Jamie and 'New Worlds' Cast on the cover of Guardian Guide Magazine - Interview + Scans (March 2014)

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New Worlds to conquer: meet the cast of Channel 4's new historical drama

Four of the most talented young actors in the UK are transported to 1680s America for the follow-up to The Devil's Whore

"It shows the beginning of the American dream," says 19-year-old Alice Englert, one of the four co-stars of the Channel 4 drama New Worlds. "What will be fascinating for UK audiences is looking at the beginning, how that dream was always going to be built on something quite… gross." She struggles, engagingly, for the mot juste. In the opening episode, her character scalps a man. It is indeed gross.

"We don't do much long-form drama in the UK," says co-star Jamie Dornan, 31, "so we have to pack a punch within the few hours we have."

Freya Mavor talks about Jamie and his character in 'New Worlds'

Channel4 - Beth is a bold character. She fights to get Abe to take her seriously and puts her life in danger by joining him and then has to survive huge turmoil and loss. What do you think drives her?

I think both the realisation that she has revolutionary blood in her and needs to follow through the ideals of her parents and also her love for Abe. Abe liberates her from her ignorance and emboldens her to challenge the world around her to discover and fight for what she believes in.

Beth and Abe share a very romantic love story. What was it like playing opposite Jamie Dornan?

One of Jamie’s brilliant traits is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He takes the job seriously but he made being on set so much fun and between heartbreaking scenes we could goof around which was really easy. We became great friends, which I think really helped us play Beth and Abe are not only in love but also see each other as comrades and support each other. And he is gorgeous which helps as well!

Jamie and 'New Worlds' Cast on the cover of Evening Standard Magazine - Pictures + Interview (March 2014)

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Epic historical drama New Worlds hits our TV screens later this month, bringing with it a new generation of talented actors. Lucy Hunter Johnston meets the show’s rising stars, including a certain Jamie Dornan, aka Christian Grey in the new film adaptation of Fifty Shades — scream!

The corset crew is getting some new members, thanks to the forthcoming Channel 4 historical drama New Worlds. The four-part mini-series comes from the creators of the 2008 BAFTA-nominated The Devil’s Whore, which starred Michael Fassbender and Dominic West. Set during the Restoration, as Charles II takes back the throne with a reign of terror, it stars Jamie Dornan, Joe Dempsie, Alice Englert and Freya Mavor as young revolutionaries and star-crossed lovers, fighting on both sides of the Atlantic. Expect sex, murder, plotting and treason. This will fill a Game of Thrones-shaped hole until the new season starts in April.

JAMIE DORNAN, Abe Gough, revolutionary outlaw

Do you want me to do it now?’ asks Jamie Dornan in a low Northern Irish lilt. He composes himself with a swig of tea then directs the full force of his piercing gaze towards me. Wham! There it is: the trademark ‘Dornan furrow’, the face that sold a thousand pairs of pants for Calvin Klein, terrified an audience of 3.5 million in the BBC Two drama The Fall, and will be glaring down upon Anastasia Steele’s backside, spanking paddle in hand, as the billionaire BDSM fanatic Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey film.

Dornan is adamant he always wanted to act and that his supermodelling career, working with brands from Dior to Hugo Boss as the so-called ‘Golden Torso’, was merely a lucrative distraction. Brooding aside, he’s far from your stereotypical clotheshorse. He’s a hard-drinking, rugby-playing, Man United-supporting 31-year-old who listens to The Kinks, reads Oscar Wilde and litters his conversation with expletives. ‘I’ve never felt massively satisfied from standing there while someone takes my photograph,’ he says. ‘It’s never given me a thrill.’ So why did he do it? ‘It would take a very foolish man to turn down the stuff that was offered to me. You’re in your twenties, and people are going to give you a silly amount of money to lean against a wall with your head down. Fuck me, you’ve got to do it.’ In fact, he’s still at it. This season he is being paid a small fortune as the face of the chic Italian suit label Zegna and upmarket trainer brand Hogan.

Freya Mavor talks about 'New Worlds' and Jamie (February 2014)

Daily Mail - "We meet her on her 21st birthday, when she’s about to become a woman," says Freya. "Until that point she has been living a sheltered life, blissfully unaware of the horrors that are going on in England – but that’s about to change."

Indeed, an outlaw turns up at her 21st birthday party hoping to rob the guests to raise funds to buy weapons and supplies for the anti-monarchist cause. He sees that there might be political and monetary advantages in abducting Beth, and carries her off.

"She puts up a fight, of course, but the truth is that there’s an instant attraction between them. She’s going to fall in love with him but she’s also going to experience a total political awakening."

Freya giggles at my suggestion that there could be worse things than being abducted by Jamie Dornan, who plays the outlaw and idealist Abe. He’s the Northern Irish actor who came to our attention as the oddly appealing psychopath in the BBC thriller The Fall and is about to go global in the leading role of Christian in 50 Shades of Grey.

Like Freya, he too has a background in modelling, with clients such as Calvin Klein. "When I knew I’d been cast, I Googled him and up came all these pictures of him half naked! I was taken aback and a little bit intimidated," she confesses. "But when I finally got to work with him he was the nicest, funniest, most laid-back man in the world. Honestly, Jamie is a babe."

"New Worlds is a passionate story and yet the love scenes are simply hinted at – the touch of a hand, the glimpse of some flesh. It’s a lot sexier than a full-on love scene."

'New Worlds' Promo Shoot (2013)