Featured Image Credit: Universal
Topics: Film and TV
Poppy Bilderbeck
Dakota Johnson has opened up about what it was like to film the 50 Shades of Grey movies and how it was a 'battle'.
Every middle-aged mum snapped up the book and bounded to the cinema as soon as the first film premiered.
And Johnson was subsequently flung into the spotlight after she took on the role of uncertain college graduate Anastasia Steele, starring opposite Jamie Dornan as the intense and alluring Christian Grey.
Despite the fame and success she has experienced since, Johnson has revealed how she quickly realised on set she had 'signed up to do a very different version of the film' that ended up being made.
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Johnson explained that the reason she got involved in 'big naked movies' is because she's a 'sexual person'.
"And when I’m interested in something, I want to know so much about it," she told Vanity Fair.
When Johnson first auditioned for the role of Steele, she read a monologue from 1966 Ingmar Bergman classic Persona, and recalled thinking: "Oh, this is going to be really special."
However, filming 50 Shades of Grey didn't turn out the way she anticipated.
The actress explained how this was a result of 'the author of the books,' E.L. James, as well as the studio and directors.
Johnson noted how James had 'a lot of creative control, all day, every day'.
She continued: "She just demanded that certain things happen. There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie, like the inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy. It wouldn’t work to say out loud.
"It was always a battle. Always."
Johnson was originally set to star in the film series alongside actor Charlie Hunnam as Grey. However, Hunnam dropped out and the script had to be revised by playwright Patrick Marber.
Johnson reflected: "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."
Parts of Marber's script were eventually able to be salvaged by the first of the series' directors, Sam Taylor-Johnson, as well as Johnson and Dornan when he came on board.
"We’d do the takes of the movie that Erika wanted to make, and then we would do the takes of the movie that we wanted to make.
"The night before, I would rewrite scenes with the old dialogue so I could add a line here and there. It was like mayhem all the time," Johnson said.
The one complete scene from Marber's script which was kept in was when the sexual contract between Grey and Steele is drawn up.
Johnson resolved: "And it's the best scene in the whole movie."
Despite the constant 'battles' in filming 50 Shades, Johnson said she doesn't 'regret' getting involved.
She continued: "If I had known at the time that’s what it was going to be like, 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."
She concluded that while it was 'great' for her and Dornan's careers, the series was 'weird'. "So, so weird.”
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