Jamie Dornan has crafted an intriguing and distinct career in the past fifteen years. Many of us were introduced to the actor through his Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movies, but he was also the lead of BBC series The Fall with Gillian Anderson, and recently starred in two critically-acclaimed favorites: Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar and Belfast. As the 39-year-old actor reflects on his beginnings, some seriously popular British actors apparently also shared his living space at one time.
When Dornan recently appeared on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, he shared that at one time, he lived not only with The Batman actor Robert Pattinson, but a couple Marvel heroes and a big-screen wizard. In the actor’s words:
I lived with Eddie Redmayne, we shared a house together. This was probably 2008 I wanna say? It was myself, Eddie, Andrew Garfield, Rob Pattinson, Charlie Cox. A lot of guys who ended up doing pretty well. But we weren’t doing pretty well at that time. It was a lot of going out for the same auditions. Prepping each other, helping each other to get the same work that we were all vying for each other. But it wasn’t really happening for us, and luckily over time it all worked out for us.
That’s amazing, am I right? Jamie Dornan recalled a time before Andrew Garfield was Spider-Man, Charlie Cox was Daredevil (and still is?) and Eddie Redmayne was an Oscar winner and Fantastic Beasts’ Newt Scamander. Back then, these guys and Robert Pattinson were all British buds all living at the same address, just trying to make it in Hollywood. Thirteen years later, all of them are stars.
As Jamie Dornan alluded to, and as one can instantly imagine, these actors were going up for the same auditions much of the time. According to the Fifty Shades of Grey actor, they would actually help each other out and trust the best man would get the job. The actor expanded on their living environment:
It was a fun group and we’re all great friends today. [Our refrigerator] was probably mostly beer, probably a couple of frozen pizzas in the freezer, usually some cold cut meats, turkey slices and salami.
Let’s see, they all certainly had their own interesting journeys with a look at their careers. Charlie Cox arguably got the first high-profile role of the roommates when he starred in 2007’s Stardust alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro. Robert Pattinson seriously blew up in 2008 when he nabbed the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight.
Eddie Redmayne steadily starred in a number of small movies like The Yellow Handkerchief and The Other Boleyn Girl before really finding a name for himself in Les Miserables in 2012. Andrew Garfield had a bit of a slow burn as well, appearing in under-the-radar favorites like The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Never Let Me Go before starring in The Social Network in 2010.
Jamie Dornan was a late bloomer, with many audiences first seeing the actor in ABC’s Once Upon a Time in 2011 prior to taking on larger projects a couple years later. It’s certainly cool to imagine these five Brit actors all having beers and frozen pizzas before becoming A-list stars.