Once upon a time is premiering this Sunday in UK, so check Digital Spy’s interview with Jamie Dornan. Nothing new, but still worthy a read!
Fairytale show with a twist Once Upon a Time finally hits UK TV screens this week and Digital Spy is confident you’ll be blown away by the wonder and surprising grittiness of the concept.
In preparation, we caught up with Jamie Dornan, who is soon to set hearts a-flutter with his turn as Sheriff Graham – the authority figure of the mysterious town of Storybrooke where no-one is quite who they seem.
Can you tell us a little bit about Once Upon a Time?
“It’s quite an unique show in that it caters to everyone in the family. Fairytales are stories that span every generation and they’ve been around for a long time. Everyone knows about these stories and wants to find out more about these characters, so it’s unique in the sense that you get an opportunity to find out more about all your favorite characters from that realm.
“These guys Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis (creators of Once Upon a Time) are two of the main writers on Lost, so they know how to keep an audience interested and confused. It’s very enjoyable to watch and it’s kind of unpredictable, and people like that because television can be boring.”
How does your character Sheriff Graham fit into the story?
“He’s the sheriff in Storybrooke where not a lot happens and he probably hasn’t had to do a great deal or sheriffing in his life because not much changes. So when Emma (Jennifer Morrison) comes it’s the first big thing that’s happened in Storybrooke in a long time. He’s there to sort of control [things] and it starts to go weird.
“He’s gonna be the sort of authority figure, but he’s also quite a vulnerable guy and he’s never had to use his authority massively. He’s very much under the thumb of the mayor (Lana Parrilla) and that sort of unravels as it goes on. So he’s quite a crucial character in the town. He’s respected, he has an interesting past like most of the people in Storybrooke and he has a cool backstory which we get to see eventually.”
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Do you have a fairytale equivalent?
“I do. I can’t really say too much about it but I think he’s quite unexpected. After a few episodes I think viewers will be quite shocked at who my fairytale character is. But he’s cool and everyone should know who he is.”
Was it challenging playing both Sheriff Graham and a fairytale character?
“There were quite a few differences. It’s funny when you know you’re playing two characters and you’re aware of how you have to play each one into your performance of the other. You’re constantly at the back of your mind thinking and it all gets a bit confusing. My fairytale character and Sheriff Graham, there’s quite major conflicts with them which start to make sense once you see the story.”
There were rumours that you were meant to play Robin Hood – is the fairytale role you ended up with quite different?
“They had a plan for my fairytale character to be someone else but for some reason they couldn’t make it happen. So I became someone else, which is equally cool and either one of them would have been great to play. In fact, the two characters in question have a lot of similarities, so I was happy enough to play either one.”
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How do the fairytale characters in Once Upon a Time differ from their traditional interpretations?
“It’s not a classic retelling of these fairytales. It’s not the stuff that we know, it’s the stuff that brought us to that point. It’s when Snow White met Prince Charming, not when they’ve been together. The way these guys write they’ve given themselves the allowance to do whatever they want with these stories, they don’t have to stick to the rules.
“They essentially want you to have a grander picture of these fairytale characters that we think we know from what we’ve seen before, but they’re going to show you sides to these characters that you couldn’t even imagine.”
Once Upon a Time seems to be quite an action-packed show; did you have any big sequences?
“Yeah, I get a few scenes where I get to throw men a lot larger than me around, which is kind of cool. When there’s some big stuntman throwing himself into a wall because you acted like you threw him, it’s quite an empowering thing.
“Josh Dallas, who plays Prince Charming, annoyingly gets more action stuff and he’s more adept at it. He’s a more impressive man than me. But the scale of it is big and that’s what’s cool about the fairytale land stuff – it’s big action stuff. It’s asking a lot for television, it’s a big production in that sense.”
Are there any romances on the horizon?
“Yeah, Sheriff Graham is definitely involved in a couple of liasons, shall we say. I think one of them is predictable and the other one might be a bit shocking. It’s somebody that you might not expect for a man of his position.”
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What attracted you to Once Upon a Time?
“It was the two names, Eddie and Adam. As soon as I saw their names on the front of the script I was like, ‘This is going to be good’. I was very aware of them and a big fan of Lost.
“You do quite a lot of these pilots that never see the light of day. You spend a few weeks filming them, they spend millions on them and then no-one ever sees them, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. But this one just stood out.
“It had more charm and literally more magic than the rest of the stuff out there. I just had a lot of faith in those guys to write stuff that keeps audiences coming back every week.”
Do you think audiences will be impressed with the look of the fairytale world?
“Definitely, yeah. It looks amazing in the pilot when we first see the casting of the curse. You don’t know how that’s going to look… but that’s why you shoot in places like Vancouver where it’s quite stunning. We need to be somewhere like that. You do need the beautiful set ups.”
Did the effects and costumes help get you into the role as well?
“It’s amazing how you instantly become [the character]. That really helps. The stuff on green screen is a little bit harder because you feel very much like you’re on set.”
Fairytales are quite popular at the moment with the Snow White movies and shows likeGrimm. How does Once Upon a Time differ?
“I think we started it. As I said before these aren’t new stories, it’s the way you tell the stories. We’re are able to just keep messing with the characters and intertwining the stories, rather than a straight retelling of these classic fairytales which I think a couple of those movies have done.
“But I think it’s great. The more fairytale-based media there is out there, it’s not going to do our show any harm. Everyone likes a bit of competition.”
