Fifty Shades of Grey actress, Dakota Johnson recounted her experience from the sets of the erotic film franchise Fifty Shades during a chat with media sources, calling it ”challenging to a certain extent.”
“I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making,” she was quoted as saying during the interview.
Dakota also told media sources about her experience working with the author of the book and producer of the film, E L James, and called it a “battle.”
“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. It wouldn’t work to say out loud. It was always a battle. Always (sic),” said Dakota to media sources.
The actress added that at times, she had to write scenes for herself. “We’d do the takes of the movie that Erika (E L James) 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 (sic),” the actress was quoted as saying to sources.
The Fifty Shades franchise is a set of three movies based on books of the same name by E L James. Dakota Johnson stars as the film’s female lead, Anastasia Steele along with Jamie Dornan as the male lead, Christian Grey. The first film of the series (Fifty Shades of Grey) was released in 2015 to good box office collections. It was followed by two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018). According to reports, the whole franchise has minted around $1.325 billion at the global box office.
The film was popular and controversial during its release due to the erotically charged nature of the film and bold scenes. It follows the story of Anastasia, a college graduate who gets into a sadomasochistic relationship with businessman Christian Grey.
Dakota added that despite the challenges on the film’s set, she doesn’t regret acting in the film series. She said to media sources, “I don’t think it’s a matter of regret. 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 (sic).”
With regard to the ongoing rumours about her strained relationship with her Fifty Shades co-star Jamie Dorman, Dakota responded by quashing the rumours. “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 (sic),” she explained.
On the work front, Dakota was recently seen in Cooper Raiff’s comedy-drama Cha Cha Real Smooth. The film had received critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival 2022, where it won the Audience Awards for US Dramatic Competition. It was released on Apple TV+ on June 17, 2022. She would next be seen in an adaptation of Persuasion by Jane Austen, which would release on Netflix on July 15, 2022.