James Norton Recalls Brutal Note After Fifty Shades Of Grey Audition

James Norton has revealed that he was once in the running for one of the steamiest film roles in modern history – but it didn’t quite go his way.

The House Of The Dragon star paid a visit to Capital Breakfast on Thursday morning, where he revealed that “early on” in his screen career, he was in consideration to play the romantic lead, Christian Grey, in the movie adaptation of Fifty Shades Of Grey.

“I remember very clearly the casting director at the end of my take saying, ‘it’s fine, I think you just need to be a bit more charismatic’,” James recalled.

He quipped: “Just think of that note – ‘be more charismatic’. [That’s] the worst [thing someone could say]. It’s like, ‘just live a bit cooler’. ‘Just be a bit better at life’.

“And, surprisingly, I didn’t get that role.”

Instead, the role of Christian Grey proved to be a star vehicle for Jamie Dornan, who appeared in all three of the erotic romance dramas alongside Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele.

While each of the films received increasingly scathing reviews from critics upon release, they were also all hits at the box office, with the first scoring an Oscar nomination (albeit in the Best Original Song category for The Weeknd’s contribution to the soundtrack).

Before Jamie landed the role of the troubled billionaire tycoon, Monster star Charlie Hunnam had been booked to play the part, but was forced to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.

Last year, Charlie joked that he “never looked back” after stepping away from Fifty Shades, revealing that he’d recently bumped into Dakota at an event and she’d given him “a bit of a hard time about it in a very fun way”.

“I just wasn’t thinking clearly,” he told Variety when asked about taking the job in the first place, before adding that he had “no regrets at all” about how things turned out.