In Belfast, writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s black-and-white ode to his childhood, a young boy named Buddy (Jude Hill) escapes from his often-turbulent reality via movies. One day it’s the splashy musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the next it’s the classic Western High Noon. It becomes clear that Buddy idolizes Jamie Dornan’s Pa as his own version of a strapping movie star, despite his all-too human faults.
Dornan says he, too, worshipped his father and would project his own dreams onto high-profile stars. “For me, growing up, it was anyone who’s from Belfast or from the North of Ireland, who is doing well in movies,” the actor tells V.F.’s Katey Rich. “The idea that you came from that place and could be in movies, was crazy to me. Still is, to be honest.”
Northern Ireland’s own Liam Neeson would become Dornan’s matinee idol. “I remember I was probably more in my teens, early teens when Liam had really become a big star,” he remembers. “He’s obviously a huge star, almost in a different realm now with what he’s done in the last 15 years with his work.” Dornan has hit his own stride in Hollywood, even scoring a recent best-supporting-actor Golden Globe nomination. He talks about his homegrown role—and that singing scene—on this week’s episode of Little Gold Men.
Elsewhere on LGM, Katey joins hosts Richard Lawson, Rebecca Ford, and David Canfield for spirited analysis of the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, including all of the biggest snubs and surprises. They also recap the madcap Golden Globes and discuss Sidney Poitier’s indelible legacy.
Give a listen to the episode above, and find Little Gold Men on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up to text with us at Subtext—we’d love to hear from you.
Read a partial transcript of the Jamie Dornan interview below.
Vanity Fair: You’ve said when on set, you’d ask Kenneth Branagh, “What would your father have done? What was this moment like?” And it didn’t feel like he was prescribing to you what the character was, it felt like guidance. How did he strike that balance, that you felt empowered with that information and not trapped?
Jamie Dornan: It was very much him feeling like he was telling me whatever information I was seeking from him. He’d be like, “Use that how you will. Absorb that in whatever way you need it to work for you, but as long as Jamie’s instinctually doing what you wanted to do anyway, then I’m happy.” Because he was just, right from the beginning of Belfast, instilling this idea in me, and all of us really, that he wanted us to bring our own vibe to it, and we should not be trying to be some carbon copy of an idea of who his parents were.
The reality was, of course we’re playing real people, but it is a version of them and it’s not like where you’re playing a real person who’s very famous, and you can mimic them, and copy their physicality, and their movements, and their tone of voice. That’s not what we’re dealing with, so it was easier just to find a freedom to bring what we instinctually thought was right for these characters.
The “Everlasting Love” scene is heightened, but it’s not especially a fantasy sequence. It cuts to Jude Hill, so you know it’s through his eyes, but how real it is has been unclear to me the whole time. I’m curious if you guys had decided for yourselves how realistic it was and if that was important in playing it?
Well, you see, I think there’s a lot happening there. There’s a lot on the physicality of the day and the practicality of that day, having all those different players in the room. It was everyone except Ciarán [Hinds], for obvious reasons. Having us all in that room was an amazing feeling, but we had a lot of work to do. At that time, I hadn’t recorded my vocal, so I’m lip syncing, which is trickier than people think it is, [then] the dance moves, which are very tricky if you have two left feet like me. So, there are all the technical things you’re having to think about, no matter how much work you’ve done, they are occupying space in your head.
But really at the core of all that, is the emotional stuff that's going on and the story telling is massively crucial. The release of what’s just gone on, just burying your father and the release of that, then trying to celebrate his life in that moment. But also, where Ma and Pa are, their relationship at the time is massive. It’s really fractured. They’re sort of on the brink there, so there’s so much conveyance of that through the looks between Caitríona [Balfe] and I. I’m basically trying to say, “We are really up against it here and we are being tested, but guess what? I love you and it’s okay. We’re going to be fine. We’re going to get through this.”
I was really struck re-watching it, about how movies are threaded into this film. The family goes to see the movies, but then the whole confrontation has the theme song from High Noon playing in the background. I wonder if you watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, or High Noon, or if you and Kenneth Branagh talked about how this boy is imagining his dad as this John Wayne-worthy figure?
Yeah, we did talk about that a bit. Again, it comes back to that sort of idealistic way of seeing his parents, almost seeing them as these matinee idols that were heroic to him. He had them on such a pedestal and that’s kind of the way he saw John Wayne and him and his brother saw these actors in movies.
I remember thinking my dad was the strongest man in the world, when I was a kid. He certainly wasn’t, but just that idea you have of your parents, if you’re lucky enough to have a good relationship with your parents and see them that way. You give them this sort of heightened sense of super power, almost. I think that is something that Ken, when he was a kid, got from the movies and applied to his own people in his life, including his parents. And I’ve watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a lot, I really have in my life. It was a big player in our youth when I was a kid. I’ve actually shown it to our two eldest kids.
Do you feel strongly about what [your kids] know about fame? Do you feel like that's something you have to really navigate for them?
Yeah, a bit. We’ve [Dornan and his wife, film composer Amelia Warner] made a choice in their very early formative years to live right in the middle of nowhere. We live in the countryside. There’s no paparazzi. We’re not going to any parties or fancy dinners, where we’re getting our photograph taken. We’re pretty much out of the limelight, for the most part, and we like it that way. Probably harder here, when we’re in LA.
I was with our five-year-old yesterday and a girl came up and wanted to chat and a photograph. After, my daughter turned around and was like, “Do you know her?” I was like, “I don’t know her.” She’s like, “Why did she want to talk to you?” I said, “I don’t know. Some people know that daddy’s an actor and I’m in movies and on TV sometimes. Some people like the stuff I do, and they see me, and recognize me, and want to chat. It’s nothing more than that.” My daughter was like, “Oh, that’s nice. They’re basically saying that they like you.” There’s an innocence to it all, I guess, at this stage.
— Caitríona Balfe’s Celtic Conquest, From Outlander to Belfast
— What Vivian Vance Didn’t Love About I Love Lucy
— Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell Can Do It All
— Inside The Lost Daughter’s Hypnotic, Subversive Cinematography
— How The White Lotus’s Loathable Ensemble Came Together
— Sign up for the “Awards Insider” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage.
