Los Angeles, Oct 30 (IANS): Actor Jamie Dornan used to lie about his modelling career when he met girls because he was embarrassed.

The 39-year-old actor, who has three daughters with wife Amelia Warner, struggled with the "energy" and the "vanity" of his former career and admitted when he used to meet women, he'd pretend he had a different job, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Dornan said: "I struggled with, let's say, the energy. There's too much vanity and it just feels douche-y as f***."

"Too much nonsense. Whenever I went on a date or met a girl in a pub or whatever, I'd say I was a landscape gardener or worked for Google - anything but admit to having my photograph taken for a living."

Despite it being a big part of the job, the "Belfast" star, who started modelling in 2003 before taking his first steps into acting in 2006, still isn't comfortable having his photograph taken because it feels so "unnatural".

Speaking to the December/January issue of Britain's GQ magazine, he said: "I didn't love (modelling)."

"And I still don't like having my photograph taken. I find it odd. I find it an unnatural thing to happen. It's not fun to be told continually to move your head about like it is on a swivel."

Dornan turns 40 in May next year but he isn't "afraid" of the milestone because it has given him perspective.

He said: "It gives you perspective, doesn't it? I am not afraid of that any more. I'm not someone with a five-year plan... but if my twenties were about beginning this career, modelling, the start of acting, and my thirties were about establishing myself, then I want my forties to be about building something that will last."