Dakota Johnson reveals the truth behind the problematic behind-the-scenes of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, and points out ‘those responsible’: ‘Incredibly corny’
Dakota Johnson has delivered some shocking revelations about the film adaptation of “Fifty Shades of Grey”. In an interview with Vanity Fair published on Tuesday (28), the actress confessed that she auditioned to star in a very different version of the film from the one that aired in theaters. “If I had known at the time that it would be like this, I don’t think anyone would have done it. (the film)”she declared.
Johnson lived the main character Anastasia Steele in the three long ones of the saga. “I’m a s-xual person and when I’m interested in something, I want to know everything about it”she began. “That’s why I made those ‘n-ked movies’”. When asked if the film’s problem was the direction or the studio, she replied that it was a combo of the two. “She was also the author of the books”he continued, referring to EL James.
“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 internal monologue, which was incredibly corny at times.”declared Dakota.
The actress revealed that she was presented with a different script for the film than the one she shot. “It was always a battle. Ever. When I auditioned for this movie, I read a monologue from ‘When Two Women Sin’ (Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 classic) and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special’”, he explained. The work cited by Johnson is highly acclaimed by critics, and talks about human interpersonal relationships.
Initially, the artist would star in the film with Charlie Hunnam, from “Sons of Anarchy”, who would play Christian Grey. The actor, however, ended up dropping out of the project, citing a scheduling conflict. According to Dakota, author EL James was so furious at his departure that she scrapped the original screenplay by Patrick Marber. Jamie Dornan replaced Hunnam and Sam Taylor-Johnson directed the first film.
“I was young. I was 23 years old. So it was scary.”she said about the contract she signed. “It turned out to be something crazy”he admitted. “There were a lot of disagreements. I’ve never been able to honestly talk about it because you want to promote a movie the right way, and I’m proud of what we did at the end of the day and everything ends up the way it should, but it was complicated.”he explained.
“We did the shots for the movie that Erika (name of EL James) wanted to do, and then we would do the shots of the movie that we wanted to do.”revealed Johnson. “The night before, I was rewriting scenes of dialogue to add a line here and there. It was like chaos all the time.” completed. According to the actress, the only scene from the original script that made it into the first feature was the negotiation in which Anastasia and Christian describe their s-xual contract. “And it’s the best scene in the entire movie”opined.
Despite the problems, she said she didn’t regret starring in the projects: “I don’t think it’s a matter of regret. If I had known at the time that it would be like this, I don’t think anyone would have done it.. It would have been like, ‘Oh, this is psychotic.’ But no, I don’t regret it.”
About the scene partner Jamie Dornan, the actress did not spare praise: “There was never a moment when we didn’t get along. I know he’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.”
“We had been doing the weirdest things for years and we needed to be a team to say ‘Let’s not do this’ or ‘You can’t do this camera angle’”, continued. She also commented on the fact that James Foley directed the sequels to the first film. “It was different doing these bizarre things with a man behind the camera. Just a different energy”he explained.
“There are things I can’t say yet because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s career and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s reputation, but Jamie and I were treated very well. Erika is a really nice woman, and she’s always been kind to me and I’m grateful that she wanted me to be in these movies.”Johnson declared.
Asked what was the balance of having made the feature films in the end, she pondered: “Look, it was great for our careers. So amazing. Lucky. But it was weird. So, so strange.” Dakota ended by saying if he thinks the trilogy could go to theaters today. “No. Probably not… But what’s wrong with them? It’s about a specific s-xual dynamic that’s really real to a lot of people.”
