8 minute read
Interview with Jamie Dornan: Northern Star
There's a song by Van Morrison called Coney Island,' " Jamie Doran reminds me. “One day, when I was filming the first series of The Fall, just over 11 years ago, a mate of mine, Michael Malley, and I went round every single place that Van Morrison mentions in that song and we tried to do whatever it was he said in the lyrics.” Sitting between the villages of Ardglass and Killough on the Ards Peninsula, 'Coney Island is more coastal strip than island, but no less beautiful than the evocative song suggests. “So we stopped off at Ardglass, had potted herrings and managed to get to all of the places that he mentions.” Van uses poetic licence in the sequencing of his journey, so Jamie’s trip didn't work out exactly as the song. “But we would pull the car over and stop anyone we saw walking around and just ask some questions and tell them what we're doing and why we were there. It's so beautiful around there and I think very fondly of that part of the world.”
O'Neills Summerhouse Coney Island
We’re chatting over Zoom – me from Dublin, Jamie from his home in England, which he shares with his wife, composer Amelia Warner, and their three daughters. “I've been here [in the UK] 21 years but Belfast will always be home. I will always call it home. Does that mean that I return as much as I’d like to? Probably not. But the reality of that is rooted in having three young kids and my life is set up in the UK. But I try to work there as much as I can and I’ll try to do that for as long as people are willing to give me a career.”
To date, Dornan’s 22-year career has taken him from Calvin Klein model to global screen star, with leading roles in movies and TV series including the 50 Shades trilogy, A Private War and current hit series The Tourist alongside crime drama The Fall, and 2021 movie Belfast, the latter two both set in Dornan’s hometown.
Royal Belfast Golf Club
“My favourite thing to do in Belfast is to drive around. Whether that's with friends or on my own. I love driving around, taking it all in.” His town has changed radically since Jamie left for university in England, and Stranmillis, a suburb of south Belfast, holds special nostalgia. “I went to school in Methody [Methodist College Belfast] and boarded there for the final two years. Stranmillis is a very middle class little enclave of Belfast; the Lagan runs through the bottom and you can walk down there. When we shot the third series of The Fall, I lived in a house there, so I have both good and slightly emotional memories of us at the end of that job that sort of changed my life.”
His last trip home, in October 2022, was for a memorial service for his father, who died unexpectedly in 2021 from complications of COVID-19. (Jamie’s mum died from pancreatic cancer when he was just 16.) Many friends travelled from abroad to support Jamie and his two sisters, including his agent from LA and best friend from Toronto. For many, it was their first time to visit anywhere in Ireland. “The reasons we were there were sad but after the ceremony at St Anne’s Cathedral it was a real celebration of life. We took over a pub, the Dark Horse, which was just filled with people who knew and loved Dad and who knew and loved us. It was a proper shindig, really fun, and all the Americans, Canadians and others got a real good sense of the place, which was very pleasing.” He recalls the buzz his visitors experienced in The Cathedral Quarter with its stylish hotels and smart places to get a cocktail. “It's a proper cosmopolitan European experience that they're having, which makes you proud.”
Belfast
A self-professed foodie, Jamie’s favourite meal is still traditional Irish bacon, champ and buttered cabbage, a dish his dad used to make. “I'm just not sure I could be more satisfied from a meal,” he laughs, reminiscing on the large feed he cooked for himself last week. He enjoys eating out and counts Michelin-starred chef, Michael Deane, as a friend. “Michael was very close to my father, so I often end up eating in his places.” Originally from Holywood, in Co Down, Jamie rates Noble, ‘a great wee restaurant’ there, and while he avoids bars on the weekend, (where he gets ‘a wee bit tortured’ by fans) he finds eating out easier. “It takes a lot for someone to come and interrupt you when you’re in the middle of a meal. I’m not saying they don’t do it, though!” he grins.
“There’s three Michelin stars in Belfast now,” he declares, excitedly. “It's absolutely brilliant and it caters for all the tourism, which has obviously gone up a million-fold since the Good Friday Agreement. When you think of all the productions in my game working over there, there's a reason why the Americans love it, you know, and love coming over to film stuff there. You can live in the utmost civilisation, really nice apartments overlooking the river or lovely townhouses in leafy South Belfast. And you can have all that and Michelinstarred food and just easiness. But then you can jump in the car and you’re half an hour to mountainous vistas and 20 minutes to the coast. It’s endless.”
He talks of ‘bigwig producers’ in LA who light up talking about Belfast, of endlessly inspiring landscapes and the area’s film-set-like accessibility. He acknowledges the number of productions happening there each year and how different life is for an actor in Belfast today than when he left 21 years ago. “It's a great thing to be showing Northern Ireland differently to how it's been depicted before in film and TV. And, whether that be through Game of Thrones or Derry Girls, they're both shifting people's idea of the place; the outside world's idea of the place and in a positive way.”
Dark Hedges in Co. Antrim
Image credit: ISTOCKPHOTO
Jamie doesn’t just return to Belfast for work. One of his sisters lives in Crawfordsburn and he has a group of childhood friends he is still close to. When home, he enjoys swimming in the sea by his sister’s home in Helen’s Bay, walking the Lagan Towpath with friends and taking his kids to Seapark in Holywood, where he was born. “I make a point of going there every time I’m home. It's amazing seeing the girls walk along that stretch of beach that I know so well. I grew up literally on the water and it breaks me to see them playing there. I love it. I feel like I know every curve and inch of that place and to see them playing there, it's so unbelievable for me.”
An avid golfer, he admits he’s mildly obsessed with the game. “What they say about men thinking about sex every seven seconds, well, I think about golf every seven seconds! It's an endless love affair, a pursuit, because you'll never get it right. Even the number one player in the world [Rory McIlroy], who is from the same town as me, is still striving to get it right all the time.”
He’s been a member of Royal Belfast Golf Club since he was 10 and loves playing Royal Portrush too. “It's pretty special there and on most people's bucket lists worldwide, as well as Royal County Down. Someone once asked where I’d play if I only had one game left on earth. I’ve played some amazing courses around the world but I actually said Royal Belfast because it's where I've so many memories forged from a very young age.”
So, where would Jamie send friends if they came to visit for the first time?
“There are obvious places, like up the North Coast if they've never been up to Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and all that good stuff. We’ve brought the kids up there and while they were too young to do Carrick-a-Rede, we did the Causeway. They walked around with their wee headsets on listening to the stories of Finn McCool. And it was brilliant.”
Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge
Giant's Causeway
Image credit: ISTOCKPHOTO
Of course, he’ll recommend you start with Belfast first, and it’s hard to argue with this local boy done good.
WORDS | JILLIAN BOLGER
Lead Image © Jamie Dornan
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Holly Mackie, Owner and Director
I haven’t lived in Northern Ireland for over 25 years but I can relate to so many of the places Jamie mentions. I too love returning with my own family and taking them to special places that bring back so many happy memories – it still feels like home”
⬥ holly@dreamescape.co.uk
