USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Fifty Shades’ star Dornan shows his comedic chops
“Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” with Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, is on demand.
Jamie Dornan should have gone to a fake resort in Florida a long time ago. h The former “Fifty Shades of Grey” star shows off impressively zany comedic chops in “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” ( available now on video- on- demand platforms), Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s absurd new comedy about two middleaged Midwesterners who break out of their comfort zone and head south for a wild vacation full of trippy cocktails and wisetalking crabs. Once firmly ensconced in the shell- bedecked, Mai Tai- soaked resort life, the chatty duo bed a handsome stranger ( Dornan) who is in fact a spy involved in a malicious plan to attack a local festival “where the clams are hot and the crowd is on the older side.” If you’ve read this far, you can probably tell “Barb &
Star” is a love- it- or- hate- it kind of film. But lo and behold, it’s become kind of a thing.
Dornan, 38, gives it his all as a tormented soul who dips into selfhelp books to reconcile his torment over his evil mistress ( also Wiig) driving the plot. The actor and dad of three explains embracing the Tommy Bahama life while calling from the U. K.
Question: How are you feeling about all the positive feedback for “Barb & Star”? A movie like this probably feels like a huge gamble.
Jamie Dornan: Any comedy is a risk, isn’t it? This is not some linear, normal, expected form of comedy. It’s pretty out there. If you wanted to dislike it, it would be easy to in a way because you could dismiss it as being too silly. But luckily, the world seemed to be up for a bit of silliness right now.
Q: Is there a specific moment
where you were on set in Cancun going, is this going to work?
Dornan: Maybe every single moment?
Q: I’d forgotten you sang in “Fifty Shades Freed.” So when you went all out singing the pining ballad “Edgar’s Prayer,” I was totally surprised.
Dornan: Yeah, I kind of forgot that I’d sang in “Fifty Shades Freed”! But that in itself was a terrifying experience because we shot that entire thing in Whistler at Sarah McLachlan’s house and that was her ( expletive) piano and she’d just played for the entire crew, she’d sang a couple of her monster, giant songs that everybody knows and everyone was crying. And they were like, ‘ All right Jamie, next up!’ And I was like ... I’m not following that!
This was very different, obviously, But it was hard to sing! It’s like a big ’ 80s bar ballad, essentially. I was exhausted after recording that song.
Q: It also required you to sell lyrics like “Seagulls in the sand, can you hear my prayer?”
Dornan: I can’t even tell you, weirdly, how comfortably those words sat within me.
Q: It’s all the funnier that over Christmas you posted your children shouting “Daddy, shush!” as you tried to sing carols.
Dornan: Oh, they hated it. My wife wasn’t in the room at that point. Had my wife been in the room, she would have been joining the chorus of boos.
Q: So have your kids seen any of “Barb & Star”?
Dornan: They want to watch my song all the time and the song when ( Wiig and Mumolo) arrive at the hotel. But the older two are 5 and 7, they watched almost the whole movie the other day and I was sort of tactically coming in – I think there’s only two times anybody swears and it’s me both times – and I came in at that moment and I was talking over ( it). And some stuff is just over their head.
Q: I understand when you were climbing the palm tree ( singing lyrics like “I’m going up a palm tree / like a cat up a palm tree / who’s decided to go up a palm tree”) you were actually on wires.
Dornan: That was tough, man. I’m trying to make it look like it’s a really easy thing, that I’m climbing this palm tree like a cat. Josh ( Greenbaum), our director, was like, “Can you do it so it’s like you’re barely making contact with the trunk?” It was also 1,000 degrees in Cancun in July in a harness trying to sing that absurd song at the same time. It’s one of those days you’re like, what is happening with my life? Q: Which brings us to Edgar’s dramatic shirt- ripping scene. I hear you tore through many a polo.
Dornan: I definitely ripped a couple. They wouldn’t rip that easy and I guess I’m not as strong as I’d like to think I am. But even in the movie you can see that I rip it to the point that I’m not ripping it – and I end up just slipping it over my head to disguise the fact that I’m weak.
Q: What is it like to finally show off a sillier side on camera? Projects like “Fifty Shades” or TV series “The Fall” have displayed broodier chops.
Dornan: People who know me, my friends, know I’m really silly most of the time. It’s not a shock to a lot of my mates. It’s probably a shock to plenty of people in the world.
Q: Would your kids describe you as pretty silly?
Dornan: I’ll tell you something really nice. Our 5- year- old, who turned 5 just yesterday, she said the other day, ‘ When I grow up, I want to be silly like Daddy.’ It made me really proud.
Q: Fans are already imagining Barb, Star and Edgar on their next trip. Where in the world would you want to send them on a sequel? Have Wiig and Mumolo ( who jointly wrote the comedy) spoken to you about it?
Dornan: That would be amazing to happen but it’s been a decade of requests for a “Bridesmaids” sequel that hasn’t happened yet. They’re busy girls. But we’ve definitely all talked about it, there have been destinations thrown around, ranging from the absurd to the unimaginable.
It’s a strange thing thinking about that because usually if you’ve done anything where there’s potential for a sequel, you’re very aware of box office and all that stuff – but ( with a streaming release) we have none of that to go on. So it will be strange making those decisions.