While Dornan performed most of his own scenes in the trilogy, there’s one moment fans might not realize wasn’t really him—and the reason why is deeply personal.
In Fifty Shades Darker, there’s a scene involving Christian kneeling before Ana, placing her shoes on after a night of submission. Dornan read the scene and immediately felt uncomfortable—not with the act, but with the symbolic meaning.
“He felt it crossed a line,” a crew member explained. “It made Christian appear broken, not vulnerable.”
Dornan reportedly refused to shoot it. The solution? A trained body double stepped in. The scene was shot from the shoulders down, lit low, and framed tightly to hide the substitution.
Some eagle-eyed fans later speculated about the odd camera work. They were right. That wasn’t Dornan—and it wasn’t by accident.
It’s one of the few scenes that reveal how much say the actors truly had in shaping their characters—even if it meant stepping off-camera.
