Jamie Dornan Celebrates Milestone Birthday with Backyard Rodeo: 'This Is 40'

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Jamie Dornan is taking his 40s by the horns.

The Golden Globe nominee celebrated his milestone 40th birthday on Sunday with what appeared to be a cowboy-themed party, complete with a mechanical bull. "This is 40," Dornan captioned a video on Instagram.

In the clip, he rocked a Stetson and a brown suede jacket as he one-handed the machine, riding for at least eight seconds before being thrown onto the inflatable bull pen, as his friends could be heard cheering on the birthday boy.

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Dornan's backyard rodeo comes after a big year for the actor, who received his first-ever Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Belfast. He previously raved to PEOPLE about working on writer/director Kenneth Branagh's semi-autobiographical film about childhood in 1969 Northern Ireland during a civil war.

"I'm from Belfast, some other cast are from Belfast. Most of us, outside of Judi Dench, are from Ireland," he said in January. "We all have a very strong connection to it. I actually think there were days, particularly towards the end when we all so much felt like a family, we truly did."

"And for Kenneth Branagh, our writer, director, lots of people know now it's kind of semi-autobiographical of his life. So a very cathartic experience for him obviously to tell this story finally, 50 years after the events," Dornan added.

The Irish actor's year also came with some lows as his father Dr. Jim Dornan died of COVID-19 last March before having a chance to see Belfast. "It gives me some comfort that he knew I was doing that job," he told PEOPLE.

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"I've worked with some pretty cool people in my career and often, they're really exciting sort of current talents that people are talking about. But often my dad has never heard of those people. So it was nice with Belfast to go, 'You know, Judi Dench is playing my mother and Ciarán Hinds is playing my dad.' That's a home run, you know?"

"So even for him to have known that and with Kenneth Branagh, obviously at the helm was such a massive thing really. But then, it makes it harder almost that he knew that and then didn't get a chance to see it. Not only to see it, but to see the response it's gotten, to share all the love that has been heaped on that film," Dornan shared.