The Fifty Shades trilogy, the first that was released in 2015, is the erotic romantic drama that introduced many people to sadomasochism, and defining Dakota Johnson’s profile over the next several years, it also introduced the young star to the world.
Reminiscing about “those big naked movies” that made her a global star, Johnson admits the process of filming was “psychotic.”
Dakota Johnson, a third-generation starlet, is the daughter of Don Johnson, Miami Vice, and Melanie Griffith, Working Girl, and the granddaughter of Tippi Hedren, the muse to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Marnie.
Johnson, now 33, was only 23 when she starred in Fifty Shades of Grey, her first major role after a handful of minor appearances in films like The Social Network (2010) and 21 Jump Street (2012). The next two in the trilogy that she also stars are Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018).
Though the brown-haired beauty’s performance was praised, the film was met with mixed reviews, the Seattle Times writing, Fifty Shades of Grey the movie, for the record, is not quite as bad as “Fifty Shades of Grey” the book. But that’s not saying much.”
Despite the poor reviews, fans loved the coupling and chemistry of Johnson and her co-star, Jamie Dornan of Northern Ireland.
One fan writes, “(If I) could choose to meet my fav actors it would the both of you, awesome! i felt every emotion and the story behind the story is extremely beautiful!!” while another says “These movies were awesome. Great actors.”
But Johnson explains that behind the scenes, there were a few clogs in the cog while filming the movies.
“I’m a sexual person, and when I’m interested in something, I want to know so much about it. That’s why I did those big naked movies. I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making.” Johnson said in an interview with Vanity Fair, adding that it was a combo of problems: “It was also the author of the books.”
The author she refers to is E.L. James, known as Erika, who as reported by the Guardian “was given a lot of power and has used every opportunity to flex that power.”
“She had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen. There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie, like the inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy,” Johnson said. “It wouldn’t work to say out loud. It was always a battle. Always. When I auditioned for that movie, I read a monologue from Persona and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’” (Persona is the 1966 Ingmar Bergman classic).
It turned out to be really special in an unexpected kind of way.
Johnson explained that Charlie Hunnam, of Sons of Anarchy, was slated to play Christian Grey alongside her Anastasia Steele. But then Hunnam backed out due to scheduling conflicts, and infuriated Erika, who trashed the script written by playwright Patrick Marber, writer of Closer, who revised her book, making it suitable for film.
“The producers were happy, too…They said it was wonderful, you’ve saved our asses, you’re a hero,” Marber said. “And then I was fired.”
Johnson–a young star sitting on a contract for three films–had to avoid the same fate as Marber. And her grandmother, whose career was destroyed when she tried to get out of a binding contract with Hitchcock, who became frighteningly obsessed with her when filming The Birds.
In her memoir “Tippi,” Hedren, now 93, describes the inhumane conditions and sexual assaults she experienced working with the legendary filmmaker. In a 2016 interview with NPR, Hedren said, “It became such a problem for me that I demanded to get out of the contract. And he said, ‘Well, you can’t, you have your daughter to support and your parents are getting older.’ And I said, ‘They wouldn’t want me in a situation in which I’m not happy,’ And he said, ‘Well, I’ll ruin your career.’ And he did.”
Her granddaughter wasn’t going to allow her situation to get out of control.
“I was young. I was 23. So it was scary. It just became something crazy.” Johnson continued, “There were a lot of different disagreements. I haven’t been able to talk about this truthfully ever, because you want to promote a movie the right way, and I’m proud of what we made ultimately and everything turns out the way it’s supposed to, but it was tricky.”
Dornan, who replaced Hunnam, Johnson and Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of only the first installment, tried to salvage some of Marber’s script.
“We’d do the takes of the movie that Erika wanted to make, and then we would do the takes of the movie that we wanted to make. The night before, I would rewrite scenes with the old dialogue so I could add a line here and there. It was like mayhem all the time.”
Johnson points out that “the best scene in the whole movie” (in the first film)–the negotiation where Anastasia and Christian outline her sexual contract–was the only scene written by Marber that survived.
But the star of Cha Cha Real Smooth says she has no regrets. “I don’t think it’s a matter of regret. If I had known…If I had known at the time that’s what it was going to be like, I don’t think anyone would’ve done it. It would’ve been like, ‘Oh, this is psychotic.’ But no, I don’t regret it.”
Addressing rumors of a feud between her and Dornan, Johnson said, “There was never a time when we didn’t get along. I know it’s weird, but he’s like a brother to me. I love him so, so, so much. And we were really there for each other. We had to really trust each other and protect each other.” Referring to the more explicit scenes, she continued, “We were doing the weirdest things for years, and we needed to be a team.”
Hinting that there’s way more that happened on the set that the public will not hear–at least not from her–the How to be Single star said, “There are things that I still cannot say because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s career and I don’t want to damage anybody’s reputation, but both Jamie and I were treated really well. Erika is a very nice woman, and she was always kind to me and I am grateful she wanted me to be in those movies.” She adds, “Look, it was great for our careers. So amazing. So lucky. But it was weird. So, so weird.”
If you were a fan of either Melanie Griffith or Don Johnson, or both, surely you also love Dakota Johnson! What’s your favorite film of her? And what do you think about what she said about filming Fifty Shades?
