Jamie Dornan ignited backlash among “Fifty Shades of Grey” fans when he was cast in the role of Christian Grey. Robert Pattinson was the target of fan backlash after Warner Bros. announced him as the new Batman. Same goes for Andrew Garfield being cast as Spider-Man. Even Daniel Craig’s casting as James Bond earned scorn from fans months before “Casino Royale” proved the naysayers wrong. It appears actors just can’t win whenever they’re cast in pre-established roles, and Dornan is more than tired of it.
“Prejudgment is such a fucking disease,” Dornan recently told Esquire about fan backlash to high profile casting announcements. “It’s a disease in all our culture. In my line of work, sure. But in general, people prejudge people based on fucking anything really, and it’s very sad. Look at the reaction when Rob got cast as Batman. It was like 90% negative.”
Dornan continued, “Daniel Craig got cast as James Bond — I mean that was 100% negative. It was vile what was written. It was actually disturbing when you see the fucking venomous anger that people have over casting decisions. And then guess what? Daniel Craig is fucking brilliant, and it changes the whole energy of Bond.”
Circling back to Pattinson, Dornan added, “And all the naysayers love what Rob has done with Batman.”
Although Craig is widely considered one of the best Bond actors in history, fans originally hated the idea of the blonde-haired actor taking over the role of 007. As Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams told Entertainment Weekly last year, “[The reaction to Daniel’s casting] was unbelievably negative, I have to say. The press response was awful and I felt so sorry for him, but in a funny kind of a way I think it almost spurred him on to do his damndest to prove everybody wrong.”
“The whole way through the film, stuff would come out about [how] he couldn’t walk and talk, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t drive a car properly, so much stuff which was completely and utterly untrue,” McWilliams added. “And he just kept his head down, got on with the job and then the film came out and everybody went, ‘Oh wow, I think we quite like him after all.’”
As for Dornan, he’s mostly avoided major studio franchise fare since wrapping his run as Christian Grey. The actor most recently appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar winner “Belfast.”
