It’s been a few years now since Fifty Shades Freed wrapped up the famous love story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. In the time since, the two leads in those movies, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, have both gone on to notable other projects. However, this awards season has been the first time the two have been able to spend more time together thanks to red carpets related to their two awards circuit films.
Dakota Johnson has been busy hyping her new film The Lost Daughter, about a woman on summer holiday recalling her early days as a mother, for awards season. Jamie Dornan is also a part of a film that has begun to receive good notice. That flick is none other than Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, a black and white film about childhood in Belfast in the 1960s that even has Dornan singing in the first trailer.
While the movies don’t have a ton in common, it has afforded Dornan the opportunity to see and catch up with Dakota Johnson again. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s had kind things to say about his former co-star, either. This time, he told the Belfast Telegraph about running into Johnson on red carpets:
It’s really nice and we both went through this mad journey together and things couldn’t be more different than the work we are doing now. I haven’t had the chance to see her film but I’ll get to it. We are proud of each other.
Technically, the third movie in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, Fifty Shades Freed, came out in 2018, but it actually filmed back in 2016. This is because Fifty Shades Darker and Freed actually filmed back-to-back. While Dornan and Johnson would have done promotion for the final movie based on E.L. James’ novels in 2018, it’s really been quite a long time since they spent significant time together.
While the two might see each other often, Jamie Dornan did say it’s been nice to catch up. I’m guessing that’s doubly true given it comes at a time that both are seeing such success for wildly different projects than the ones that made them household names. Both actors have jumped on very different types of projects and roles than those they inhabited as Ms. Steele and Mr. Grey in the time since the last film premiered.
The Christian Grey actor has previously been open about enjoying switching to “indies” after finding success in Fifty Shades, for example. While the cast has certainly moved on from the roles, they are still connected in the way the fanbase loves to keep tabs on what they are doing. So it’s nice to hear they’ve been able to catch up.
When people are in a movie franchise or TV series together, there are extended periods of time when they are working with co-stars and seeing the same crew teammates every day. And then the projects end and those involved scatter on to start something new with a new cast and crew. That’s the nature of the business, but it’s still nice to see fan favorite co-stars meeting up again every once and awhile.