Looks like after three years and three feature films, Jamie Dornan is finally having fun with the Fifty Shades of Grey press tour process. On Tuesday night, the actor stopped by the Late Late Show, where he and James Corden staged a comparably G-rated parody that transformed Christian Grey’s “Red Room of Pain” into a “playroom” of a different sort.
The sketch’s opening is a clear parody of the first film, in which Grey introduced Anastasia Steele (played by Dakota Johnson in the movies) to his room full of B.D.S.M. toys. Here, however, the toys are actual toys—trains, to be precise. “Say something, please,” a stony-faced Corden murmurs after a pregnant pause while Dornan—playing the Anastasia role here—takes everything in. “You’re a nerd,” Dornan replies with disbelief. “I’m a hobbyist,” Corden insists.
When Dornan asks the difference, Corden offers to show him. Cue a montage involving bandanas, overalls, little blue caps, and lots of tunnel and train action. By the end, the two are obviously spent—but things take a turn when Dornan offers up an activity that’s too “sick” even for a train hobbyist.
When Dornan and Johnson set off to promote the first Fifty Shades film back in 2015, their awkwardness—particularly around each other—was widely noted. Though Dornan and Johnson denied that they disliked one another while working on Fifty Shades of Grey, the narrative persisted—as Dornan especially appeared uncomfortable promoting his role as a hard-bodied billionaire S&M freak. (Johnson, by contrast, always seemed to be having a better time.)
Now, though, Dornan appears to have adopted a lighter approach to his last batch of press appearances. Even his descriptions about how the Fifty Shades sausage (sorry) gets made are more buoyant: while touring for the first film, the actor described putting his “dignity” in a holster during sex scenes and tying it up “like a little bag of grapes.” This year, he called his protective packaging a far more entertaining name—a “wee bag”—and jokingly insisted that the word “wee” had no bearing on the size of his package. Perhaps Dornan’s demeanor can be attributed to one crucial detail: with the third film behind him, he’s finally done with Christian Grey for good.
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Westworld (Season 2)
HBO is once again hoping you’ll ignore the big Game of Thrones-shaped hole in its schedule and turn your attention back to the sci-fi mind game that is Westworld. The Emmy-nominated series, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton, is ready to confound you once again in its second season. Until its spring 2018 premiere, take a trip back in time and revisit nine burning questions we still have about the finale.Photo: By John P. Johnson/HBO.
Grown-ish
Yara Shahidi takes the lead in this youthful Black-ish spin-off set to air on Freeform starting Jan. 3, 2018. In this series, Zoey is finally off to college, stumbling through cringeworthy rites of passage like embarrassing herself at a frat party and hiding secrets from her parents.Photo: By Eric Liebowitz/Freeform.
’Tis the season to watch a bunch of perfect human specimens fight for tiny gold medallions. This year’s Winter Olympics will kick off on Feb. 9, 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.Photo: By Julian Finney/Getty Images.
The Chi
After breaking out on Master of None and winning a historic Emmy for one of this year’s best TV episodes, Lena Waithe is ready to claim her spot in the prestige-TV realm. Enter The Chi, her Showtime series about young people coming of age in Chicago, set to premiere on Jan. 7.Photo: By Matt Dinerstein/SHOWTIME.
A Wrinkle in Time
The classic Madeleine L’Engle tale is finally coming to the big screen on March 9, 2018, thanks to Disney and director Ava DuVernay. The sci-fi story about a girl tesseracting her way through time to find her missing father will star newcomer Storm Reid alongside stars like Oprah Winfrey,Mindy Kaling,Reese Witherspoon, and Chris Pine.Photo: By Atsushi Nishijima/Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
After some catastrophic ups and downs, Han Solo’s origin story will finally be revealed to us on May 25, 2018. The Star Wars spin-off stars Alden Ehrenreich as the galactic smuggler and also features Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke playing a mysterious character named Kira.Photo: From Lucasfilm Ltd./Everett Collection.PreviousNext
Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com. She was formerly an editorial assistant at Slate and lives in Brooklyn.