The Fall star Jamie Dornan: I suffered nightmares after playing serial killer Paul Spector
By Demelza De-Burca
Irish Mirror: November 3, 2014
The Irish actor was traumatised after filming scenes as the brutal murderer
The Fall actor Jamie Dornan suffered nightmares after playing the role of a serial killer.
The 32-year-old stars alongside Gillian Anderson in the critically-acclaimed series about a family man who is also a psychopath.
And the Fifty Shades of Grey lead revealed playing ruthless murderer Paul Spector left its mark on him.
He told the RTE Guide: "I did dream of Spector and they were not very pleasant dreams. It can be hard to leave him but it has been two years since we shot the first series, so I hope he has left me at some point."
Series two hits RTE1 on Sunday night and picks up 10 days after the last series ended with the revelation that Spector's last victim had regained consciousness, tracking the psychological impact of the killings on the police team, the victims' families and on the city of Belfast as a whole.
In a separate interview yesterday the former Calvin Klein model said: "People have an appetite for this kind of drama and a morbid fascination with death.
"And what's particularly interesting in The Fall is knowing who the killer is from the start."
The dad of one revealed series two takes an interesting turn.
He added: "I think there's a slightly different tone with the second series, which is going to surprise people.
"We set out a lot of things in the first, where it was more about the act [of killing], and maybe the second series is more about what activates the act and the hunt [for Spector]."
Former X Files star Anderson, who leads the investigation team as aloof DSI Stella Gibson, agreed: "The team continues with the information they have and are following leads.
"There are more characters because the team is larger, and there's an interesting dynamic in having people in different aspects of the investigation working simultaneously."
The former 46-year-old mum of three couldn't wait to return to Stella, a woman she described as "unknowable" - though she added there are "more reveals about what makes her tick" this series.
Anderson said: "Not in a massive way, but enough to make it compelling and interesting, in a non-gratuitous or cheesy way."
In this series she is also credited as executive producer, something she insisted she was anyway, explaining: "It's just written down this time.
"I'm very opinionated, and it's nice when you're as involved as I am in this particular project to feel I can speak up about something and people will take that on board rather than rolling their eyes and waiting for me to shut up."
The Fall marks the first time Dornan has returned to a role, and he admitted he found it "almost worryingly easy" to step back into Spector's psychopathic shoes.
The Holywood-born star said: "It'd been quite a long time [since filming the last series] and Gillian and I had both done other stuff in between, but I think there's something about the people we had around us that made it feel easier than it could've been.
"We've more or less assembled the same crew from the first series, and that really helps you to ease back in."
A few months before filming began the Co Down man received a detailed breakdown of series two from Allan Cubitt, The Fall's creator, writer and, this time, director.
He explained: "It revealed what would potentially happen in each episode and I was genuinely shaking, I was so excited."
Anderson revealed that Stella can't help but become more emotionally involved in the case as time passes.
The Chicago-born star said: "She obviously reins it in, but I think this time she starts to be affected on other levels. It weighs on her because there are still lives at risk, and also because she feels increasingly closer and then sometimes increasingly further away."
The Hannibal actress claimed The Fall is "a different sort of dark" to anything else she's been involved in.
She added: "It's more psychological and the human aspect is greater, which has added a different depth to it. It's more disturbing."
Anderson admitted she almost turned the role down as she didn't want to do another series but sat down with team "and had a conversation" about the logistics of making it happen.
She explained: "I didn't feel I read it and had to do it no matter what. It was more like, 'Uh oh, I really like it. What does that mean to my life?'."
The pair are already gearing up for a third series.
Anderson said: "Stella and Spector are on a collision course, but that could happen in series five."
Dornan added: "When you're onto something as good as that you want to see it through and honour it in way that satisfies everyone."
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