As a co-owner of “sexual wellness company” Maude, it’s not surprising that Dakota Johnson would have no problem starring in the Fifty Shades of Grey, the Razzie-nominated film trilogy based on the bestselling BDSM-themed Twilight-without-vampires-or-werewolves fanfiction series of books. And as a human being with eyes and ears, it’s even less surprising that she wasn’t a fan of the films she starred in.
According to a recent Vanity Fair profile, the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith has no regrets about starring in the movies that grossed over a billion dollars at the box office, but maybe wouldn’t do it over again if she had the chance. Johnson tell Vanity Fair:
“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.”
While it’s unclear what version of a notoriously poorly-written story about a billionaire who locks a woman up in his house until she loves him that Johnson thought they’d be shooting. However, she lays the blame for the films, which did huge box office despite being critically panned, all on the author E.L. 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 inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy. 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”—the Ingmar Bergman classic from 1966—“and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’ ”
However, despite the werewolf-fanfic-without-werewolves not turning out more like classic New Wave Scandinavian cinema that influenced a next generation of filmmakers, Johnson still has no regrets about being in a series of movies designed for an audience unable to find real porn somehow.
“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.”
