Jamie Dornan Talks Fifty Shades of Grey's BDSM Scenes, Thinks "Men Are More Submissive Than Women"

"We are going to tell a love story," he tells Elle U.K.

By Zach Johnson Jan 02, 2015 12:38 PMTags

Jamie Dornan is down for dirty talk!

The 32-year-old actor appears in Elle U.K.'s February 2015 issue, where he opens up about Fifty Shades of Grey's racier scenes and addresses the controversy surrounding the scintillating subject matter. "The love story is more important than the BDSM aspect," he says. "I mean, we are going to tell a love story, you know? It can't just be what happens in the red room," he says of the sex scenes. "That's not a film."

"There's so much more going on than that," he adds.

Critics have called the book anti-feminist, but Dornan disagrees with that notion.

"I can understand why people say tying a woman up and spanking her is misogynistic," says Dornan, who visited a sex dungeon to prepare for his role as billionaire Christian Grey. "But actually, more men are submissive than women. Very powerful men. It's a far bigger scene than I imagined: in pretty much any city in the world that you could name, people want to get spanked with a paddle with studs on it." So, what did Dornan learn during his role preparation? "I went there, they offered me a beer, and they did...whatever they were into. I saw a dominant with one of his two submissives. I was like, 'Come on guys, I know I'm not paying for this, but I am expecting a show," he says. "It was an interesting evening."

Dornan kept his sex dungeon visit under wraps, which has become increasingly hard to do these days.

"You don't do it to have some guy sitting in a f--king bush outside your house with a camera. That's not why you do it," he says of acting. "I just couldn't do an office job; I don't have that temperament. But yeah, I don't know how you can prepare for it. You can't get in sandbags. Buy loads of hoodies and caps? I'll deal with it when it comes. I feel pretty secure about who I am. It's not my first time at the rodeo."

The February issue of Elle U.K. is on sale now.

(E! and Focus Features are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)