Sometimes my life can feel so suffocating, and then it can feel so massive, like I don’t have a handle on it at all, and I don’t know where it’s going or what I’m going to do.DAKOTA JOHNSONIt seems most improbable in this day and age that the daughter of two of the most charismatic stars of their generation—and the star herself in one of the highest grossing R-rated films of all time—should be a mystery to us. But such is the elusive figure cut by Dakota Johnson that she manages to somehow remain unshredded and undissected by the tabloids and social media.
It’s not as if Dakota’s parents, Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, are such white-hot supernovas that she gets lost in the glare of their fame, but nor has she been raised in anonymity: Dakota was Miss Golden Globe in 2006 (one hell of a debutante party for the then 16-year-old), and two of her closest friends are descended from rock-star royalty. Her casting as Anastasia Steele, too, in 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey—after perhaps the most celebrated and scrutinized casting call in the past ten years—should have made her an overnight celebrity, or at least the regular fodder for gossip columns. But, not so much.
What we do know for sure is the work, including her terrific turn as a Boston gangster moll to Johnny Depp‘s Whitey Bulger in last year’s Black Mass. In Luca Guadagnino’s sun-soaked A Bigger Splash, out this month, Johnson plays a Lolita-ish foil to an ailing rock-star goddess played by actual goddess Tilda Swinton. It’s a sensational performance in a sensational movie about allure and attraction among a group of lost souls. It probably doesn’t bring us any closer to figuring out Johnson herself—but it may have helped her to do so. As the actress tells real-life rock star Chrissie Hynde, playing a character in dire existential distress helped her sort out a little of her own. But just a little.
CHRISSIE HYNDE: How are ya?
DAKOTA JOHNSON: I’m good! I’m in the middle of a day of work in Vancouver.
HYNDE: Oh, I love Vancouver. What are you working on?
JOHNSON: I’m filming the next two installments of the Fifty Shades movies back-to-back.
HYNDE: The one where you have crazy sex scenes?
JOHNSON: Yeah. I’m doing one today. [laughs] It’s not … comfortable. It’s pretty tedious.
JOHNSON: Well, we’re not having actual sex. But I’ve been simulating sex for seven hours straight right now, and I’m over it.
HYNDE: What does your dad think of that? Does he watch it?
JOHNSON: [laughs] No! God, no. Thank God.
HYNDE: But he knows it’s happening, obviously. He must know the drill by now. How is your good-looking dad, by the way?
HYNDE: And your mom?
JOHNSON: She’s good. She’s in L.A. My little sister just came to visit me for the weekend, which was cute. What have you been up to?
HYNDE: I’m in West London. I’ve got an album coming out with Dan Auerbach …
JOHNSON: Oh, I know Dan.
JOHNSON: I can’t wait to hear it.
HYNDE: I loved working with Dan. He has a studio in Nashville, and it’s amazing. He’s amazing. We’re big Black Keys fans anyway. That’s how I met you! Stella McCartney called me and said to come to the Cow, her local pub, and there you were.
JOHNSON: That was fun that night. It always tickles me that Stella likes to go to the Cow because it’s called the Cow. But it’s a good place. The food’s really good there.
HYNDE: I’ve known her since she was about, I don’t know, 7 or 8. So I feel very protective. I mean, she’s a fully formed adult now, with a family. She was always like that, really fun—that’s the thing with all those McCartney kids: They’re very grounded. They like to have a good time.
HYNDE: That’s what happens when you have pedigree. But that’s kind of old hat now. That’s not really a big deal anymore, is it, to have famous parents?
JOHNSON: I guess. I don’t know. The kids that I grew up around … but I never really identified with any of them. I have one friend who I’m very close with, my friend Riley Keough, whose mother is Lisa Marie Presley. But other than that, I don’t have very many pals who are … I don’t know. I kind of stayed away from it all.
HYNDE: These days, everyone knows someone whose dad was in a band or whose mother is a model. It’s just the way it is.
JOHNSON: It does kind of seem that way. Nothing is really precious anymore. Like, the mystery is gone.
JOHNSON: It is? Where? [laughs]
HYNDE: I think it is. Everything changes. I guess a lot of mystery is gone because you can access so much information now. But you’re still mysterious. Come on!
JOHNSON: I’d like to say that about myself. [laughs]
HYNDE: And you can keep the mystery. I remember when I met you, I asked what you did, and you said you were an actor. I said, “Why did you say actor instead of actress?” Do you remember what you said to me? You said you weren’t very comfortable saying either yet because you were still kind of finding your feet.
