Having made a splash starring opposite Gillian Anderson as the serial killer Peter Paul Spector in the popular BBC series The Fall, Jamie Dornan became a household name this year thanks to the erotic romance Fifty Shades of Grey. He gave a presser at KVIFF yesterday on his new project Anthropoid, which he’s due to start shooting in the Czech Republic. Helmed by Sean Ellis (Cashback, Metro Manila), Dornan will play alongside fellow Irishman Cillian Murphy as Jan Kubiš, one of two Czech resistance fighters who assassinated the infamous Nazi Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich in WWII.
What attracted you to Anthropoid?
I think when I first read the script, the fact that I didn’t know about the story – something like that, which had such a massive knock-on effect on an entire nation – I found it kind of mad to have not known about that. The heroism involved, the sacrifice involved...they felt – particularly Jan – like someone you could relate to. Guys who were fighting for something that they truly believed in, but who were normal guys.
What do you like about the part?
You always need a drive in everything you do and a reason to tell the story. As an actor, you’ve got to have something that drives you every day on the set. Could there be any stronger drive needed than the opportunity to assassinate someone so horrific. There’s nobody in the world now who can’t see that Heydrich was evil... So to have that, to bring that to work every day, I’m so excited about the idea of having that as your drive... I’m terrified about how I’m going to behave on set, actually, knowing that.
Read the whole interview in today's Festival Daily.
