Dakota Johnson Says No One Would’ve Filmed ‘Fifty Shades’ if They Knew What the Set Drama Entailed
Seven years after the first Fifty Shades of Grey movie came out, Dakota Johnson is speaking out about what her experience filming the franchise was really like in Vanity Fair.
In the cover story, Dakota says the main reason she took the role of Anastasia Steele is because she is “a sexual person” and wanted to explore the themes that author E. L. James masterfully crafted in the original book series. But none of that really got to happen…
“I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making,” Dakota told the magazine. She named the studio, director, and E. L. James (whose real name is Erika) as the reason.
“[Erika] had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen,” explained Dakota.
She later continued: “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.”
But even with the challenges, Dakota Johnson said she knew from the audition that the movies were going to be significant. “When I auditioned for that movie, I read a monologue from Persona and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’”
Dakota Johnson also mentioned that “there were a lot of different disagreements” and the filming process “became something crazy” and “was tricky,” especially after her original costar Charlie Hunnam dropped out due to a scheduling conflict. (He was replaced by Jamie Dornan.) But ultimately, Dakota is “proud of what we made” and has no regrets—for the most part.
Overall, Dakota Johnson says the experience was pretty good, but still…interesting. “Jamie and I were treated really well,” she said.
Dakota Johnson was critically acclaimed for her role as Anastasia Steele. However, even after the film did well at the box-office, her Hollywood parents Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith did not see Dakota Johnson’s Fifty Shades.
Did you know Dakota Johnson refused to use a body double for her s*x scenes in Fifty Shades? When asked using a body double, the on-screen Anastasia Steele in an interview with Mirror said, “No, because it would have felt like a cop-out if I did.
