Jamie Dornan, popular for his role in ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey‘ movie series, recently shared a rather funny yet mortifying episode when he had to kiss a horse for a shoot. The actor is “highly allergic” to animals, which makes it even more difficult for him to carry out the task.
Speaking on ‘The Graham Norton Show’, the Irish actor has previously shared several stories that had to do with kissing on the set. But this one stands apart — mostly because it involves kissing an animal, but also because of what happened next with Dornan.
Jamie Dornan Says He Likes Animals But He Is Allergic
The 41-year-old actor clarified that though he does not have a problem with animals, it’s his unfortunate allergies that make him wary of them. “I like them as a species, I just can’t get close,” he said.
He recalled the first episode of having to kiss a horse when he was entirely unaware of his allergy. It was during the filming of ‘Marie Antoinette’ in 2006 when his character was required to be extensively surrounded by horses and also kiss one of them.
As his allergies were still undiscovered at the time, he said he suffered an extreme reaction after the shoot. He had to retort top EpiPens and the incident nearly jeopardized the movie’s insurance coverage.
“My character [Count Axel Fersen] pretty much has to spend the whole movie on a horse…And I forgot I hadn’t been around horses for a long time,” he said.
Adding that he underwent training for horse riding before he started shooting, the ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey‘ said, “So I’m trotting around this place … and in the back, one of the runner’s faces just looked [shocked],” he said. “I was itchy, and my whole face had become a giant hive,” he said recounting the horror.
Thereafter, Jamie Dornan was duly medicated whenever he was required to be near a horse for a shooting. “So if you see me on a horse, I’m very heavily medicated,” he joked.
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Jamie Dornan Kissed The Horse Out Of Affection
Six years later, the actor faced the same situation again — this time out of an emotional judgment rather than a necessity. On the last day of shooting the 2012 historical drama ‘New Worlds’, Dornan said he wanted to bid a proper goodbye to the horse he was assigned during the filming.
“I really liked the horse I had. And I thought, ‘It’s the final day. You know what? I love this horse.’ So I gave her a kiss on the lips,” he said. “I went, ‘You know what, we’re nearly over. I have half a day left.’ The horse was picture-wrapped. So I gave it a kiss,” he added.
The gesture, however, did not end well for Dornan. “And then my lips absolutely blew up,” he said, declaring that the shooting for the day had to be suspended because of that.
In another rather sweet kissing confession, Dornan last year revealed that he kissed a photo of his teenage celebrity crush, Liv Tyler, every night before bed. He was playing the game of ‘Never Have I Ever‘ with ‘Belfast’ co-star Caitríona Balfe.
“I had a black-and-white picture of Liv Tyler by my bed and I used to kiss it every night before I went to bed,” Dornan said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “And when I was in New York I met her, my friend knew this and said, ‘Jamie, did you tell Liv about that time?’ And I had to tell Liv Tyler to her face that I used to kiss a black-and-white picture of her every night.”
“She was so lovely about it. But it was mortifying for me,” Conan recalled.
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