Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe Have Magnetic Chemistry in Their New Movie

Jamie: No. You know what? I haven’t, no. I’ll just own that. I wouldn’t try to lie about it, but actually, Caitriona did say yesterday that apparently I’m not the target audience. So I don’t really know, married men approaching 40, is that not? Was I the target audience seven years ago when it began?

Caitriona: No. Well, I wouldn’t say he was a demographic that…initially responded to our show, right? I would say it’s a more female-driven audience and at least initially in the beginning, I think it was people who had read the books. So the first books came out in ’92. I would’ve said they would have skewed slightly older.

Jamie: I see, yes.

Caitriona: [Now] we have pretty much people of all ages watch it.

Jamie: That’s a tall cast.

Caitriona: Sam [Heughan] is taller than you. Tobias [Menzies] is taller than you.

Jamie: Come on, mate.

Caitriona: Graham’s taller than you. I think, yeah. [Laughs.]

Caitriona, have you seen any of Jamie’s previous work?

Caitriona: I have seen some. I have not seen Fifty Shades.

Jamie: Good.

Caitriona: And I may have only seen an episode or two of The Fall.

Jamie: Who stops it on episode two of The Fall? Jesus Christ.

Caitriona: I don’t know yeah, but it’s very good.

Jamie: I’m not good enough to continue with, but “it’s good.” [Laughs.]

Oh my gosh, you guys are killing me. [Laughs.] So what drew you to Belfast? 

Caitriona: I wanted to work with Jamie Dornan from The Fall.

Jamie: She’s [only watched] about 100 minutes of The Fall, and it was enough to know that she wanted to work with me.

Caitriona: No. [Laughs.]

Jamie: Yeah. I mean, when [the script for Belfast] came my way, the only cast was Judi Dench, who I had heard of in quite a big way. And that alone was just enough, and I knew that everyone else they were wanting to fill the cast with were really exciting people too. And I’m from Belfast—it’s bit of a no-brainer. If someone like Kenneth Branagh is making a movie about your hometown, you want in. If I’m being honest with myself, I could have read the script, not really liked it, and still said yes, probably. But luckily I read it and was bowled over by it and felt this is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been offered as an actor to this point. So it was easy, yes.

Caitriona: And I think I was one of the last to come onto [the project], so when I first got the call, it was already pretty much set up. It was going to be Judi, Ciarán, Jamie…but my agent had called and said, “There is this project, these are the people involved.” And then it was, “Would you read the script and will you get on the Zoom with Ken?” And the script is beautiful. Ken, I think, is known more for his acting and directing, but he’s an incredible writer. The character was amazing and she really spoke to me. So it all was just a quick yes.