ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Heart of Stone star Jamie Dornan about the new Netflix action movie. Dornan spoke about the film’s themes involving AI and working alongside Gal Gadot. Heart of Stone is now streaming. (This interview was conducted in June 2023).
Tyler Treese: There’s such an interesting discussion to be had about technology versus human choice and instinct and which is valued more. What about that theme being in Heart of Stone really grabbed you?
Jamie Dornan: Well, it seemed pretty ambitious and fresh and sort of out there when I first read it — and weirdly, time being the funny thing that it is, a year and a half later, it seems more prevalent than ever because of where we’re at with the AI and ChatGPT and the conversations we’re having now globally is now running in parallel with the story we’re telling in Heart of Stone. It’s kind of crazy how that’s worked out, you know?
Our very own industry is at a standstill at the moment because of the threat of AI and the threat of that on writers and that thing between what a human soul can actually give to something compared to machines. It’s funny how that worked out, how the fear of that and the idea of that getting into the wrong hands and how catastrophic that could be being a theme when I first read it, and being an exciting theme, has now weirdly become something that is a true threat in our everyday life.
This movie really drives home just what a force Gal Gadot is as an action star. What stood out about her as a scene partner, both in her approach to fight scenes and the more dramatic scenes?
Her professionalism — she’s so ready. She’s definitely comfortable in this space. As you say, she’s done a lot of it. She’s proven herself time and time again, being so capable of carrying a movie of this scale. So to come in and not have done a movie in this genre really … personally, for me to work with someone who is so comfortable in that space, who is super ready and professional, but they’re also there to have fun … that’s sort of how I like to approach it too.
I just felt a real kinship with her early on, and, dare I say, it felt sort of easy when I was on set with her because we trusted each other to do those quite complex set piece scenes together, but also have fun with it, which was the most important thing. So, yeah, she was a great scene partner/fight partner. It was great to work alongside her.
