Ready or not, Fifty Shades of Grey is here—and in an exclusive interview, stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan talk to Glamour’s Genevieve Field about the rumors, the Red Room, and the many, many ways they bonded… Read an excerpt of their cover interview and watch our exclusive video below and check out their photo shoot gallery here. To read the full interview, pick up the March issue of Glamour on newsstands starting Feb. 10, subscribe now and you’ll get the March issue guaranteed, or download it for your tablet right now. I can show you how pleasurable pain can be.… There will be pain, but nothing you can’t handle.… Do you trust me, Ana? If you have to ask, that’s billionaire Christian Grey smooth-talking recent college grad Anastasia Steele in E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, the novel that sparked Fifty Shades Fever. Since 2011 the trilogy has sold more than 100 million copies and “Fifty Shades” references have been slapped onto everything from classical music albums to baby onesies (“All my mommy wanted was a night with Mr. Grey”); perhaps not coincidentally, the bedroom practices popularized by the
Read an excerpt of their cover interview and watch
To read the full interview, pick up the March issue of Glamour on newsstands starting Feb. 10, subscribe now and you’ll get the March issue guaranteed, or download it for your tablet right now.
I can show you how pleasurable pain can be.… There will be pain, but nothing you can’t handle.… Do you trust me, Ana? If you have to ask, that’s billionaire Christian Grey smooth-talking recent college grad Anastasia Steele in E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, the novel that sparked Fifty Shades Fever. Since 2011 the trilogy has sold more than 100 million copies and “Fifty Shades” references have been slapped onto everything from classical music albums to baby onesies (“All my mommy wanted was a night with Mr. Grey”); perhaps not coincidentally, the bedroom practices popularized by the book have gone mainstream too, with bondage clubs popping up at Ivy League schools and sales of Ana’s favorite sex toys skyrocketing. But like it or not—and lots of people don’t—the phenomenon is just getting started. On February 13 Fifty Shades of Grey the film is set to dominate theaters, and its two previously under-the-radar stars, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, are about to find out how it feels to be bona fide sex symbols.
You may recognize their faces: Johnson, the 25-year-old daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, made her film debut at only 10 in Crazy in Alabama, directed by her stepdad, Antonio Banderas. She went on to charm audiences with small roles in big pictures like The Social Network and 21 Jump Street, as well as the lead in the critically beloved TV show Ben and Kate. And Dornan, 32, is no stranger to being the Man Women Want. The Belfast, Northern Ireland, native spent 10 years modeling for Dior, Armani, and Calvin Klein, posing shirtless with Kate Moss and in his undies with Eva Mendes. But if you’re tempted to dismiss him as a model who’s “trying” to act, instead of an actor who modeled, his two seasons as a serial killer in the BBC series The Fall will cure you of that notion.
On Becoming Anastasia and Christian
JAMIE: I had to do a lot of work to get in shape because Christian’s someone who’s very anal about that. But it wasn’t six hours a day. You don’t want to turn to your heavily pregnant wife and say, “I’m going to the gym for six hours. Text me if you go into labor.”
DAKOTA: Jamie and I actually shared a trainer. It was important to me that Ana’s body look like that of an active college student. And I was going be naked, so I wanted to look good. I did a lot of working out and had more waxing than any woman should have!
JAMIE: In that six weeks before filming, my daughter was born. It was just an insane time. For research, one rainy Tuesday evening, I kissed the wife and baby good night and went to watch a dominant-submissive session in a dungeon. The dominant was our sort of adviser on the job. He’d be on hand any time there was a scene in the Red Room [Christian’s playroom for BDSM, bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism], to say, “You’re doing that wrong.” So I watched him do his thing…. It was quite jovial, a very different approach to how I saw Christian being in the Red Room. I think Christian takes it a bit more seriously.
DAKOTA: I didn’t go to the sex dungeon. I wanted to keep myself distanced from it at first because I wanted Ana’s reaction to certain things to be completely honest and real, like new. But I did do a lot of reading about the culture of BDSM. It’s about the ebb and flow of control between two people. To me, there’s something really honest in wanting to completely give up control for just a second.
JAMIE: This whole movement isn’t guys tying up girls and spanking them. It’s often the other way around. These really powerful men like Christian Grey are surrounded by yes-men and yes-women all day, and when it goes dark, they want to be told what to do.
DAKOTA: If that’s your thing, great. Whatever blows your skirt up.
JAMIE: The first day [of filming] was kind of an out-of-body experience. I got there and they said, “Action!” I’m like, “What the f–k is happening? I’m a dad. What?“
DAKOTA: I had way more time to prepare than Jamie did. I have to commend him.
JAMIE: Christian was a massive challenge. I’ve played a couple of sick, sick dudes, serial killers…and characters who don’t treat women the way society deems appropriate. But it’s just TV, movies—it’s not real. I’ve always had a deep respect for women. I have two sisters. My father spent his career as an obstetrician-gynecologist caring for women…. But you have to find something likable in every character you play. I like how driven Christian is. [Still], I don’t think I would like him if he was a real dude and we met.
