by Louise Ford
But Dornan wasn’t complaining and despite the grisly research process, now more than ever he knew that becoming a serious actor had been the right choice – it was everything he had dreamed of. ‘I woke up one morning just before we started filming and on my chest were all these books about murderers. I was going to bed reading about these horrible people and of course it affects you […] It was a very strange process but I loved it, I really loved it – I’m not sure what that says about me.’
Dornan quickly found that there was one real-life killer that stood out as the perfect inspiration for the role. Ted Bundy murdered more than seventy women in America during the 1970s, mostly thanks to his ability to win their trust with his looks and charisma. At one point, he was killing one woman a week, all the while maintaining a steady relationship with his girlfriend, socialising with friends and working on the campaign trail for congressmen. Like Spector, he inhabited two entirely different personas before finally being executed in 1989 after confessing to murdering over two dozen women. It was a crucial observation that helped to shape Jamie’s role. ‘I’ve approached Spector as two completely different characters which made it easier for me. He’s either in killer mode or family mode, but neither is easier than the other,’ he told BBC Belfast in a behind-the-scenes interview.
Jamie had spent hour upon hour avidly watching interviews with Bundy on YouTube. Despite being a brutal rapist and necrophile, the good-looking killer carried a certain magnetism, a ‘quality’ that Jamie thought would work for Spector. Bizarrely, he also talked about himself in the third person, which Dornan found compelling. ‘It’s fascinating watching him because he’s super charming and good-looking. He ran two Congress campaigns in the US, was a super-bright law graduate, had a long-term girlfriend, a normal group of friends but he’s a psychopath. So these people do exist!’ Jamie said of his research. ‘Bundy talks about himself in the third person. He was handsome and the people around him had no idea what he was going to do. This guy was seriously charming and so articulate.’
The handsome star had started to sketch out exactly who Spector was and how he perceived the other people in his life, particularly the difficult-to-unravel relationship with his children. Although Cubitt didn’t think Spector was capable of loving his son and daughter, Jamie decided to make him even more sinister by showing that he did, which in return revealed an unexpected human side to him. ‘What is creepy about that is the normality of it all. He’s a grief counsellor, of all things. He has a wife and two kids that I think he loves. I think Allan would say that Spector’s incapable of love and therefore doesn’t love the kids. I would try to argue that slightly.
‘I would say that he portrays a certain form of love, certainly to his daughter. In a way, I don’t think Spector’s that bad of a husband. I think he shows good qualities, despite the fact that he hunts and kills innocent women. It is all quite sordid. But I want to show how regular these guys can be,’ he told Interview magazine.
In what would have been a shock to many of the show’s viewers, Jamie even went so far as to try to find something he liked in Spector, believing it was important for an actor to learn something from his character. ‘For Spector, despite all the horrendous acts, there’s something that I’m fond of in his character, and I think a lot of those characteristics in him that I admire, he uses for quite odious purposes. I wish I had his attention to detail, and his efficiency,’ Jamie confessed.
With research done and dusted, the four-month film schedule started in March 2012 and he flew to Belfast, leaving girlfriend Amelia back home in London. Although a bag of nerves, worried that on the first day of filming he wouldn’t step up to the mark, the Northern Irish star was at least happy to be back in his home town. The model-turned-actor decided to rent a flat in the city centre, even though his much-loved family home in Holywood was just a few miles away. Apart from the punishing schedule, meaning that he would have little time to relax, Jamie also didn’t think it appropriate to be living with his obstetrician father Jim while spending his days playing a killer. ‘My dad delivers babies, can you imagine?’ he told Interview magazine. ‘I’ve spent all day strangling women, while Dad’s bringing a new life into the world. I can’t deal with that!’
Being back in Belfast, though, meant that he could easily meet up with old school friends and go to the pub in the evening. It was good to be back and it was to be the longest time he’d spent back in Belfast in a decade. ‘I had an apartment in the middle of town for three months. And I’ve never actually lived in Belfast because I grew up just outside, so I experienced the city on a different level, waking up and going to get coffee and read the papers on my day off. I’d never done that, so I just loved it. And it’s nice to not have to repeat yourself, as well, in terms of your accent,’ he joked to Red magazine. ‘I made the decision quite early on not to live with Dad during filming, because of my schedule I couldn’t just come home and have a cup of tea. I needed to be on my own. But it’s brilliant meeting up with my old mates from home we just talk football and it’s a terrific release from the intensity of the shoot,’ he added in an ‘on set’ five-day diary for the Daily Mail. It turned out to be a wise decision, since Jamie was struggling to clear his head at the end of the day. ‘There’d be times where I’d see my mates, they’d want to go out for dinner and I had to say, “look, I can’t do it, I need to lie in a bath and listen to Maria Callas and think about ‘happy’.”’ he said.
It had already been a steep learning curve for Jamie; arriving on set for the first time, it was a relief to notice that for once in his life he wasn’t there to look pretty, ‘cute’ or even vaguely decorative. He was there to play a brutal killer and being a former underwear model played no part in it. However, far from revelling in the moment, Jamie was wracked with nerves, convinced that he’d be discovered as a fraud and instantly fired. ‘In my first speaking scene I was thinking, “OK this is it, they’ll be firing me now. There was nothing in my C.V. that warranted me being there,”’ he said.
Jamie was startlingly talented and although the cast and crew were immediately awestruck by his character portrayal, he wasn’t fooling anyone: he was new to the acting game. ‘Every day that we did something horrible, I’d say, “I’m sorry this doesn’t come easily to me,”’ Jamie admitted.
It wasn’t an easy role to play but pulling on Spector’s ‘killing gear’ – a ‘commando-style catsuit’ – for the murder scenes certainly helped, although entering the killer’s mind, and what felt like his body, made Jamie feel sick. So lost was he inside the role that even watching the show back was excruciating, particularly the family scenes where Spector remains a devoted dad. ‘It’s discombobulating when you’re filming it, I find it sick. Then I find it hard to watch, the proximity of the two existences, killing someone then picking up my child and putting her to bed. I struggled with it; it’s you doing it. It feels like you’re doing it yourself … okay, you’re playing a character, but it’s still sickening,’ he explained.
Already feeling the intensity of being Spector on set, Jamie refused to adopt the ‘method’ technique of acting where actors draw on inner emotions and experiences to portray a character and ‘live’ inside their mind twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week – even when filming finishes. ‘I just don’t think it would have been healthy to try and stay in character or that mindset,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I could do it, that method and run away with it? Jesus. I just made a point of switching off.’
It was the killing scenes that Jamie felt were the hardest, with some so harrowing that he felt moved to apologise to the actresses who played his victims. Working on such tough material, on very dark, atmospheric sets, Dornan was also keen to lighten the mood whenever possible by dancing around the set between takes. ‘When it was appropriate I would make someone laugh. There were scenes where I’ve got a ligature around my victim’s neck and I’m pretending to squeeze with all my life. She’s foaming at the mouth, my sweat’s dripping in her eyes, I’m watchin
g her die and her eyes are bulging. After every one of those scenes, when they’d say “Cut!” I was saying, “Oh my God I’m so sorry. I’m going to untie your feet here. Is that OK?” Because I am not that guy. I did my best to slip out of it as soon as “cut” was called.’
While the psychological strain was tough for Jamie, he also experienced searing physical pain portraying Spector’s fitness regime and fight scenes. Two operations, including keyhole surgery, on a smashed shoulder from a skiing accident four years previously had left the star in constant agony. His sex scenes, though, were a breeze in comparison for the former supermodel, who was clearly now a dab hand at stripping for the camera. But for Hollyoaks actress Bronagh Waugh, his on-screen wife, getting naked in front of the gorgeous former Calvin Klein pin-up – along with a roomful of cameras and crew – was terrifying. So terrifying, in fact, that she turned to drink before takes. ‘He’s a body of a god and I’m a normal girl,’ she said. ‘It was our first full nudity scene for Jamie and me. We were both really nervous.The director Jakob Berbruggen is from Brussels and he was so very European about it all. I had to get into a bath and I was begging, I mean begging for bubbles. I was “Please whack in some Radox!” but the director said it would spoil the shot – and he was right.’
However, stress turned to comedy when her modesty patch – a strip of nude-coloured material, which is stuck to an actor’s private parts – started floating off as she lay in the hot bath. ‘I had this modesty patch on my lady bits and all actors will tell you they are notorious for not working very well. In the scene Jamie is watching me getting into the bath and I’m closing my eyes sinking into it. When I opened them the plaster was floating up and down in the path,’ the down-to-earth actress remembered. ‘Jamie was looking and we were just wetting ourselves. I think it is the grossest thing that has ever happened to me. Jamie’s seen me naked so many times he said “Bronagh I’m really over it.”’
On the other hand, when it came to Jamie’s first-ever full nudity scene, which was shockingly graphic, even the experienced underwear model knocked back whisky to get through it. ‘There was an incredibly graphic sex scene outside. It was very cold so we both had a wee dram before it,’ Bronagh told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. She also admitted that the whole experience was far from romantic: ‘It’s so weird as you get to know someone, I don’t see him like that (romantically). You get nervous with any sex scenes – you feel awful.’
A measure of just how famous Jamie had become came when his co-star Aisling Franciosi was completely overwhelmed on first meeting him. Playing the Spector family’s babysitter who falls for the attractive father’s charms, the pair had a number of scenes together. She said of acting opposite the former Dior model: ‘Part of me was telling myself that I had to be professional but another part was screaming inside. My first scene was one where his character came to my bedroom, it was intense. But he was great, very supportive. He’s a humble guy.’
Jamie was clearly a hit with his fellow cast members and while there were plenty of high jinx on set, he made sure he stayed out of their way once filming was over for the day. ‘I felt they probably wouldn’t want to spend any time with me,’ he told the Daily Mail newspaper. ‘I apologised after every take, it was like a release to apologise and then we’d have a laugh. I used to beg for someone to make me laugh.’
He and Gillian Anderson also made a mutual decision not to meet each other socially, since they were playing the hunter and the hunted and thought it would increase the tension on set. ‘Because of the nature of the show it wouldn’t have made sense to hang out together. The more we kept apart the more sense it made.’
As it turned out, the on-screen pair did very little filming together and appeared together only four times. They both admired each other’s work, though, and stunning actress and mother-of-three Gillian told him in an interview with Red magazine, ‘I think it was pretty clear from the beginning that you were the man for the job. I just think it was a matter of convincing the powers that be. I’ve been in the same situation before, with people fighting my corner, but having to convince studios that you’re the one – it takes some effort.’
It was certainly worth the effort and Jamie found he was learning quickly on the job, even though there was no denying he was a complete natural. Without even realising it, Jamie used his hands to show what side of Spector’s complex character he was portraying at any one time. ‘I wasn’t aware of it at first but the way I used my hands became a way for me to play Spector’s awareness,’ he told Interview magazine. ‘You see the difference in how he deals with the family, with his kids and the way he approaches things in his life.’
Jamie, who had previously admitted his method of acting came from watching Al Pacino in The Godfather, could also be seen adopting his long silences and lingering, pensive stares. ‘I’ve played a lot of broken people, maybe the silences are about the different kinds of vulnerability in them,’ he explained.
Jamie’s own emotional side was also being tested to the brink and he admitted to crying to let out pent-up emotion. The demanding role also caused him to wonder how his nearest and dearest would react to seeing him embody such a terrifying man. ‘I think it helps that I’m quite open and I’m a crier. Spector is devoid of emotion.
‘It will be interesting to see what the reaction is [by friends and family] because it is dark, I surprised myself with how dark I looked at times; I think I looked – not pleasant,’ Jamie said shortly before The Fall was aired.
Having filmed the glossy drama out of sequence, Jamie had the chance to watch it back in order before it was released for broadcast and he was immediately struck by how horrifying it was. ‘When you see it all put together I do struggle. I understand why people find it difficult to watch,’ he said.
Just under a year from the show’s wrap, The Fall premiered on 12 May 2013 on Irish channel RTI and the following evening on the BBC, to an admirable 3.5 million viewers. It went on to become BBC 2’s highest-rating drama launch in almost a decade, thanks in no small part to Jamie’s sickening portrayal of Spector.
TV critics and viewers were equally captivated and revolted by the series, and internet forums sprung up overnight devoted to Jamie, his cast members, show spoilers and plot twists. ‘If it had been a plot by Dornan to kill off his pretty boy alter ego overnight, then it was a stroke of genius,’ one journalist reported. ‘Well done Jamie, you’ve more than proved your mettle as a serious actor and not just a bit of fluff who once appeared on the arm of Keira Knightley,’ wrote Maeve Quigley in the Sunday Mirror, ‘even though we can’t help missing those Calvins. Just a wee bit.’
Dornan was now getting recognised everywhere, not for being an underwear model who appeared on street billboards but as a sadistic murderer. Giggles from girls he met at random were being replaced with shrieks of horror – and Jamie seemed to love it. ‘I had one incident in Notting Hill Gate where someone pointed at me and screamed, “There’s that serial killer!” That created a bit of a stir. But I love it. I loved playing that sick, sick man … whatever that means.’
Having scared the wits out of four million people on a weekly basis, Jamie was however slightly worried about the repercussions of coming into contact with members of the public. ‘I don’t get recognised a lot anyway, but I’m slightly anxious about how people will approach me now – because if you see someone being creepy on TV, you automatically assume they’re a creepy guy.’
As the last episode, with its cliffhanger ending, was broadcast in June 2013, news had come that a second series was on its way. Dublin actor Emmett Scanlan, who played hard-bitten detective Glen Martin, had made the revelation on Twitter, writing in November 2013: ‘Start shooting The Fall season two next February. By the sound of it, it’s gonna be f*****g awesome. Can’t wait.’
While many applauded the BBC’s decision, which would see Jamie reprise the role, others were appalled. ‘The most repulsive drama ever broadcast on British TV concludes tonight. The Fall has featured grap
hic depictions of sexual murder, violent abuse, necrophilia, stalking, pornography and masturbation,’ Christopher Stevens wrote in the Daily Mail newspaper. ‘BBC executives are defending the show and their decision to renew it for a second series; they claim it provides insight into the motives of a sadistic psychopath […] The Fall doesn’t challenge evil; it wallows in it. This series is an invitation to share an extended rape fantasy.’
‘This gratuitously nasty drama was defended by its producer as an attempt to “change the nature of how TV tells crime stories and make them more like real life,”’ Allison Pearson wrote in the Daily Telegraph. ‘Really? When was the last time a serial killer turned out to be a grief counsellor who looks like a male model? Oh and he quoted T.S. Eliot in his killing journal as rapists do.
‘If the devil wears Prada ‘The Fall’ was a snuff movie in a silk blouse.’
Jamie by then hadn’t modelled for three years and despite the disapproval from some corners of the press, he was hopeful that playing Spector meant he wouldn’t have to return to posing for magazines to earn a crust. ‘No matter what I do there will be so many people who won’t accept me as an actor because I did modelling. But playing Paul Spector is a start. They can’t take that away. It’s a role that I hope will alter opinions of me. I’ve done it and it exists,’ he told the Daily Mirror. ‘I’m proud of the show, really proud of it. But I won’t go so far as to say I’m proud of myself.’
Before reprising the role of Spector, though, Jamie admitted that he wanted to do something different, possibly something light-hearted. ‘I’d like to play somebody who doesn’t murder people for a change. I’d like to do something light. In a perfect world I’d really like to do something funny.’