Jamie Dornan plays a sinister character on his TV series, The Fall, and the actor recently revealed exactly what makes him so terrifying.

Dornan's Paul Spector is a serial killer in The Fall, which would clearly be a terrifying character in any scenario. But what makes his character resonate is just how realistic he seems, according to the actor himself.

"Right from the start, this is a guy who has a family, who lives on a quiet street, has a very solid professional job, looks normal, you know," Dornan explains in a new Yahoo interview. "Often these guys who've committed multiple murders are like that, so there is an element of, 'It could be the guy next door,' which I think is more frightening. I think it could almost get lots of people asking questions about themselves and the people around them."

Despite the very dark subject matter of The Fall, which centers on Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson's (Gillian Anderson) attempts to find and capture Paul Spector, the actor is hopeful that those who like Fifty Shades of Grey will try the show out.

"I don't know what 'Fifty Shades' fans think of Paul Spector," says Dornan, "and the two series are nothing alike, obviously, but I think there's probably lots of people who watch 'The Fall' because of 'Fifty Shades'. If 'Fifty Shades' has opened more eyes to 'The Fall', then that's only a good thing for all of us."

Dornan plays the seductive Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades film franchise, and will next be seen in Fifty Shades Darker on Feb. 11, 2017 and Fifty Shades Free on Feb. 10, 2018. The Fall is currently available to stream on Netflix.

There has been some writing on whether the depiction of violence against women in The Fall is exploitative, but Anderson suggests in the Yahoo interview that it is realistic to today's world.

"People can think what they like - I know what this is," Anderson says. "It's so wrong-headed - were people to maybe sit back and look at Allan's intention, which is the opposite of what they are claiming, they would see something very different. I think that Allan is so emotional and invested in the fact of how women are treated in the world, and I really feel like this is his way of getting to say a lot through this script."

Tags: jamie dornan Fifty Shades Of Grey the fall