The Tourist actor Jamie Dornan has taken issue with assumptions about Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise's stunts for his movies.
Dornan's new BBC thriller series has a huge action set piece at the very heart of its story when his character, known only as The Man, finds himself stranded in Australia with amnesia after a hit-and-run crash.
From the trailer above, it looks as if the car crash stunt was an ordeal to film for Dornan and the Tourist crew — and indeed the actor quipped to Digital Spy that he got "too involved" in the filming.
Related: The Tourist's Jamie Dornan and Shalom Brune-Franklin break down that wild premiere twist
"That was proper… F**k," he recalled. "We had a lot of time in the schedule. I think the first two weeks of the shoot was just that chase, you know? And that wasn’t enough. We had to come back later, and find time to do stuff in the studio with it, on a Simtrav [virtual production unit], where I was in a studio, and there was stuff going past.
"You can tell how covered it is; how much drone action there is; how many different cameras there are inside; the reality of really being out there in the dirt, and getting shit stuck in my eye. It was really mad… It felt like what it must be like to shoot five months of Mad Max or something – this constant abuse in the Outback. But I think it makes for a really great opening."
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Dornan also took issue with the publicity surrounding Hollywood superstar Cruise over just how involved he gets in shooting his own stunts for the Mission: Impossible series.
"At the risk of sounding like Tom Cruise, I do like to be involved as much as I can in all that stunt stuff. But there's a line sometimes where they just won't."
The actor later added: "There is a f**king line. So we had a line, obviously, but I will do everything up to that line, because it's fun, and I enjoy it. While my body just about still works, I will do anything."
Cruise has endured some very severe injuries putting his body at risk doing his own stunts filming the Mission: Impossible movies. While shooting Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the cast and crew had to be sent home when Cruise broke his ankle in a building-jumping stunt.
His co-star Rebecca Ferguson later told Digital Spy she was amazed he was back on set only a few months later shooting more action scenes.
"Literally the same old. It's incredible. I don't know how he healed so fast," she said.
"I don't remember how long the hiatus was. I went diving, I made a baby, you know, life just continues. I think he came back and he said, 'I've started to do these other films', and you just think, 'You just haven't been resting.'"
Dornan's new series The Tourist, which also stars Line of Duty's Shalom Brune-Franklin and Easy's Danielle Macdonald, premiered on New Year's Day and continues on Sunday (January 2) at 9pm on BBC One.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
