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Home / Entertainment

'It was psychotic': Dakota Johnson slams Fifty Shades franchise

NZ Herald
1 Jul, 2022 10:27 PM3 mins to read

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Dakota Johnson has opened up about the "psychotic" filming process of the Fifty Shades films. Photo / Getty Images

Dakota Johnson has opened up about the "psychotic" filming process of the Fifty Shades films. Photo / Getty Images

Dakota Johnson has severely criticised the Fifty Shades franchise in a new interview.

Appearing on the cover of the latest Vanity Fair magazine, the star who found fame through the three R-rated films, has shared behind-the-scenes secrets from the popular movies.

The New York Post revealed Johnson, who stared alongside Jamie Dornan in the films, said she "signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making".

"I'm a sexual person, and when I'm interested in something, I want to know so much about it," she said. "That's why I did those big naked movies."

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The actress went on to claim EL James - the author of the original books and who goes by the name Erika - was a big problem on set. She said James had "a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen".

Johnson added, "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.

"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," Johnson said before revealing her favourite scene in all of the films was when her character negotiated her sexual contract with Christian Grey, saying it was a scene James had no creative control over.

When asked if she has any regrets from the films, Johnson – who played Anastasia Steele, said, "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."

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Jamie Dornan played Christian Grey in the films and Dakota Johnson played Anastasia Steele. Photo / Getty Images
Jamie Dornan played Christian Grey in the films and Dakota Johnson played Anastasia Steele. Photo / Getty Images

The star, who was only 23 years old when they shot the first film, said it was "so scary" being so young.

"It just became something crazy. There were a lot of different disagreements," Johnson said.

"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.

"There are things that I still cannot say because I don't want to hurt anyone's career and I don't want to damage anybody's reputation, but both Jamie and I were treated really well."

Summing up, Johnson said, "Look, it was great for our careers. So amazing. So lucky. But it was weird. So, so weird."

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