Dakota Johnson opened up about what it was like filming Fifty Shades of Gray and how it was a ‘battle’.Every middle-aged mother grabbed the book and went to the cinema as soon as the first movie came out.
And Johnson was then thrust into the spotlight after she took on the role of Anastasia Steele, an unlikely college graduate, starring opposite Jamie Dornan as the intense and seductive Christian Grey.Despite the fame and success she has experienced since then, Johnson has revealed that she quickly realized on set that she had ‘signed up to do a very different version of the movie’ and ended up it has been done.
“And when I’m interested in something, I want to know a lot about it,” she told Vanity Fair.When Johnson first auditioned for the role of Steele, she read a monologue from Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 classic Persona and recalled thinking, “Wow, this is going to be really special.”
However, filming 50 Shades of Gray didn’t go as she expected.The actress explained this was a result of the ‘author of the books’, EL James, as well as the studio and director.
Johnson noted that James has “a lot of creative control, all day, every day”.She continued: “She just asked for certain things to happen. There are parts of the book that wouldn’t work in the movie, like the interior monologue, which is extremely cheesy at times. There wouldn’t be effect when spoken out loud.”
“It’s always a battle. Always.”Johnson was originally set to star in the series alongside actor Charlie Hunnam as Grey. However, Hunnam dropped out and the script had to be revised by playwright Patrick Marber.
“I was young. I was 23. It was scary. It became something crazy,” Johnson said.”There’s a lot of different opinions. I’ve never been able to speak honestly about it, because you want to promote a film in the right way and I’m proud of what we do.” I did it in the end and everything worked out that way.” It should have been, but it was difficult.”
Parts of Marber’s script were ultimately salvageable by the series’ first director, Sam Taylor-Johnson, as well as Johnson and Dornan when he became involved.
“We will do the scenes of the movie that Erika wants to make, and then we will do the scenes of the movie that we want to make.“The night before, I rewrote the old dialogue scenes so I could add a line here and there,” Johnson said. It feels like chaos all the time.”
The one complete scene from Marber’s script that was retained was when the sexual contract between Gray and Steele was signed.”And it’s the best scene in the whole movie,” Johnson resolved.
Despite the constant ‘battles’ during the filming of Fifty Shades of Gray, Johnson said she doesn’t ‘regret’ taking part.She continued: “If I had known then that it was going to be like this, I don’t think anyone would have done it. I would have thought, ‘Oh, this is crazy.’ But no, I don’t regret it.”She concluded that while it was “great” for her and Dornan’s careers, the series was “weird”. “That’s so strange then.”
