teacher would kind of have a sense of what it was going to be even for the state exams not even for the in school like the mocks and stuff by the way which is an easy way like I could have just learned those answers and done the work and memorize stuff you see the relief of people when they open their exam paper and they'll be like oh yeah it came up I would never even have that relief because I wouldn't even have bothered to learn and revise and remember all this stuff and like I didn't do terribly at school like I did enough to pass my GCSEs I did enough to come back from my A-levels just with a bit of negotiating here and there but I struggled with the sort of structure of our school and I felt that I would have potentially done better in a different school where whatever strengths I had were harnessed a wee bit differently I have a lot of good things to say about Matthew because as I say I've still got all my best mates in the world from that school and from a couple other schools in Belk us but friends from when I was a kid but that whole structure of it with the sort of donning the big black capes and the silly hats and putting this massive blockage between students and the teachers and making them so unapproachable and terrifying I just don't think that's the way a school should be and I understand that that comes from trying to insert respect in the kids so that you will respect these people who are in charge of you and you will respect your elders and stuff.
19:57It actually makes me do the opposite. You'd have my respect if you smiled at me and knew my name and were wearing normal fucking clothes and not some fucking sinister black cape. Do you know what I mean? Like, I just, I've always really struggled with that, you know? And even when we, early days, when we were going to see some schools for our eldest, we were to see this school and the headmaster was saying, you know, we're very relaxed here, you know, the kids, it's all first name terms. I was saying all the right things I want to hear. And I said something along those lines of like, I've always found it very strange with that sort of us and them thing that teachers put at my school very much so that like, you know, I don't know how to say it really because I did have a good time at school.
20:40But I... It sounds like you, which is interesting because I wouldn't initially have thought this about you, but like you were a bit of a rebel. I wouldn't say I was a rebel. I was sort of maybe trying to get to that. I wasn't badly behaved at school, but I did struggle with a lot of the sort of conforming at school and that whole thing of like, if one of those teachers, the headmaster, the vice headmaster, whatever it is, headmistress, was walking down the corridor, like they were so on you about your shirt being like an inch untucked or, you know, something, your collar being up a little bit because you've sort of thrown it on after PE class or whatever.
21:13So if you saw one of those teachers walking down the corridor, you were terrified. That shouldn't be the case. You shouldn't be terrified. of your teachers I feel like I was always on my shirt untucked or whatever so I wasn't a bad person but I struggled with that sort of conforming to the rules that that particular school set for me and in the way they studied and the way you're harnessed in class because I didn't think I was stupid but I felt like I was made to feel I was stupid quite a lot at that school and the school I went to and you went to was very much like you're either going to be a doctor or a lawyer or you're going to work in business and there was really genuinely nothing else talked about that was just the way it was and maybe slightly about the time it was too but if you sort of uttered the idea of doing anything outside of those three vocations you're kind of laughed out of the room you just weren't listened to not that I was sitting there going I want to be an actor I really didn't think I want to be the golden torso I want to be that yeah that's a that's a massive aim for for a kid from Belfast I want to be the golden torso it's not as if I get it but I never felt stupid but I felt that I had something to give that maybe could have been harnessed better or seen maybe by teachers and stuff you know so interesting talking to you about it because I had forgotten how terrifying methody was from that perspective my memory of it was very much I need to do well at exams to get approval yeah and that was a kind of habit that shaped the rest of my life in quite a negative way because I thought if I just work hard I'll get approval and that will make me feel better about myself and obviously that never really happened my memory was much more because I've always spoken with this English accent that I didn't feel included or welcomed at all in my peer group so actually Methody for me was not about friends at all it was about feeling really isolated and sad and probably terrified as you say because it was so regimented if we could switch your experience of my experience or we could combine the two if you use them yeah it'd be like I mean they'd be delighted with us would be like the perfect product that they've created the exam side of it my mother died just after my GCSEs and then four of my best mates were killed in a car accident all from my year at school the following summer I wasn't in a great place I've got to say in my head and that's when I was talking about we had these negotiations I'd done okay in my GCSEs but my mum was dying the whole way through and I wasn't and I wasn't doing any work anyway but that had sort of become this like other huge factor when it came to working out what I would do next in terms of A-levels and stuff and we came to this deal that I would stay at school doing my A-levels at Methody but I'd board for two years we had a boarding department it's actually quite good if you've gone through school your whole school life as a day people and there's a boarding department at that school you're always fascinated by what goes on in there you know when they go behind that wee door what happens down there like it's just a whole other world that you just aren't privy to so you get to do that once you're a bit more sure of yourself and you're 16 17 18 and you're probably at the right end of the totem pole in terms of what happens in boarding and the bullying that goes on in every boarding school probably and I played rugby and stuff and that was like help but in boarding to go in and be in the rugby team you knew you weren't going to get messed about to be honest so I didn't do well mate I was I was about to say I did okay I didn't do I got CDE I think but I got enough to get into a university that I didn't want to go to but I was sort of forced to go not forced to go to but like it just seemed like the done thing like what we're saying about that type of school is like you chose the right A-levels to stay in the same path to get to this certain goal which always struck me as quite a boring goal and the only thing I ever ever knew about myself growing up was that I didn't want to work in an office it's the only thing I've ever truly known about myself I just don't have the right patience up Actitude, I don't really know how to categorize it, but I just knew that I didn't want to do that.
25:14I'm not saying that means I wanted to be an actor or anything else. Frivolous is that, but I knew that I didn't want to do that. And all of these things I was being led towards were kind of pushing me in that direction. So I didn't do very well on my A-levels. And then I went to uni that I kind of only went to because I got in to do a marketing degree in absolutely no interest. You know, my school would have been kind of happy with that because it's something that could end in a sort of relatively serious job. and the whole time I felt like I was sort of doing, making those decisions against my will.
25:43I guess this sort of comes back to in terms of why I think it ended up being good for me, sort of failing at school, is had I worked, had I really taken those exams seriously, those mock exams, those GCSEs, your A-levels, and I mean, even A-levels, I swear to God, I'm not doing it to sound. It's not even cool, even if I didn't do any work from A-levels. Nothing, I mean, literally nothing. went to uni I went to nine hours of uni five of them in freshers week so then I spent eight months and I went to four hours of university in eight months I played rugby four days a week and drank a lot I had a good time I've got to say but I knew I wasn't on the right path had I done better in my A-levels and then gone to uni and done a course I really wanted to do and done very well and come out of a good degree I'd be on a very different path I just wouldn't be happy so actually that failure at school for me not for everyone obviously but for me worked to my favor in a really big way so I want to come back to what happened next but I just want to pause and acknowledge what you went through as a 16 year old with your mother dying and then your four friends die in a car crash and I'm so so sorry and how do you deal with that grief at that age I had counselling, very open to admit that.
27:05I didn't actually until the accident I don't think which is 13 months after my mum had died which had a huge impact on well the entire country really it was a very big horrific event but particularly you know my friendship group obviously and that's not true I had had a bit of counselling after mum died before that and then that happened and I had more counselling because you don't really have a clue you sort of don't have a clue what's going on in the world anyway when you're 16 17 and it's a lot of change happening at that time in your life and a lot of very big decisions are being made about your future at that age and weirdly in a way maybe not being able to totally focus on that in a way that other kids may have been was a benefit to me in hindsight.
27:55If you're trying to claw to take any kind of positive out of such a horrendous situation. But it was so bleak, clearly, and affects you every day. I mean, actually, I've had a very tearful week, honestly, about my mum particularly. I'm writing a script at the moment, and we've just finished the first draft and now going through it. And second drafting it, I'm writing it with a very friend of mine. and we are two main sort of protagonists in the movie are kids who've lost their parents and when they're teenagers and so much of it I haven't even been accepting of the fact that that happened to me it's really weird and then I'll finish the day and I'm like writing about these kids talking to each other trying to help each other through what that grief must be like and I've been sort of blanking it I guess as some sort of defence mechanism probably and then feeling sort of bereft at the end of the day and my writing partner will see it.
28:49He'll be like, you've got to stop. And I'll be like, yeah, okay. And then I'll like cry for an hour. It's been the maddest experience, but also quite cathartic and good, you know, ultimately, I think. I don't want to upset you further, but I also, I'm aware that when people lose someone and they're in the public eye, that they often get asked about the experience of that loss for them and what happened afterwards. But I just wanted to offer a chance for you to say what your mum was like? I mean, she was incredible. I mean, very beautiful, like truly beautiful looking, a restingly beautiful looking woman.
29:27An amazing smile, very quick-witted, incredibly glamorous. You know, my mum's from a farm in Portadown, but you wouldn't know it talking to her. My whole family, like my sister's sound very different to me and my mum did too. and my dad inherited this slightly posh accent thing. And my mum, considering she grew up in Portadown, she really got far away from Portadown in her accent. But it was all part of the way she carried herself and the sort of glamour that she had. It's a very odd thing and not a very nice thing to have to admit that there's many aspects of my mum that I don't remember. Truly just don't have a very strong recollection.
30:09And I use my sisters a lot and my dad to try to build on the memories I have. of mum because they're fleeting for me to be honest and this is in a time you know mum died in 98 it's before you filmed absolutely everything on your phone and you know there's not a huge amount of sort of documentary footage let's say of my mum so and I love it like when something does come into my mind I'll get this like little nugget that comes into my mind of something I had forgotten that my sister will mention to me or something and I love that and then I try to harness that as best I can, make sure I don't forget that again.
30:47My dad's very proud and loves the line of work I've fallen into and everything, but my mum would have really got a serious kick out of it.
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32:031998 then was a time of extraordinary transition and grief for you personally. and politically a lot happened in Northern Ireland. They signed the Good Friday Agreement. I know what it was like living there then, but I would love to know what your experience was of going to school in Belfast and how aware you were of what is diminishingly referred to as the Troubles. Yeah. Funny, isn't it, how meek that makes it sound, the Troubles. I've never shied away from how middle class my upbringing was. it was about as middle class as you can get in the north of Ireland but in the same breath you're growing up in Belfast and you're going to school in the middle of Belfast and there's no one who grew up or lived in that country during those times who wasn't affected by the troubles no matter what your situation was.
32:59Even things like how normal trying to plan to go into town obviously before mobile phones and stuff on a Saturday we always met outside McDonald's in the centre of town just to wander around on a Saturday afternoon. And the amount of times you'd phone the house phone of your friend because you'd seen on news there's a bomb scare. I mean, that was kind of in my head every weekend. I guess, did you see the news? Yeah, there's a bomb scare there, so not going into town today. I mean, the idea of that now, honestly, how commonplace that sentence was. And, you know, my dad worked at the Royal his whole life, which is, you know, on the Falls Road in West Belfast and delivered, as you said, at the start of this, over 6 ,000 babies in Northern Ireland.
33:42That's not 6 ,000 Catholic babies, 6 ,000 Protestant babies. That is a real mix of everything. So I feel like I was brought up in a very liberal household where religion was very rarely mentioned. I think we sort of went to church a little bit in the beginning of our lives. I don't think I went after the age of seven. And I think it was only, as talking to dad and I, that it was only because my mum and my dad's parents were very religious and it was sort of keeping up appearances with them still around that we kept that up. And I never grew up feeling like I was on one side or the other. I didn't understand it.
34:17And actually, a very good thing about Methody was it was very mixed. When most people here or in England or anywhere else, they hear mixed, I think you mean boy-girl, but it was very mixed Catholic-religant at Methody and many other denominations, which was a great thing, If I think of my best mates from school, we're literally 50-50, probably slightly edging more Catholic. And we all grew up in a generation where you wanted to distance yourself from even that, even knowing what each other are. But truth be told, it's still totally divided countries. Only 3 % of schools are mixed, segregated. And there's still areas that Catholics will never live in, areas Protestants will never live in, particularly only really in the working class areas.
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34:57So as much as the Good Friday Agreement was a huge thing, and obviously it's been an incredible marking for the country, there's still deep division there, and it's a very complicated place. It's so interesting to hear you talk about religion, because I remember I ended up going to school in England, and I remember the first time I heard classmates talking openly about what religion they were, and I was so shocked. Because in the north of Ireland, it carried such tribal profundity. You would never speak openly about it for fear of something happening. I totally relate to that. And you're right that Methody was mixed.
35:33But I remember at Methody, because I was a weekly boarder, and I would walk to the bus station to get the bus back home on a Saturday. And I would walk past Europa Hotel, which is infamous for being the most bombed hotel in Europe. And I remember this one time, there'd been a bomb the night before, every single window had shattered at the Europa Hotel. and there were just these hulking metal warped unrecognizable messes that had been cars and that was just normal. Yeah sure I know my god I know it is like it is one of those things like when you know and again with people particularly in the states when you say where you're from they're like oh my god like how did you uh get out alive and if you see like imagery now of what was our normal news it blows your mind I mean it really does, you cannot believe what you're seeing, the rioting and police didn't drive normal cars, they drove those things they called meat wagons, those big armoured Land Rovers and just people petrol bombing each other over sort of barricades and it was you didn't blink watching that in the 90s and 80s and 90s from the time that I remember, it was just so normal and now you realise how crazy it was yeah and how much impact it has I'm really bad at timekeeping but I'm just so fascinated by everything that you're saying that I'm so sorry we've only just done one failure but let's move on to your this is how you write it failure to be very good in a tv show called once upon a time resulting in being killed after after nine episodes before we get to that tell us how you got into acting because your lovely sister Jess who is basically how we've organized this podcast who I know a bit and I'm so grateful to her she claims that it's all because of her and she got you into model behavior at channel 4 reality tv show right yes I yeah let's let's give her the due credit there she did I'd acted at school I'd done a bit of youth theater back home too I'd done a bit of amdram at home too so it's not like it was alien to me at school by the time it came to sixth year you couldn't be active in the drama department and also play rugby at a particular level because rehearsals for plays are at the same time as training basically for rugby.
37:50So I did drama at GCSE and I'd done all the productions up until that point. Then when it came to sixth year, I basically had a choice and I chose rugby. I don't regret that for a second, the time of my life playing rugby. But it meant that I sort of hadn't really featured in my sort of late teens in any sort of dramatic sense. But I'd always loved it. I knew I could do it a bit. I knew I had something in me to give in that department. let's say and when I dropped out of uni after a year and I said to my dad I want to go to London I said why I don't really know I had this belief that something good would happen if I went to London so I sort of convinced my dad to let me go and I'd secured a job in a pub before I went there I knew I had this job this bar called Tattersall's Tavern in Nightbridge which I believe is still there and I worked there for six months in that summer that I dropped out of uni my dad just wanted me to do anything like anything that was constructive a low point one day he came back and I drank a lot that summer and didn't achieve a lot I have to say and one day I'd de-strung and taken all the strings out of a tennis racket that I'd broken a string on hadn't re-strung it I'd just taken all the strings out and dad was like what'd you do today and I was just standing holding this tennis racket with a hole in it saying I took all the strings out of this I was thinking of getting it and then he sort of took me away for a chat he called me a waster actually I remember very clearly he said I was a waster and I didn't disagree with him I was a waster that summer I was really achieving nothing very evident to the rest of my family that I was wasting everything away not everything was not like I had anything to waste but like I was just not achieving anything and Jess my sister was just scrabbling around was Lisa my other sister just trying to help me like find some motivation and Jess saw this ad for like some sort of open casting for some this is very early days of even I mean I've sort of never even thought of that as a reality tv show but I guess it was but I just did so badly in it I guess that's another failure that I didn't get to a point where it felt like a reality tv show so I went to this audition to for this thing model behavior last thing in the world I want to do is model I mean no kid grows up maybe they do now certainly I didn't I wasn't a kid growing up in Belfast going I'd love to get my photograph taken for money but anyway it was something to do and I convinced my mate Andrew Hazard to come with me so I'm gonna give Hazard a bit of credit here because Jess had told me to go it was at the Welly Park Hotel which is beside Methody on the Malone Road and on the way there I called him and it was like we had to be there at like 9am which in those days was so early now that I've got three kids that is a massive lie in but then it was so early and I called him at like 8.45 I said I'll pick you up in 10 minutes no I'm not coming I'm like mate please my sister's going to kill me if I don't go to this thing I don't want to go mate I don't want to go I'm still sleeping I was like fuck it I'm going to turn around and just go home and like fuck this it's just pointless who wants to be a model anyway and then there's something in me it's like I heard my sisters you know and my dad calling me a waster it was something to fill the day even if I just said to dad oh I went to that thing and I filled the day dad doing that I remember I was like I'm going to turn back and then I thought I'm going to give Hazard one more go I called him back said mate you actually really need to do this for me my family are going to kill me if I don't turn up to this thing he said alright okay pick me up in five minutes so I did I picked him up and had he said no again I really genuinely turned around anyway long story short went did alright I got through the Belfast part of it which with the greatest of respect isn't a huge achievement and got through to by the hazard didn't get didn't make it through the next day and they came back the next day and then the whole thing was they whittled you down and they picked like six people from ireland there wasn't one in dublin so this was the all ireland round or whatever so there's a few dubs up and stuff and it ended up being a few dubs and a few people from the north that all went to london right and that was the whole thing you went to london and there was like people from manchester and birmingham and glasgow and like this and And there was probably 40 of us and they whittled that down to 20 and then to 10.
41:54And those 10 people then lived in an apartment together and went out on castings together. So I got nowhere near. I got half a day in London or something and it was booted out. But I was very tenacious, I guess. And I don't really remember having this in me. But I remember taking the email of one of the judges, Kim Von Dickman, who was one of the judges who's also an agent at Select. And I said, listen, do you think I could do this? and she was kind of like, you know, basically call us if you ever come to London. And I took that as like, oh, wow, they want me to go to London and be a model. And my dad will be happy because it's something.
42:30So then I knew it wouldn't be something straight away. And there was all this contractual stuff that I couldn't do it right away because I'd been part of the show and had to wait for there to be a winner before you got a contract with Select and all those bollocks. So I went back home and said, look, dad, I think if I can get myself a job in a pub, I have this contact now at this modelling agency I could probably do that and fair play to him he agreed to let me do that so basically if I hadn't done that that wouldn't have led to being an actor so if I hadn't made that first step Jessica hadn't suggested it if Hazard hadn't answered the phone I wouldn't be sat here basically and if you hadn't been good looking enough did you think you were good looking?
43:06no way, no no no I thought I looked like I've said this before I still think this that I look like a thumb if I don't have a beard I look like a like a wee thumb I think so no I'd never been led to believe that I was good looking at that stage and when you started getting all these shoots and campaigns for Dior Om and Calvin Klein did you then think I'm good looking or did it not percolate for me I never felt that I was the best looking guy and that's why I was getting these jobs it's all about like having the right look for the time or whatever it is. But also for me, I think, and it harks back to what I was saying about school and like people at the top of every industry from every kind of industry you can think of, they're just people and they want good conversation and they respond to other human beings.
43:57I feel like my biggest asset was like, I tend to get on pretty well with people, which is in a way from what school was trying to tell us of like important people are out of reach. You can't talk to them like they're humans. You can. and I don't care what reputation this photographer I've been told I'm working with and how, you know, I'm like, he's just a fucking person. And he just talks. And I feel like my modeling career, I did inordinately well in it and I didn't expect to. But I think a lot of that was down to it. I worked with a lot of the same people, a lot repetitively, big photographers, the same fashion house.
44:30I had the same sort of campaigns with the same two or three very big clients. But it was all because by that stage, I just got on well with the people and they know you so they know what you're getting rather than like, oh, he's the best-looking person for the job. that's not what it was about sorry I keep getting distracted by tangents but there's so much I was asking did you or do you ever feel objectified oh I yeah yeah definitely when I not now probably so much but certainly when I was modeling yeah yeah because that's exactly what's happening yeah you are being objectified you're an object and again that's why you know I was always sort of battling against that and trying to make it not that and not like you're this thing we've hired to look pretty lying on a fucking sofa do you know what I mean like I would probably be like oh no can we not have this experience where we all talk and you don't just tell me where to put my face and push me around the place I guess it is a lot of time in that world I always just tried to sort of make it fun because I didn't like it I today I hate getting my photograph taken I'm very uncomfortable with it and I wasn't a good model I did well from it but I wasn't good at it I don't think and the whole 50 shades of gray thing and the idea that you are countless women's and men's heartthrob like that if we still had posters there would be posters of you blue tacked up on sort of teenage girls petrums walls and all that sort of stuff how does that sit with you because that's also objectification any actor whatever's putting themselves in that position I guess like that happened you know my sisters grew up pictures of Johnny Depp on their wall and that's just Brad Pitt for me Brad Pitt yeah I mean I had I had some Ulster rugby players on my wall and then I had like a black and white black and white picture of Liv Tyler that I used to kiss before I went to sleep every night oh my god that's so sweet and I was once with someone listen I was once with someone who knew that story and she was a friend of hers and she goes Jamie get on the phone here and I was like and she put me on the phone to fucking live Tyler and she's like oh my god I heard your story and you used to kiss me I was like oh fuck this no idea what to say there yeah I mean objectification is sadly a bit of a part of comes with the territory I think of okay now tell me about Once Upon a Time the TV show have you ever seen Once Upon a Time okay I should have been a really good interviewer and watched it but I haven't ever seen it I'm sorry so listen I guess I was at the point in my career where my first ever job I did my first ever audition I had an agent for five days and my first ever audition was for Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and I got it and it was a decent part like not a huge part but like quite integral to the whole thing and I remember thinking fuck this is mad like just like straight off the bat I've got this great job Sophia literally just won an Academy Award for Laws and Translation so much hype about the movie it was a big studio movie at Sony and I was like this is class cut to you know barely working for the next eight years.
47:26But in that time I was modeling. So I had this kind of cushy situation of being able to afford to not be devastated if I didn't audition single my way, which were so, so many. And I hadn't worked in a while. I was feeling a bit low about it. I was thinking that I maybe just didn't really want to do it anymore. You know, I had this very good representation. You know, I was like the best agent in London. I was a CAA in LA. Like on paper, it looked like I was so set but I wasn't working and I was out there for pilot season which is a pretty grim environment to spend time in which is just like you know herded around like cattle in LA trying to score any gig and it's such a strange thing because you can get a pilot and just be delighted because it's guaranteed money it might not even get picked up but you sign your life away for five years and then sometimes you get these people who do book one of those pilots and the Dolls run for five years and it's a horror show of a production and they're locked in and actually they're better than that or whatever it is.
48:23And you get George Clooney, who did nine pilots that didn't get picked up. And that's nine years of your life because you can't sign up to more than one pilot. So it's a horrible environment and everyone, you're all sitting in the room together, a load of guys who look almost identical to you, all trying to achieve the same thing. And I was out there for pilot season. You're always depressed during pilot season anyway. and I was out there and to stave off the depression I brought my girlfriend at the time with me who's now my wife I was like listen will you come out and be there with me because I just will need you to get through this I also proposed to her out then in LA in that time which made everything better where did you propose at our friend's house in LA where we met uh did you get done in one knee I did I did the whole shebang you know but I was out in LA and I hadn't really been doing very well with the auditions.
49:11I hate auditioning. I'm a terrible auditioner. And I suddenly got this call that I had to audition for this thing once upon a time that there was a lot of hype about. It was the sort of pilot that everyone wanted to book. It was ABC production. It was Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz who were two of the main writers on Lost. There was a lot of hype about it. And I basically got it and was truly under the belief that it had changed my life. And it did. And I feel like it did at a time where I really hadn't worked in a long time and I was on the show that everyone would be on. So I came back, shot the pilot in Vancouver I came back and then you've got this sort of horrible two, three month wait to find out does the pilot get picked up?
49:46You've signed on to be in it for five or six, seven years. I can't remember what it was. And I got a phone call that the pilot had been picked up. I was like, oh my God, brilliant. Here we go. Happy days. Getting paid a lot of money to be in this show that is on a big network show. And my agent was like, the show's been picked up, but they're going to kill your character off pretty early. I was like, right. Okay. they tried to spin it that like it was like a story thing they were always going to kill one of the characters off because that sort of happens and shows i now know that like it was probably just bollocks you know they test the shit out of those pilots they'll test audience them and i think probably everyone was like get rid of that dude and i actually always felt very uncomfortable in the role i felt like i wasn't this guy i sort of didn't really ever really know what to do with it couldn't really hang my hat on anything with him i don't know why so i felt i wasn't very good in it so then I had this strange thing of like having to go back and shoot eight more episodes but knowing it was going to be over for me and really truly believing that my world had kind of ended I remember going out my flatmate Jonesy at the time it was his wee brother's birthday we're going for pints in Notting Hill somewhere and I remember I was like I don't think I can go and like sitting with Millie and like crying and being like I can't I can't see people I'm so embarrassed by it all because everyone's going to be like what's happened with your show has it got picked up are you going are you moving to Vancouver?
51:02And I was going to have to be like, yeah, I'm going, but I won't be going for as long as I thought, maybe. Anyway, cut to, I get killed off. And then the fall comes my way. And I just, I would have been on that show for seven years. I wouldn't have been able to do the fall. So actually, again, it's a failure that ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. But at the time, I would never have believed you if you said that. So two things there. One is, thank you so much for talking honestly about what it's like to be an actor who fails. Because I think a lot of actors listen to this podcast, which I'm very grateful for.
51:36And it's super helpful, I think, to hear that, to hear about the other side of fame and glitz and success. That actually there is all this stuff that I imagine is very difficult not to take personally because it's you that's being judged at the end of the day. Once you get over that, that's huge. I think my sister told you, I nearly wrote that one of my failures was not being as eloquent as Daisy Edgar-Jones. I listened to her with you and she's like 22 or something I think she just turned 22 stop I know, she's amazing and I just could never have spoken about what we do with such poise and decorum as she does and elegance I still can't clearly as I ramble on here I like that too I like hearing when other actors because it's brutal it's really tough like it's really tough and I feel so fortunate to be in the position I am now I have a choice over the work I do and I have lots of work come my way because I've been there.
52:35I've been at the other side of it where that isn't the case. And it really challenges your idea of your own self-worth. If you've really committed to doing something and that thing isn't working out for you, you really question yourself, you know.
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53:39The second thing I wanted to say is that I know that you are an atheist. At least that's what Wikipedia said, so I'm hoping it's correct. Yeah, I mean, I guess I lean more towards agnostic now. I don't know kind of why, but in the last few years, I've maybe more towards that slightly softer version. One of the things I was going to ask you, which I guess might explain some of that, is that a couple of times you've said stuff that makes me feel that you believe in destiny, that you were destined to be a father of your three girls, that actually being killed off and once upon a time led you to the fall.
54:15Is that accurate, do you think? Yeah, but I just wouldn't staple any of that to religion. Probably for me personally. You know, it's like those little snippets that you pick up along the way and like someone just once said to me that saying of what's for you won't pass you by and there's certain things you hear and that just really has stuck with me and it makes all your failings of which there have been many and will continue to be many way more palatable and digestible you know and listen I've had that with jobs you know the jobs where I've turned down and they've become like the biggest hit of the fucking year and I'm like shit should I have done that and then but something else comes along that you wouldn't have been able to do you know and I think you have to apply that to the vocation that I'm in I sort of believe that you're on a bit of a path these challenges are put in your way are these great things that happen that are all sort of for you based on that thing that like if it's not for you it won't land on your lap type thing I feel like I don't consider it too much I don't look into it too much once that event happens like once I do have three girls or once I do get this job because I didn't do well in that job I'm very accepting of it and I then sort of tell myself that it was kind of like all part of the plan and I'm maybe aware that there's a bit of a path but I'm not like really zeroed in on it and I don't talk about it a lot.
55:34Yeah I think that makes total sense that you can choose to attach meaning to something retrospectively and I mean that's definitely the way that I choose to live because otherwise sadness would happen for no reason. Yeah and then you'd also just be inside your head too much and I always try not to be really heady and I'm always trying to get outside of my own head and actually having kids is the best thing for that it's the best thing for that through lockdown particularly three months of that having a focus that isn't going on based purely on what's good for you works for me you know I need that if I spend too much time in my own head I get freaked down.
56:16I know it's very exciting for me because this is the first interview that I've done post lockdown which is face to face. Right I see. I feel like I've lost all capacity for small talk and social interaction so I hope this is going okay. No and we're holding the Amazon delivery drivers around for like minutes he's like I've got to go no no here tell me come here where are you where are you going now? Any of your kids well? You know just like desperate for for chat it's been a strange time. Your final failure is your failure to sit still which is such a charming failure to choose. How have I done today?
56:53I feel like I've been battling it a wee bit here because I do have to sit still. It's funny when I said to my wife this morning before I came she said did you decide it? She knew I'd decided on the first two or whatever. What did you decide for the third failure? And I said because I had plenty of options obviously I said a failure to sit still and she went uh huh she said did you say you could add on and quiet and I was like right I'm going to defend myself a wee bit here you get blood tests done all the time as an actor you have to do a medical before every job do you if you're a lead in something and if the production can't really continue without your health being in check then you need to do these medicals and sometimes they're really thorough and you're on a fucking treadmill or hooked up to all these pads and a big mask on.
57:43Sometimes they're testing you for very specific things like illegal drugs and all kinds of stuff you go through. And it's kind of great because you get a free medical every year and you get a proper check-up. And sometimes it's much less than that. Sometimes it's a cough and a whistle and out you go. But in a very early medical I had, and then I've had it done a few times since, my bloods were tested for adrenaline and I had very high levels of adrenaline in my system. So that is my excuse for what I feel is struggling to sit still and to be still and sometimes maybe to be quiet too. I'm a terrible singer.
58:17I don't mean I'm terrible singer. I'm an okay singer, but what I mean is I'm terrible. I do it all the time. I'm probably a bit of a nightmare to be around a lot of the time because of that. I think I make a lot of noise and I move a lot. I'm one of those people who really genuinely struggles unless I've exercised. When I was younger, I was playing a lot of sport, playing a lot of rugby and stuff. I got that out of my system, so I probably was a bit calmer. but as you get older and you've kids and as much as you're running right after them I'm not running right after ball or running with a ball so it's a strange thing now if I don't run or work out or play football or whatever it is I'm way worse when it comes to a certain time particularly around five my wife calls it shoddy bangy time which is like something you'd apply to your toddlers everyone I've lived with is acutely aware of this situation and it's usually around that time of the day something about my adrenaline levels blood sugar levels whatever I go a bit hyper around that time that's fascinating and then what happens to you do you have after the spike do you have a bit of a crash yeah I will sometimes have a bit of a crash I have quite low lows I have to say I think and that's related to everything I'm saying about bloods and stuff and I'm a on form person most of the time you know I don't think anyone would think of me as someone who again me trying to not be inside my head a lot I try to not be inside my head a lot I'm trying to communicate with people often probably too much for my wife's liking she is an only child and is a very calm person and likes calm a lot of time and probably I'm not ideal the guy as I've been writing this script that we've kind of finished I've been you know in a room with him for a couple of weeks he's a very close friend anyway but he's never spent that type of time with me and you know him and my wife are very close and Connor his name's Connor McNeil and Connor's like we came up after a couple of days into my office together and to Millie he was like how do you live with him and she was like I know I was like you know what fuck you guys I'm standing here and like I guess I'm not that aware of how annoying it can be but I think it is so is going to the theatre your idea Nightmare.
1:00:27Nightmare. Especially those old theatres where there's no leg room and stuff. I'll tell you what one of the hardest things was doing the fall, because I'd made a choice to play him very still, which was a nightmare for me. And then by the third series, I was pretty much spending the whole series in a hospital bed, a massive challenge again for me. You have the props guys coming in and saying, Jimmy, every time you keep moving, every time you move, we have to replace this. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I'm really trying. I'm really trying not to do it. I just can't, I just can't. Terrible. And that's something you've always had?
1:01:00I believe so, yeah. Squirmy, squirmy Jamie. Active child, yeah, an active man. Yeah, squirmy. You've done very well today, I have to say. It doesn't feel rude at all. It feels like part of your expression. Yeah, I think it has become that, you know. But now when I see it, I'm like, oh my God, what is wrong with you? You know, I'll see like an interview of myself on like a red carpet or something. I'm literally like rocking back and forth like I'm in some like asylum. It's mad. You know, thank God this isn't on camera. I still hate hearing my voice. I hate seeing myself, being myself. I'm okay.
1:01:43I don't love watching myself act. It's much easier if I'm watching myself in something good because you're usually better if it's something that's well written. Great words make great actors, as O'Toole said. I'm a huge believer in that. And that's okay. But watching me be myself, I cannot stand it. I'm just like, what are you doing? I sit still, why are you doing that with your eyes? Oh my God, do you know your knee's doing that? I just can't believe how kinetic I am. It's so interesting. Well, I think that shows that you are the polar opposite of a narcissist, which is a great thing. But I've watched your many chat shows.
1:02:15I've never noticed the squirming. You're an impeccable chat show guest. You have that down pat. Like you're so good at it, having just the right anecdote and being sort of friendly and funny and engaging. It's a skill being a good chat show guest, I imagine. Thanks. A lot of that's on the host, I reckon. I think Graham Norton's the best in the world at that. I totally agree. And I love every single one of your appearances on Graham Norton. Thank you. The walking one, particularly. Thank you. Jesus, that comes up a lot. People who don't know me. It's very funny. I think it was the first time I ever did.
1:02:49Graham Norton and I, it's amazing how many times I talk about it. And also, I mean, I'm still very aware of my walk and still very uncomfortable with the way I walk. In fact, today, I parked my car over there down the street and I got out of the car and went, fuck, I'm like 50 yards from your house. And what if you're looking out and the first impression you have of me is walking? I'm joking. I was like, she's going to be like, oh, Jesus Christ. Look at this guy. I don't think I want him on the phone. Tiptoeing my bouncing way up the fucking road. so I was delighted when you hadn't seen me until I was standing in the door and I thought if I can get to that chair quick enough and then wriggle around in it for an hour and a half I have not noticed anything amiss with your walk for anyone who hasn't seen that Graham Norrisen clip first of all I highly recommend it and secondly Jamie was talking about how you naturally walk on your toes yeah you want to see our one and a half not quite one unless you go one and a half by the time this comes out she is on her toes the entire time and I'm like oh well okay it is something within me that they're inheriting and I'm I feel terrible about it but yeah I was basically taught when I was had like dance lessons for something that you're actually meant to sort of he said you know it's like walking you know you go heel to toe and I was like what news to me so yeah yeah I missed you in Grim Norton it's funny on New Year's Eve we were with our best friends and we were you know drunk and you know you say all these lovely things at the stroke of midnight I turned around to Millie and I was like I think I had five movies coming out in 2020 I said to Millie I really think this is gonna be really just 2020 is gonna be a great year for me cut to the worst year of all time for absolutely everyone except like you know whoever owns Netflix yeah it was this weird thing and actually a part of me is upset is like not getting to sit on Graham's sofa and promote some of the movies which I will hopefully get to at some time and that whole remote thing that he was doing, it was hard, wasn't it?
1:04:50Yeah, it doesn't have the same feeling. Yeah, I felt sorry for like, I think Paul Mescal had to do it, didn't he, early on? Like at the, you know, obviously it'd be like his first time doing the show and he's like, you know, sat in his flat in Hackney. I felt quite sorry for him. Are you friends with Paul Mescal just because you're both Irish? I am, I. Listen, he's one of my best mates now. No, listen, I reached out to him. Reached out, that's such an American thing to say. It's my agent says it all the time. I'd text him. Again, listen, Ireland's the smallest place in the world, so it is not six degrees of separation in Ireland.
1:05:22It's one, two maybe. One of the very good mates is a very good mate of his, so I said, ask Paul if it's okay for me to get in touch. So I did. So now I'm in touch with him. You know, sometimes you watch someone and you're just compelled. And I find myself, I think we should do that more in my game because everyone is so accessible. I've never had a situation yet where I've been moved by someone's performance or a director on something that I haven't been able to get in touch with. If you have good representation, you can do that. And I think it's a good thing, and it's something I'm doing more of now because it doesn't happen to me loads, but it certainly has happened to me.
1:05:58And from people that you just never expect that are seeing, usually it's the fall, very heighty actors get in touch, and I'm like, oh, wow, I've never done that. So I'm starting to do that more because I think it's nice to hear it from peers saying, by the way, what you did and that was phenomenal and I just want you to know that it might mean nothing coming from me that I'm telling you that but I'd like you to know that I think it's right that you know that also who better to guide him through instant fanatical heartthrob status than you I mean it feels even bigger for him I think because of we're all in lockdown when the obsession began with that show and it must have just be so strange for him to be feeling that all through his phone and on his laptop and not in reality, it's probably fucking good for him, to be honest.
1:06:44You know, that that's the case. But he's going to get a proper shock when the pub's open. And, well, they'll open by the time this is. He's probably been kidnapped or something by now, Paul, to be honest. By the time this comes out, there'll be people see him and just jump him and throw him in a van. Jamie Dornan, inveterate squirmer. Yes. I never noticed your walk. I think you're just such a lovely, interesting, warm person, and I cannot thank you enough for coming on How To Fail. Thank you. I can't wait to fail many more times so I get to come on again. Well, yeah, please, wouldn't you? I can 10 years' time.
1:07:18Oh, I will. Don't worry. I'll be failing. I'll be making lots of failures. Don't worry.
From the publisher
I’m revisiting some of my favourite episodes this Christmas. This week it’s Jamie Dornan, whose episode went out when we were in deepest, darkest lockdown, on 24th November 2020. This is what I wrote at the time:
You’ll know Jamie from starring on our screens in The Fall, Fifty Shades of Grey, and more recently The Tourist. He joins me to talk about failures in acting, failures at school and a failure to sit still. We also discuss growing up in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles, male objectification, the death of his beloved mother from cancer at the age of 16 and the loss of four friends in a car crash shortly afterwards. We talk about grief, therapy and what it means to be a father. And we talk about why he walks on his tiptoes.
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