Jamie Dornan
The man is meant to be the alpha in the relationship on the money and power front.Collection: Relationship
My dad was a keen actor when he was young; my auntie is heavily involved in amateur dramatics back in Northern Ireland, and my great aunt was a woman called Greer Garson.Collection: Dad
I think when romantic comedies are done well, it's a great genre. 'When Harry Met Sally' is kind of a benchmark for me, but I'm very happy to admit that I love 'Pretty Woman.' I do! It's a great film, and so is 'Sixteen Candles.' I was a big John Hughes fan - still am. I have moments where I have to watch a Hughes film.Collection: Romantic
Now and again, an actor will blow my mind by doing something really unexpected, like Mickey Rourke or Christopher Walken - you have absolutely no idea what they're going to do, which is really thrilling to watch.
Nobody sane wants just to be famous.
I think people from Northern Ireland have some kind of unspoken general feeling of what it is to be around segregation. You have an awareness of it because you know how much grief it's caused.
There's no easy time to lose a parent.
I'd always really wanted to act; but the modelling contracts came more easily.
I feel very settled. I'm not running in and out of clubs at 5 A.M. anymore.
A doctor once told me I have abnormal levels of adrenaline in my system.
I think I've done two shoots in my underwear ever. They both happened to be for Calvin Klein. But that tag - 'underwear model' - I just can't get rid of it. And it's such a bizarre, specific thing - underwear. It's like I never modelled clothes.
Every actor craves choice.
I feel pretty secure about who I am.
You want roles that challenge you and that scare you a little and where you can really discover something, even about yourself, that maybe you didn't understand.
What kid doesn't want to pretend they're James Bond?
Basically, I've always had a complex with the way I walk. I've not always been told I've got a bad walk, but someone's always commented on my walk.
I defy anyone to watch interviews with Ted Bundy and not be taken by him. He was very handsome and charming and extremely intelligent and, you know, that can exist.
No matter what happens in my career, I've always got 'The Fall.'
Being a leading man can come in many different forms.
I'm amazed if people are happy in their own skin.
I don't think if you looked up all the main points of feminism I would tick every one essentially myself.
I read a lot about serial killers.
I feel good that I have my life in order. I'm not addicted to anything that I'm aware of.
I feel very tied to Ireland and the U.K. and that side of the world.
'The Fall' changed my life - that's not an overstatement.
To play any character, you have to have a total understanding of why they do what they do.
Because I used to play a lot of sport, I've always been in decent enough shape. When I used to get asked to do a bit of body work before a photo shoot I'd lie and say, 'Yeah, I'm going to the gym.' I literally never did anything.
I grew up in a very liberal place.
I think my lesson is to back yourself once you've been given a job. Far too often, I've been given a job and then doubted why I'm there.
I'd been auditioning for parts for years. I never got any better at it. I'm crap at auditions. I know there are people who can walk into those rooms and make those lines sing on the page and get the job immediately. I wasn't one of them. I'm still not one of them.
I like playing characters who are fractured, broken. I find that more relatable, for some reason. I don't feel that I'm like that myself by nature, but there's just something that you can really grab hold of if people have a darkness in them, I think.
It's a strange environment, being hounded. The paparazzi are cretins.
I've never felt massively satisfied from standing there while someone takes my photograph. It's never given me a thrill.
Modelling doesn't hold you back in L.A. at all.
Throughout Ireland, there's a brilliant community of filmmakers and actors, and I guess there was always a lure to do some work in the place where I come from.
I don't really have choices in the material I get. So I have to make the choices in the way I play the characters.
Mass appreciation doesn't always equate to something good.
I'm probably the worst person for 'Men's Health' to interview.
I guess I'm just lucky with my genes.
I've always needed to bulk up, so until the modeling took off I was ramming Big Macs down my throat and doing plenty of bodyweight work. I'm over the Big Macs now, but I'll still drop down and do my press ups whenever I find the time.
I can't really do the running on hard ground that I used to do. Instead I go swimming as often as possible.
Fairytales are stories that span every generation and they've been around for a long time.
It's funny when you know you're playing two characters and you're aware of how you have to play each one into your performance of the other. You're constantly at the back of your mind thinking and it all gets a bit confusing.
It's not like I cleaned up with girls. I always looked young and I was very small; I hated being 'cute.'
They do very classy, sexy television in the U.S. - and they pay a lot more, so there's always that draw!
It's funny how you get a bit older and become more accepting of things. When you're in your twenties, you're skeptical of everything. I definitely felt like that.
Addiction is a terrible thing.
One of my favorite things about my life is that I have the same group of friends that I grew up with. I love them so dearly, and we give each other a hard time.
You'd be hard-pressed to find an actor who isn't a sex symbol somewhere.
People attach too much to the idea of being a model, that you can only be a certain way to have done it. You will always be dealing with it. You're an actor who used to be a model who never trained; there are not many directors queuing up.