The cinematic adaptation of E. L. James’ raunchy erotic romance series, the Fifty Shades franchise created the space for Dakota Johnson in Hollywood. Following the movie, the actor has been a household name claiming a spot in the fans’ favorite celebrities list.
Johnson is not new to doing roles beyond her comfort zone but the urge to elevate the romance of roles for experience has prompted the actor to do the Fifty Shades franchise. Certainly, her previous role in the Fox sitcom, Ben and Kate where she played a young mom somehow eased the actor to step into the franchise.
Dakota Johnson Revealed The Shocking Reason Behind Doing Fifty Shades of Grey
The Fifty Shades franchise is wildly popular but the movie series was far from impressing the critical appeal. Many critics saw the movie as the glorification of erotic fantasia while lacking the grounding reality with several other loopholes complementing the poor script.
Dakota Johnson who played Anastasia Steele, and the reasoning for her acceptance of the role was rather straight, although many may find it shocking. Still, she was candid while revealing the actual reason why she did the movie as she told Vanity Fair without holding anything back.
“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 n*ked movies. I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making.”
Johnson scored a three-picture deal but the extent of going through the creative control was scary to the bone. The author of the original book series, E. L. James, as she stated with obvious certainty, had “a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen.” The initial movie endured a lot of changes in scenario, creative variance, and a lot of what she was not allowed to share to protect the trilogy.
Fifty Shades of Grey Scared Dakota Johnson
The debacle around the script of the original movie pushed the actor to the edge of a scary start. Johnson was scared, she told Vanity Fair. The script was not working to match anyone’s expectations.
Further, “There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie,” Johnson said. “Like the inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy,” she added. The actor further explained that the production process “was always a battle” for her to fight and these battles were scary.
“I was young. I was 23. So it was scary. It just became something crazy. There were a lot of different disagreements. I haven’t been able to talk about this truthfully ever, because you want to promote a movie the right way, and I’m proud of what we made ultimately and everything turns out the way it’s supposed to, but it was tricky.”
In the end, the movie worked out to hit the wide mass appeal. Also, Johnson had no regret doing her breakout role, “No. 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,” she said while dwelling on the role in her mind.
“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,” Johnson added.
Despite the poor critical reception, the trilogy was a huge hit collectively grossing over $1.32 billion worldwide.
Fifty Shades of Grey is available to stream on Max.
