The 50 Shades of Gray
saga
launched actress Dakota Johnson to fame, but the end result is far from what she had in mind.
“I signed on to do a very different version of the movie that we ended up doing,” Johnson assured in an interview with
Vanity Fair
magazine in which she spoke about the chaotic shooting.
“There were a lot of different disagreements.
I have never been able to talk about this honestly”, added the artist.
She now she has done it in a long interview.
“It is clear that Johnson has weighed what she wants to say,” writes Britt Hennemuth, the journalist who signs her.
"What follows next is a vent."
Johnson says that the filming of the film was "complicated".
It is not the only adjective that he throws, he also slips words like crazy and psychotic.
“I was young, I was 23 years old,” he recounts nine years later, “so I was scared.
It became crazy."
When asked if the problem came from the studio, from the directors or from a mixture of factors, the interpreter points to the last option with a laconic “It was a combo”.
But she later points to a specific person: "It was also because of the author of the books."
More information
Jamie Dornan and the penance of '50 shades': how moving away from Hollywood has led him to caress the Oscar
EL James was an assistant director and had worked as a television executive.
In the early 2000s, during her spare time, she wrote a
Twilight
fanfiction
adding
sex and removing vampires to the equation.
That would be the embryo of
50 Shades of Grey
, a book she released in 2011 and whose series has sold more than 31 million copies worldwide.
Her past in the world of television and film may have made the author very clear about how her novel had to be adapted.
“I had a lot of creative control,” Johnson explains of the author.
"All day, every day she demanded that certain things happen."
The daughter of fellow actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson explains that there were passages and resources that made sense in a book, but that it was absurd to transfer to the film, “like the interior monologue, which was sometimes incredibly cheesy.
It wouldn't work if it was said out loud."
The film includes interior monologues from its leading lady Anastasia Steele, played by Johnson.
“It was always a battle.
Always,” she adds.
Dakota Johnson achieved world fame after the premiere of this film, which
it defined the public image of its protagonists for years to come.
She has been shedding that image over the years through interviews and other film projects.
The actress, who is co-creative director of the sex toy company Maude, tells
Vanity Fair
that the reason she made those "great nude movies" is because she considers herself a "sexual person."
But things did not go as he thought.
The film was criticized for being much more conservative than expected and the chaotic shooting may have had something to do with it.
Johnson landed a three-movie role as Anastasia Steele opposite a Christian Gray who was originally going to be played by Charlie Hunnam (
Sons of Anarchy
).
Screenwriter Patrick Marber, who had signed films like
Closer,
was in charge of the script.
But when Hunnam ended up dropping out of the project, citing scheduling conflicts, the writer was so enraged, Johnson says, that she scrapped her script.
Jamie Dornan replaced Hunnam.
Ironically, the rumors about the filming at the time pointed to an alleged feud between the two leads, something that she denies in the interview.
"There was never a time when we didn't get along," she says.
“I love him so, so, so much.
And we really support each other.
We had to trust each other and protect each other.”
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The two actors teamed up with director Sam Taylor-Johnson to try to salvage part of the original script.
But EL James had other plans.
“We'd do the shots of the movie that Erika [author's first name] wanted to do, and then we'd do the shots we wanted to do ourselves,” Johnson laments.
“The night before, she would rewrite the scenes so she could add a line here and a line there.
It was chaos all the time.”
The only scene in Marber that got past the writer's screen, says the actress, is the negotiation in which Anastasia and Christian outline their sexual contract.
"And it's the best scene in the whole movie," she says.
At one point, the journalist asks the actress if she regrets having participated in the saga.
"Nope.
I don't think it's a matter of regret.
If only she had known...” she breaks off.
“If I had known at the time that it was going to 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."
This is the first time that Dakota Johnson has spoken openly about her experience with the movie that launched her to stardom, and although she can be quite honest, she says that she has not said everything that she could.
"There are things I can't say yet because I don't want to damage anyone's career and reputation," she adds as she strives to put a positive spin on her experience.
“Erika is a very nice woman, she was always nice to me and I appreciate her wanting her to be in those movies.
Look, she was great for our races, ”she assures.
“So amazing… A great luck.
But it was weird.
So, so weird."