HEART of Stone finds Jamie Dornan teaming up with Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, for a twisty, action-packed spy thriller directed by Tom Harper (Wild Rose, Peaky Blinders) in which no-one is who they seem to be.
Also starring Paul Ready, Jing Lusi, Sophie Okonedo, Alia Bhatt and Matthias Schweighöfer, the globe-trotting tale finds a team of elite MI6 spies battling to prevent a sinister global organization known as The Charter from gaining control of an all-powerful AI-controlled surveillance system.
Can suave yet enigmatic team leader Parker (Dornan), highly-skilled computer tech Rachel Stone (Gadot) and the rest of their undercover colleagues save the day – or is it already too late?
We spoke to London-based Dornan (41) about the challenges of taking on the most physically demanding role of his career.
What appealed to you about Heart of Stone?
When I read a script, I always try to place myself in the audience to try to gauge how they're going to react, and the impact that the twists and turns are going to have on them.
There's loads of twists and turns in this movie – I think that's what keeps it entertaining and exciting. And there's a lot about Parker that appealed to me: he's not just some sort of two-dimensional spy character, he's multi-layered. And that plays out in lots of different ways in the story. It was great fun to play those different aspects of him.
Your character, Parker, is from Belfast – was that something you influenced?
I think originally when Greg Rucka wrote the script, Parker was English – and I was all up for playing him as English. But then Tom [Harper, director] and I had a pretty interesting conversation one day, where he had a pretty strong argument for why Parker could be from the north, and how an aspect of that background might feed some of his behaviour in the script.
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It wasn't me going "Ah, listen, can I just keep my own accent here?', like I couldn't be bothered. And it was really just for us, in a way – none of it comes into the story and you don't find out as an audience. But I just thought it added something to it – and, yes, selfishly, obviously it is much easier if I'm not grappling with an accent.
Does Parker have a first name?
Although it's never revealed, Tom and I did come up with a couple of different versions – and I actually think we ended up with 'James', which again, I know sounds like I was trying to get him even closer to me.
What was it like working with Gal Gadot?
I had a great, great, great time working with Gal, it was amazing. She's sort of everything I thought she would be and so much more – she's so comfortable in this genre, in this field. And she's just great fun, you know?
Gal and her husband and producing partner, Jaron [Varsano], were there all the time. And as someone who hadn't really done anything in this world before, it was really comforting and made me feel very safe that she was so comfortable with it all.
You know, she just owns these movies. She's super comfortable in that space, and it's very cool to work alongside her and see that happen up close.
I think I said 'yes' to Heart of Stone two or three days before the Academy Awards, when I was just finishing up the run of madness for the promotion and the awards for Belfast. So, I was with Ken Branagh every day, who had done Death on The Nile with Gal, and he only had good things to say about her.
Also, Kristen Wiig, who I'd done a movie with a couple of years ago, had done the second Wonder Woman with Gal. I had a lot of people telling me she was brilliant, so it was very cool to turn up and realise that she was.
Were you actively looking for an ‘action’ project?
To be honest, the whole basis of me wanting to dress up and play other people for a living is having the opportunity to do that in different scenarios, different worlds, different genres.
I feel really lucky that I've done a pretty broad range of stuff so far in my career: I've loved trying to find comfort in, like, mad comedy, and I've loved trying to find comfort in playing psychopaths and trying to find comfort in playing good people, bad people. Very dramatic stuff, very silly stuff.
I mean, for me, that's what it's about, you know? And I love that. And [action] is just one of those genres that had passed me by, for whatever reason. It's not like I hadn't had opportunities in this world before, but they hadn't really appealed, because I didn't think script was up to much or there weren't exciting enough people involved.
So yeah, I guess I've had my eye on it a wee bit for a while, and then this presented itself: Greg Rucka [producer/writer], I think is sort of at the top of his game in this genre, Tom Harper is a director that I've nearly worked with one or two times before, and Gal Gadot was already attached – and obviously you know how brilliant she is.
So there's a lot of elements to it that were attractive. It just felt like the right fit at the right time.
Did you get hurt at all while filming?
I did get hurt a wee bit – but, you know, nothing bad, nothing that would make you not be able to work the next day. I'm someone who likes to throw myself around a bit anyway – I come from a rugby background and I enjoy the physical side of it.
I got to do a lot [of action] in this, often in what felt like quite confined spaces. I had a long fight in a cable car that we shot for a very long time, and you would end up with bumps and bruises by the end of the day. But I like that, you know? I'm someone who finds an odd joy in being kicked around a bit.
And I like the training, I would train naturally even if I didn't need to be in good nick [for a role]. I feel it's important for health reasons, and for my mind, just to exercise, whether that's five-aside football on a Tuesday night or just going to the gym, or going for a run, or whatever it is.
I've always been that way, I don't need a lot of motivation. Particularly since I've had kids, I feel like I want to keep myself physically active. So I really do genuinely love that physical side of things and there's more of it in this than anything I've ever done before.
Do you find it difficult to balance your acting with your family life?
It's a constant challenge, to be honest with you. What I would say about it is that I'm really lucky to have a bit of a choice over work situations, and when and where I work. I'm working away from home at the moment, albeit in Dublin, and I'm flying home to London every weekend and [my family] have come over a couple of times already. We try to have a 'two week rule' that I've only broken twice ever in 10 years of being a parent, so it is a constant challenge.
But they came to Portugal with us when we were shooting Heart of Stone, and the majority of it was shot at Shepperton Studios in London, so it was close to them. And we make it work – they were in Australia with me for five months two years ago [while shooting BBC thriller The Tourist] and they went to school there the entire time.
It's not easy and it's not normal, but it sort of is normal to them, in a way. But when I'm off, I'm really off, you know what I mean? I didn't work the first three months of this year and I was doing every school run, every pick-up, and I'll be taking a bit of time off after this job – albeit slightly induced by the writers' strike.
The next thing I was meant to be starting looks like it's kicking into next year, so then I will spend loads of time with them.
How do you find working abroad compares to working in Ireland?
I probably shouldn't say this, but it is just more craic in Ireland. I like to have fun at work – I think you do your best work when you're relaxed. And there's nothing more relaxing than being around people who understand your humour, understand your accent, and fall in line with your sort of ethos. And for me, obviously because I'm from there, it only happens on that island.
You know, I'm not saying you can't have a great time filming and picking up different cultures all around the world – that's brilliant. But there's nothing like being surrounded by people that you grew up surrounded by.
It's a big thing, and I've made a point so far in my career of working in Ireland, north and south. I will always seek that out, because it's important to me to tell stories from home, particularly with the north and the complications to that. There's so many more stories to be told, so I long to continue doing that.
