Actor Jamie Dornan has spoken out about following a woman around ‘a couple of street corners’ in London to get into the mindset of a stalker for a TV role.
The Fifty Shades star admitted to going to extreme lengths to get into character for one of his roles.
Despite saying he ‘wasn’t proud’ of it, he said it also taught him a lot about what stalkers intentions are.
The practice was for his murderous role in The Fall, where he portrayed Paul Spector, a man who goes on to kill several women.
Set in Northern Ireland, the series and follows the life of Detective Superintendent Gibson (Gillian Anderson) who is transferred from London's Metropolitan Police to investigate a murder overseas.
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DS Gibson is tasked with tracking down serial killer Paul Spector (Dornan), who has an ominous obsession with the young women of Belfast.
It’s easy to see why these kinds of roles might be the hardest to get into the mindset of the character, but is taking it to the streets of London a little far?
Speaking to the LA Times, Dornan said: “The first series, I did a couple of things to try to get inside [his mind].
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“I followed a woman around a couple of street corners and then was like: 'What are you doing?'
“It felt kind of exciting, in a really sort of dirty way.
“I’m sort of not proud of myself.
“But I do honestly think I learned something from it because I’ve obviously never done any of that.
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“It was intriguing and interesting to enter that process of ‘what are you following her for?’ and ‘what are you trying to find out?’"
The 41-year-old said he made a conscious effort to keep his distance from the woman, but after getting off a few stops before he was planning to, he decided to commit to the exercise and follow her.
But this isn’t the first interaction he’s had with stalking in real life.
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Following his stint as Christian Grey in Fifty Shades, fans were convinced that he had a child with co-star Dakota Johnson.
Speaking to the Irish Times, he said: “The fandom of that franchise is still feverish.
“They’ve got all kinds of mad theories.
“At one point, we had a stalking, getting-the-authorities involved situation, all kinds of mad stuff, which if I’m honest I’m quite fearful of, so I stay away from it.”
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He added that the situation became worse after his home address was leaked by the press.
Topics: Netflix, TV And Film, Sex and Relationships
Mia Williams