Dakota Johnson Reveals She Had ‘Psychotic’ Experience While Filming Fifty Shades

Dakota Johnson is speaking up about what it was like to film Fifty Shades of Grey. See why the actress thought the film 'just became something crazy.'

Dakota Johnson immediately discovered that author E.L. James’ taste was pretty specific when it came to shooting Fifty Shades of Grey. The 32-year-old is still reeling from filming nearly seven years later, stating that she hasn’t “been able to talk about this truthfully ever.” Dakota recently shared with Vanity Fair, “I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making.”

According to her, she believes the source of these problems was that it was a “combo” between the studio, the director, and, most importantly, the series’ creator. “She had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and 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,” Dakota shared.

As Dakota said, things got even more complicated when Charlie Hunnam dropped out (he was eventually replaced by Jamie Dornan), prompting E.L. (born Erika Mitchell) to discard the original screenplay. “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 actress further revealed. “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.”

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“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,” she said. “It would’ve been like, ‘Oh, this is psychotic.’ But no, I don’t regret it.” However, she added, “Erika is a very nice woman, and she was always kind to me. And I am grateful she wanted me to be in those movies.” Young actresses ranging from Shailene Woodley and Elizabeth Olsen to Alicia Vikander and Felicity Jones were believed to be in the running for the role of Ana, but once Dakota Johnson secured it, she kept it.