Born on May 1, 1982 in the Northern Irish town of Holywood near Belfast, Jamie Dornan first came to the similar-sounding dream factory in Los Angeles via detours.

He began his career as a model, later he went on tour with his band supporting KT Tunstall and took on his first small roles in "Marie Antoinette" and the series "Once Upon a Time".

After breaking out with The Fall, he played the male lead in the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy, which drew audiences to theaters around the world but was panned by critics.

Since then, Dornan, who now has three daughters with his wife and former colleague Amelia Warner, has again focused on smaller productions such as "Synchronic" or "The Scent of Wild Thyme".

After his role as the head of the family in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed "Belfast", he can now be seen in the six-part series "The Tourist", which will be shown on ZDF from August 22 (already in the media library).

We caught him on a video call in a hotel room in Portugal, where he was recently in front of the camera for the spy film "Heart of Stone" starring Gal Gadot and Matthias Schweighöfer.

Mr. Dornan, your new series “The Tourist” is set in the Australian outback.

Didn't the idea of ​​moving the center of your life to the other end of the world for the filming scare you off?

I honestly found that idea quite appealing as we shot the series when the coronavirus restrictions were at their peak back in the UK.

And in that part of Australia there wasn't a single Covid case at the same time.

Of course, that meant that I first had to go to the quarantine hotel room with my wife and children, which was really exhausting.

But after that I not only had a great job, but we were able to live for a few months without any restrictions.

That only changed in the last few weeks, when a few infections had occurred in the region again.

Of course it was difficult for the kids to suddenly have to go to school in Adelaide.

But it was definitely better than home schooling on the laptop like in England.

Your daughters are now three, five and eight years old and you often stress how important it is for you to have family with you at work.

Have you already canceled jobs because it became too complicated?

Of course.

But my wife and I don't have any fundamental rules, we discuss the situation from case to case.

So far we've actually always managed to get everyone to accompany me on shoots, at least for a large part of the time.

When the girls were still quite young, this could often be done quite well.

But it's definitely getting more difficult with school, which is why I'll try to shoot mostly in Great Britain or at least Europe for the foreseeable future.

My next film will be made entirely in London, so I can come home every evening.

The one after that probably too.

If I were offered The Tourist and five months in Australia today, I probably wouldn't take the role.

The fact that I could allow myself that is of course a great luxury.

And it's also because your wife Amelia Warner, as a film composer, can work from practically anywhere...

Definitely, this is a crucial factor.

You don't need more than a keyboard and a laptop.

Although she also has a new big assignment soon, for which it doesn't hurt to be in London, where all the musicians she works with are.

So staying home for a while now will benefit both our careers in the near future.

Can you even concentrate on everyday family life while you play a possibly psychologically demanding role?

I learned how to ditch your role at night on The Fall, where I played a serial killer.

You can't carry something like that around with you, and in fact I've seen almost all of my older colleagues become completely themselves again and no longer in character in the restaurant at the latest in the evening.

And quite honestly: the children would hardly give me a chance to do that.

When I come through the door, I'm dad and then it's about topics like supper, washing my hands or the bath before bed.

What I did during the day shouldn't matter anymore.