Dakota Johnson Remembers Filming ‘Fifty Shades’ With E.L. James as a ‘Psychotic’ Experience

thewrap.com:

“Fifty Shades of Grey” star Dakota Johnson opened up about her experience making the film trilogy in a cover story interview with “Vanity Fair.”“I’m a sexual person, and when I’m interested in something, I want to know so much about it,” she began in the interview. “That’s why I did those big naked movies.” Unfortunately, she feels the final cut of “Fifty Shades” and its sequels weren’t what she bargained for. “I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making,” she said.Johnson, who landed the role of Anastasia “Ana” Steele, clarified that the problem came from a combination of the studio, directors and author of the books E.L.

James, who goes by Erika and was very creatively active on the productions.“She had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen,” Johnson said. “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,” she continued. “When I auditioned for that movie, I read a monologue from ‘Persona’ (1966) and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’”When Charlie Hunnam, who was supposed to play Christian Grey, dropped out of the project, James was so upset that she ditched playwright Patrick Marber’s script.

At that time, Johnson had already signed a contract for the three films.“I was young. I was 23. So it was scary,” she said. “It just became something crazy.”“There were a lot of different disagreements,” she added.