'It's a different ride' - Jamie Dornan on return of The Tourist

It's coming back: Action-packed amnesia thriller The Tourist, starring Jamie Dornan, is returning to our screens in the New Year.

In the thriller's first outing, Fifty Shades star Dornan played Elliot, a man who woke up in the Australian outback with no memory and had to follow clues to discover his identity before his past caught up with him.

The Tourist: Season 2 shifts the action from Australia to Ireland as Elliot and love interest Helen (Danielle Macdonald) try to find answers about his identity. Instead, they are forced to face the dangerous consequences of his past actions.

Actors Dornan, Macdonald and Conor MacNeill offer a sneak peek at what the upcoming season has to offer.

For people who have not seen the previous series, is it easy to step into the story? What should they know before they start watching?

Jamie: "I think they should know that it's going to be different to anything that was before.

"You know, [writers] Jack and Harry Williams are really smart at bending genres and merging genres, and I think you could, if you watched it from the first episode of the first series, be convinced that you're watching something super dark and dramatic at the beginning.

"Then, pretty quickly, you realise that loads of warped humour has been embedded into it. I think, once audiences accept that they're going to go on this very pinball-ey journey of genres, they'll relax into it."

Danielle: "But it does feel like a whole new story, in a way. I always feel like you could come in blind without having seen season one, and you could pick it up pretty quickly.

"It's a guy that lost his memory, and he's trying to figure it out. And then it's like a whole new cast of characters almost. So you don't really need to know. I feel like you can piece it together quite easily."

So much of the confusion and disorientation in the first season was backed up by a beautiful, barren outback setting. How does the Irish landscape influence the characters’ journeys?

Jamie: "I think that sort of expansiveness and the desolate nature of the outback added to the mass confusion and fear that Elliot found himself in with his loss of memory.

"There was a worry that the continuum of that is so drastically different that it maybe doesn't work. But what happens is, it just becomes its own thing.

"Because of the nature of what's going on with all the characters in the second series being in Ireland, it just makes sense for it to be in Ireland, and the whole landscape and the greenery of Ireland just works for what's going on there.

"It’s what they're being presented with. I think it becomes as strong a character in season two as the outback does in the first series — you just sort of adapt to it, rather than change anything performance-wise."

Danielle: "It's almost just like its own new character. It does feel very Irish."

Conor: "They also write so specifically to location that it's kind of the same in that way, that they're so honest to where you are."

How would you describe the upcoming season to fans of the show?

Jamie: "You could sell it as just being more madness. If you're into the characters already [and] if you're a fan of Elliot and Helen, then you're going to find out so much more about them and see them through all kinds of crazy scenarios.

"It's a different ride. It's a different feel to the first series, but hopefully, if we've hooked you in from series one, there's plenty more to offer with the second series."

Why do you think viewers responded to your character, Danielle?

Danielle: "I think, honestly, Helen's kind of just the moral compass of season one. I think she's the only character that you can trust — she's telling you the truth, throughout. Everyone else kind of has a hidden agenda or, with [Elliot], he doesn't know his past, so you can't trust his memories, because they don't exist.

"I think that you learn to trust her pretty early on and I think that's kind of what made people connect with her. And also, she's just going through very real struggles. This show is kind of bats*** crazy and there's a lot of wild stuff that happens and a lot of circumstances that would just never happen in real life. Helen's going home to an emotionally abusive relationship, and people relate to that.

"I think she's just very relatable and kind of trustworthy to follow throughout. I think that's probably the main reason why people connected with her."

Jamie: "And just because you're amazing."

In the first season, your character was subjected to the controlling behaviour of a cruel fiancé. Did people respond to that?

Danielle: "I was aware of it when I was doing the show but that was kind of secondary to all this craziness that goes on with Elliott's character.

"When I was doing press for the first one, people spoke to me about it, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this resonated with people in a way that I didn't quite realise or expect’. It is quite sad when you think about it ― that that many people can resonate with it.

"It's an awful thing. But I think it's also nice for people to be able to resonate and be like, right, because that is wrong, that is toxic. It's nice that it's shown and people can see that."

The balance between comedy, action and absurdity is brilliant in the show. As actors, what are the challenges to translate that on screen?

Conor: "It's quite comedic on the first read I think, because, especially my character, has two hugely polarised personalities that are very very different. But [Harry and Jack Williams] write so well that you just have to trust it.

"I think that is the thing, just going with it and trusting it, and trying to make it as real as possible and not playing the comedy is always the best way with their comedy — because the lines are funny."

Jamie: "Conor's coming in, having to do that in the second series and trying to fall in step with the oddness of jumping around tone-wise, whereas at least Dani and I had a whole season of getting comfortable with that.

"I always think when you're acting, you should always be on your toes, and always be scared, because it gives it the energy it needs. So you never get comfortable with it, is what I'm trying to say —which is a good thing.

"And also even getting used to it, it is unexpected still when you're reading it. Sometimes you're like, ‘Oh my god, why is he making a joke there? He's just found out this horrific thing and the first thing that comes to his mind is to make a gag'.

"It can be jarring. But I had great fun playing it straight a lot of the time and we're hoping that it should land."

The Tourist: Season 2 will stream on TVNZ+ on 2 January.