Jamie Dornan: We still haven’t had dad’s funeral
But appearing in Belfast has helped star handle his grief
Jamie and his sister Jessica with their dad. Credit: Liam McBurney
Jamie Dornan has still not been able to have a funeral for his father nearly a year after he died.
Professor Jim Dornan passed away aged 73 after contracting Covid-19 in Dubai, but Jamie could not see him because he was in Australia to film The Tourist.
While the actor (39) has been unable to give his father the send-off he would like, promoting Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast has helped him process his grief.
Jamie, who plays Pa in the film, told the Happy Sad Confused podcast: “I’ve probably stopped crying in [interviews] so much.
“When we took [Belfast] to the Telluride Film Festival, we got such an amazing response. It was just Ken and I then.
“Caitriona [Balfe] had just had her baby and Ciaran [Hinds] and Judi [Dench] hadn’t travelled over yet.
“Between Ken and I, we cried at every Q&A we did, but often for me it was related to Dad and the pain of him not being able to see this film, but also the comfort of him knowing I was making it and making it with the people I was making it with, and the hope he would have and did have for that.
“It’s been cathartic and in a way helpful to be bringing out this film, of all films, and to be talking about it so much in the passing months after we lost him.
“The grieving process is unpredictable. I’ve been through it. I lost my mum when I was young. I’ve been through it before, but I’m a different age now. I’m a father myself now — it changes everything — and [we had] the circumstances with Covid.
“I hadn’t seen my dad since Christmas 2019 because of the restrictions. We haven’t had a funeral for my dad yet. We are 10 months exactly now.
“It’s difficult to contextualise how I’m dealing with it or what it is, but I think it’s only been a good thing that I’m able to talk about a movie that’s so close to my dad and where he is from and who he was.
“[To] have that response to that movie... if I was sitting doing a movie in the passing months and year after his death and I was having to front up and do press for something that was getting destroyed and had no significant meaning to him, it would be a very different thing.”
It was often joked that Jim was more widely known in Belfast than his famous son.
The retired obstetrician and gynaecologist had considered a career in acting before turning to medicine, but he later had small parts in The Fall, in which Jamie played serial killer Paul Spector, and the third series of Marcella, starring Anna Friel.
Jamie, his sisters Jessica and Liesa and their step-mum Samina have been helping each other since the loss.
Jim supported his son’s acting career and also helped him navigate the death of his mother Lorna, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1998, when Jamie was 16. Jim told him at the time: “Don’t let this be the thing that defines you.”
Jamie with wife Amelia Warner. Credit: Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph
Belfast is not the actor’s first encounter with Ken — he auditioned to play one of the Marvel character Thor’s “smaller buddies” in a film helmed by the director, though he was not too happy with his efforts.
Jamie explained: “I did audition for Thor when he directed it way back when. I don’t even think he saw my tape, it was that bad.”
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/jamie-dornan-we-still-havent-had-dads-funeral-41291816.html
Remember… I think it’s only been a good thing that I’m able to talk about a movie that’s so close to my dad and where he is from and who he was. — Jamie Dornan
