Jamie Dornan has spoken of his excitement at starring in the upcoming movie Belfast, a semi-autobiographical tale written and directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh.
The Co Down born actor features in the film alongside Dame Judi Dench who plays Dornan's mother, whilst Ciarán Hinds plays his father.
60-year-old Sir Kenneth was born in Belfast in 1960, but his family moved to England when he was nine years old.
Speaking about the movie which was filmed during the pandemic, Dornan said he's really excited to see a cut of the final product soon.
He told Hollywood Reporter : "It’s very exciting. I probably can’t say too much about it, but it's about the city that I’m from, Belfast. That’s also the city that Ken Branagh is from. And what I think I’m allowed to say is that it somewhat chronicles a part of Ken’s early life in Belfast.
"Judi Dench plays my mother, and Ciarán Hinds plays my father. Caitriona Balfe also plays my wife, and there are a couple of young, brilliant actors in there."
The 50 Shades star reflected on how different it was to film the movie during the pandemic.
"We got to shoot it during the pandemic, which was weird. We got Covid tests every day, and everyone was wearing masks. I feel like Ken and I are quite close, but I kind of never saw the bottom half of his face. It was quite strange," he laughed.
"It’s tonally something very different than anything that anybody’s seen me in before, and yeah, I’m really excited. I’m actually so excited to see a cut of it next week because I had a brilliant time making it."
Dornan also opened up about his time in his home city filming The Fall which has gained a whole new fan base since it was released onto Netflix.
"Being on that show was so fun, and shooting in my hometown with a crew that sounds like me brought great comfort to me. All of us received such a great response to the work we did. And since we knew that the third series was going to be my last, I tried to enjoy every day on set because I didn’t want it to end."
As for the criticism of his accent in new Irish film Wild Mountain Thyme, the 38-year-old said it was 'expected'.
"People wouldn’t believe the amount of dialects in Ireland. At the end of the day, Shanley said something interesting at the beginning. He said, 'We’re not making it for people in Ireland. Of course, it’s got to be something that’s understood across the world.'
"Shanley then said, 'If we tried to sound like the actual people that Rosemary and Anthony are based on, nobody would understand a word we said.'
"So we tried to do accents that were sort of Midlands, Ireland and quite specific. So we do sound like we were trying to sound, and that’s what I’ll say about it. But I’m from a country where we take the piss out of each other, and when that criticism came along, it was expected."
