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"What’s up?” says Dakota Johnson, casually sauntering towards Total Film in a black- and-white diagonal- striped dress and mules. It’s a particularly drowsy day during the Venice Film Festival and the 26-year-old starlet, her light brown hair scraped into a ponytail, is looking suitably laid-back when she arrives at a waterside restaurant to discuss her latest film, A Bigger Splash, a sun-drenched island tale co-starring Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts. While she recently popped up opposite Johnny Depp’s gangster in Black Mass, the past year has been something of a blur for Johnson, since playing Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades Of Grey – the naïve literary student heroine of E.L. James’ bonk-buster phenomenon.
The Sam Taylor-Johnson-directed film went on to gross a whopping $570 million worldwide, but Johnson can barely remember what she did in those post-Grey months. “I blocked everything out,” she says. As it happens, she was shooting How To Be Single in New York, an ensemble rom-com in which Johnson plays Alice, a freshly-solo girl who gets taught the ways of the dating scene by Rebel Wilson’s loud-mouth friend. With Wilson lambasting her in the trailer for her, ahem, lady gardening (“It’s like Gandalf is staring right at me”), “it is a pretty hysterical, unconventional friendship,” explains Johnson. “They both learn a bit from each other.”
Playing the sensitive wallflower may not be a push for Johnson after Fifty Shades but, as A Bigger Splash shows, she’s more than capable of the other extreme. A remake-of-sorts of Jacques Deray’s 1969 film La Piscine, with Alain Delon, the film sees Johnson play Penelope, the alluring daughter to Fiennes’ verbose record producer Harry, who arrives on the remote Italian island of Pantelleria to shatter the tranquillity of Harry’s ex-flame, Swinton’s former glam-rocker Marianne, as she hides out with Schoenaerts’ doc-maker boyfriend. What follows is a languid study of sexual intrigue, past and present. “My heart was attached to Penelope right away,” explains Johnson, who read the script a year before she was hired, only to see the project collapse more than once due to financing issues. When it finally came together, in 2014, Johnson had taken the summer off – and was travelling on a tour bus with some musician pals in France (she’s besties with decorator Emily Ward, who is married to the Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney).
Johnson, who has been on-off dating vocalist Matthew Hitt from indie band Drowners, then got the call to meet A Bigger Splash’s director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love). “It was a whirlwind and I was not ready at all to work,” she admits. “Normally, I’m like: ‘Let’s do it, I’m ready to go,’ and I feel like I have ample time to prepare myself mentally. But I was in an emotional place in my life, and my private life, and I wasn’t ready to do this. So it was very sudden.” Flying to Crema, where Guadagnino lives, Johnson then found herself battling the fear.
"I freaked out and I didn’t think I could do it, and I didn’t want to... I felt like I didn’t have enough time to develop a character as wonderful as this. I didn’t want to damage it and I didn’t want to fuck it up. I thought I was going to be wasting everyone’s time. And then Ralph and Tilda talked me off a ledge. I was terrified, though. I didn’t want to ruin it.”
Despite acting for five years, initially as Justin Timberlake’s conquest in David Fincher’s Facebook drama The Social Network, Johnson is still at that stage where feedback from others “whose opinion I value” is crucial. “Reading into things very specifically... I haven’t got to a place in my career where I feel comfortable enough to do that yet,” she says. “I’m sure that I will. I admire someone like Tilda, who is able to really read everything and dissect her work. I’m a little more fragile!”
That said, she’s been around the business her whole life. Her father is ex-Miami Vice star Don Johnson; her mother is actress Melanie Griffith; her stepfather is Spanish legend Antonio Banderas and her maternal grandmother is Hitchcock muse Tippi Hedren. So what’s the best advice they ever gave her? “That’s a very big question,” she sighs. “A lot of things, every day. My grandmother said to me, ‘Say exactly what you want to say and nothing more.’ So that’s what I do.”
Born in Austin, Texas, Johnson’s childhood was peripatetic thanks to her parents’ work; Cincinnati, Colorado, Budapest, she went wherever their films took them. In and out of high schools, her education came from other sources; her dad taught her to ride a horse, drive a car and even shoot a gun before she was 10. Her only movie role came playing her mother’s daughter – alongside half-sister Stella – in the Banderas-directed 1999 film Crazy In Alabama. “I took it very seriously!” she laughs. Her parents weren’t so keen on her acting, preferring her to study textbooks over scripts. “It can be a frightening business and it can be brutal and tough,” she says. “Any parent would want them to protect their child from that.” After graduating high school, Johnson started modelling – winning a campaign for Mango and becoming the first second-generation Miss Golden Globe (her mother had won the accolade in 1975). Acting, inevitably, was the next step.
Roles in The Five-Year Engagement, 21 Jump Street and Need For Speed established her – small fry, though, compared to Fifty Shades. Even now, the hysteria surrounding her and co-star Jamie Dornan, taking on the roles of Anastasia and the S&M-loving Christian Grey, is baffling to her. “That is something I don’t know if I’ll ever get my head around,” she says. “It’s astonishing and incredible. I have incredible fans and I owe all of my jobs to them.” Her anonymity eroded in an instant, and it didn’t help that she’d witnessed similar activity with her family. “It’s different when it’s you,” she argues. “I always watched my parents go through things like this and it’s a different feeling. [When somebody approaches me] I often feel very awkward and I think that maybe I went to high school with them... I always take it and make it my fault... yeah, I don’t know.” She stammers, momentarily. “I don’t know if anybody ever gets used to it.”
What about the critics, though? For an actress as “fragile” as Johnson, surely the savaging the film took from reviewers must’ve hurt? “Well, anyone who has their work criticised, it can sting a little. But for that specific film, we all knew that was coming. It wasn’t surprising. It’s a very peculiar movie. It was sort of expected.” She pauses, defiance in her eyes. “There were a lot of people who did like the movie... that made me feel happy and proud.” Already signed on for sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, due to be shot back-to-back in 2016, she’ll have to do it without Sam Taylor-Johnson, who quit the franchise to be replaced by veteran director James Foley (Glengarry Glenn Ross). So how does she feel about the switch? “That’s the way things go,” she says, diplomatically. “I’m excited to work with James and I’m excited to have a different experience.” She beams. “That’s the joy of my job.”
Translation (Loose translation)
It could have go wrong. Many a famous Hollywood actor-player did not want to burn in "Fifty Shades of Grey's fingers. For every fan of the bestseller had their own idea, as what the sexual awakening of the protagonist Anastasia Steele looks like exactly. But Dakota Johnson threw all doubts and many shame overboard and jumped head first into the cool water in the SM-darkroom of the erotic drama. The gamble paid off for Miss Johnson: The film grossed $ 570 million worldwide. In no time, the 26-year-old moved to the top of the casting lists. At the Film Festival in Venice in 2015 she was waiting equally with two new films: the gangster thriller "Black Mass" with Johnny Depp (now in theaters) and the relationship drama "A Bigger Splash" with Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts (Release date to be confirmed).
The actor genes were in the cradle of Dakota. The daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and granddaughter of «Birds» -Star Tippi Hedren, she grew up on movie sets. At age nine she went to her mother's side and was in "Crazy in Alabama" directed by Antonio Banderas, her stepfather. After school, she landed small roles like "The Social Network", where she played Justin Timberlake's one-night stand, and the lead role in the TV Series "Ben and Kate". After the success of "Fifty Shades of Grey" she can now be picky: She chose a notorious gangster.
In "Black Mass" She plays Lindsey Cyr, the former life partner of the notorious mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. The Boston Mobster was on the run but was caught in 2011 in California she summarizes. What did you know about the case?
When he was caught, it had interested me because of the apartment block where Bulger lived in Santa Monica, where he was arrested, as it belonged to the parents of a classmate. Since then, I naturally wondered what it looks like and what a gangster he made at the time.
Were you able to speak with Lindsey Cyr in preparation for the role?
No, but there is a lot of material about them. She has spoken in recent years often about her relationship with Jimmy Bulger. She was very young and loved him above all. If their son did not die, they would have stayed together. From the time with Jimmy, there was, however, no video material, based on which I'd movements their speech or their loading can study. Now she is much older, and does not feel the same. So, I have concentrated on him and been thinking about what it was like as a woman at his side at that time.
What conclusions are victories coming?
The women in gangster films are often only visual appetizers, silent wife or the drug-addicted mistress. But these women are emotionally very tough. Somehow they are a test for the man: Can he be subdued, he seems even more powerful. But I think it is more appropriate that they are also strong to withstand such a man.
Why many women find such men so attractive?
In the case of Lindsey Cyr and Whitey Bulger I have the feeling that they were evenly matched. Once outside, he may have been the bloke, but among themselves they had a very special relationship. She saw his tender side, as he loved his son. He was the only one who really was close to his heart. That sure made him also attractive for Lindsey.
How's yours? Find power sexy?
I personally? So far, not yet (laughs). But I am working on it.
How do you envision your dream man?
I like men with brains, with whom I can lead intellectual debates. Someone with integrity. And with humor. And to be sweet.
Could you imagine yourself as a mother?
Yes absolutely. I had to take care of many younger siblings, to which I myself have a lot. I would one day like a couple of babies.
She turned to one of the greatest stars in film. How was Johnny Depp as partners?
An absolute highlight! I've always wondered how someone like him works and what is probably going on the set. In the hospital scene, it went through me like lightning: It was as if he produced a volley of anger, hatred and despair through me. I really got into trembling and crying. I sat very close to the camera and hoped that I would not mind beating with excitement and ruin the scene. This is magic! What an artist! I've been a fan after the movies "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "Benny & Joon": Johnny needs only to stand there, and already we are fascinated. There are few people who can pull it off.
But you knew him for some time?
Yes. I got to know him as a girl, when we lived in Colorado. Of the Author Hunter Thompson was a neighbor and a friend of my father - and also a good friend of Johnny.
"Fifty Shades of Grey" She has made a star. How do you deal with it now that you are detected and the tabloids are defiant?
It is troublesome. But the way it is today: Anyone with a Twitter account feels like a journalist. The social media accounts of my family members has been through a lot of attention lately - that did not seem fair to me. My brothers and sisters should be able to make it what they want without having to have followers send them messages to me. That is why I am now also on Instagram, so people come to me directly. It's nice that the fans have a channel to the person for whom you admire. And I like photos, even look at photo albums. [Now Showing icheben in this way my known my dog. So passts for me.]
You must probably be careful with whom you befriend, or was being famous as the daughter always been the case?
Yes, like my growing up in a family, you get it sooner or later have to do with people who are not loyal. Therefore, my loyalty is extremely important, in my opinion.
Her father Don Johnson says, you do not need help, you were as a child been very independent. How have you found it so early?
(Laughs.) I'm not sure if I did. I never have myself and my life completely under control, but that's actually okay. It is fun. But it's nice that my father says.
Many frictions?
No, I have challenged only occasionally my parents.
How did you actually come to your first name?
Actually I was supposed to be called Ruby, but my father said, Ruby Johnson sounds like a bitch name. There are a great singer who is called that. Anyway: another couple expecting a child at the same time, they wanted to name her son Dakota. I came first, and my parents snapped their name from under their nose.
Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, Tippi Hedren and Antonio Banderas - what you have taken from your famous family on your way?
I hope I have the strength and the dignity of my grandmother and the humor and my mother's cunningness inherited. From my father I learned that in relationships, expect respect. And thanks to Antonio I learned Spanish: My older brother and my younger sister speak it fluently, I understand sometimes only the speech, but I can make myself understood.
They had their first major appearance in 2006 as Miss Golden Globe. At that time did the camera prepare you for discomfort...
Yes, I was so scared and was petrified! I've never been on a stage standing - except in the school theater. I could not walk in high heels and had hidden my best with my tight dress and black eye makeup also. But I also felt honored because my mother was once Miss Golden Globe. It was like a final examination. I wish I could turn back time and me present something more elegant.
Quotes
“I play a woman that knows exactly the difference between good and bad, what’s wrong and what’s right. She knows that sooner or later, her son will follow his father’s footsteps, no matter what she has taught him through the years. She knows that one day he’ll come back home beaten and that she has no power over her lover’s charisma - a man that says that it’s all right to hit his mates, as long as he doesn’t get caught. She doesn’t accept this concept but she’s also very conscious on the fact that is her son’s destiny.”
“A lot had been unspoken but I was a very attentive child, I used to look closely and “study” what was happening around me. I’ve learned a lot from my grandma and I still do, maybe even more than I used to. When I was a child, I didn’t understand why her career ended like it did but then she told me what happened…”
“I wouldn’t know what else to do, I can’t do anything else! I grew up shooting small movies with my friends, surrounded by famous people in this industry. This is the only thing I know, the only world. I’m always afraid, always. I’m afraid of failing, I just don’t let the fear stop me.”
“Being on set feels like home, to me. I grew up in a very hectic world, I kept moving and I’ve changed many schools. Being on set was the only thing I could always count on, what I could truly rely on. It was something I could be sure about, a guarantee. Working alongside an artist like Johnny Depp, I mean, there are no words to explain what that means to me…meeting a director like Luca Guadagnino, a gorgeous mind that sees in me exactly what I see in him. This is so rare for an actress and it’s the most beautiful thing that can happen.”
“It feels nice knowing that someone is trying to protect you. Everyone should have people like this in their life. My mom has been through the good and bad of this world and maybe she just doesn’t want me to experience the bad side of it, but i’m recalcitrant. ‘let me have it! Let me have the bad part of it, let me get into trouble,’ that is what I always say. It’s much more fun than not doing it.”
“Our house was originally in Colorado and when we came back from a trip or a movie, we always headed up there. My siblings went to school there, we used to spend summers and even now, we all met up for christmas. All of us. I’m very attached to that place, it’s really special to me. I grew up in a ranch riding a horse, surrounded by animals and many dogs. I like that lifestyle and I think that one day, I’ll stop and settle down in a place like that to have kids and raise them there.”
“Maybe yes, maybe my passion for animals comes straight from my grandma but I don’t think i’ll ever have lions. I think she had plenty for the whole family.”
“I’ve learned many lessons from my father, he’s very capable. One thing he always tells me is, ‘never write letters and most of all, never throw them away.’”
Source | Translation
'Black Mass' director Scott Cooper talks about Dakota
"She's young but fearless, she's not afraid of anything. She might seem fragile but she's really tough. Dakota Johnson has been standing Johnny Depp's ground like a boss."
"The actors know that I'm on their side, a part of their team. I love colaborations but I hate auditions, I prefer to meet up with the actors for a few hours and see if we have the same ideas and thoughts. I hate rehearsals, too. The movie must begin with the word 'Action!' and end with 'Cut!'; I'm not looking for parrots that come to set to repeat over and over again something they've learned by memory at home."
Scans
Scans: @justjamiedakota | Translation: @DakotaJohnsonEN
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Dakota without Shades
“In Venice with a scary role. I’ll be a far more shady seductress than Jane Birkin.”
“I got into character quite easily.” Her character, Penelope, is a malicious seductress. “She’s a young and precious woman, she’s unclear about who she is and what she wants. She has a great ability, she can play with people’s emotions with such a passionate cruelty.” What do you mean? “She’s a troublemaker with a lot of mystery and that shade of confidence that is nerve-wracking for such a young age. Luca describes her as that moment in your life when you finally realize the true meaning of things inside yourself.”
“She likes to play with the people around her,” says Guadagnino. “She manipulates, in the most childish of ways and doesn’t understand the consequences of her cynicism.”
The cast was chosen and they just missed the actress for the role of Penelope. He was looking for “a beautiful actress that wasn’t one of those gorgeous girls movies are so full of nowadays.” Dakota came in last minute, “It’s not true that Dakota came in last minute and neither the fact that she hadn’t shot Fifty Shades of Grey at the time. He went through many actresses and through Sam Taylor-Johnson (the director that put Dakota under the spotlight), Dakota and Luca met. He’d been really attracted by her attention, the awareness and the humor. He immediately told her he did not intend to turn her into a nymphet, a Lolita.”
A Bigger Splash (that takes inspiration from the colorful painting by David Hockney) is a revisit rather than a remake of the well-known ‘La Piscine’. Dakota: “Luca told me, ‘if you wanna see it, then do it’, but we didn’t really talk much about it. I ran to see Alain Delon and Romy Schneider – such a stunning couple – besides, I’ve always loved Jane Birkin. The original Penelope is much more nicer, she has that sweet innocence. Mine instead is twisted and calculating.” Dakota was disappointed by the fact that she wasn’t on set the day Tilda Swinton sang in a stadium. In reality, it was San Siro and singer Jovanotti ‘landed’ the stage to her just twenty minutes before his concert. The audience has been notified of such thing and it went mad. The director also followed Tilda’s advice on losing her character’s voice, “that is why she’s silent for the whole movie.”
Did Guadagnino warn Dakota that Venice can easily turn into a lions’ den? “I’ve been here six or seven times, either as a director or a judge. I feel at home in Venice, it has been both generous and brutal with me.”
Dakota, one question: you have many tattoos, some of them written in Latin even, and in many scenes you’re just wearing a bikini. “We decided not to hide them because Penelope, like myself, is afraid of regretting something that is permanent. She’s afraid of not being able to change what has been done and can’t be undone. When I was younger, I never truly realized how precious my body was. Penelope, in this story, is not aware of the precious things life has in store for her.”
Thanks to @DakotaJohnsonEN for translation | Scan
Translation of Dakota's Quotes
"What I love most about Anastasia is the importance of having high self-esteem and above the all, to honor yourself."
"My knowledge about BDSM was very naive. I learnt that lossing or having the power is really exciting fot them."
"For us, it was not easy to film sex scenes. At the beginning you feel scared."
"Fifty Shades of Grey talks abou the dawn of sexuality in a way that it is not a taboo anymore."
"My parents (Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson) are very open-minded, they have always supported me to play this role."
Scans & Traslation: @FannyNose
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Original Pictures
- There’s going to be a Premiere with the actors in June.
- The spot will be on TV on June 1st and the short movie will be on cinemas the 15th of June.
- Quim Gutierrez about Dakota: “Dakota is a very professional actress, really smart and friendly. She’s always calm and controls everything. At the beginning she was a little shy but after seeing that we are a good group of people she is now very integrated. It should have been really difficult for her to be in a group with everybody from Spain, but now she’s one of us.” “I haven’t seen Fifty Shades but it’s a huge movie.”
- Dakota about Amenabar: “He’s adorable, he makes everything easy while shooting. It’s great to work with someone so calm, that knows exactly what he wants to do. There’s no stress.”
- Amenabar on Dakota: “She’s spectacular and she’s doing everything great.”
Translation of Dakota's Interview
She has got a bodyguard, a manager and a tourist guide helper. She says in English “Hi, Victoria, please to meet you”. She stands up, smiles, we shake hands and she looks directly to my eyes. She has a beautiful smile, she’s sweet, secure and calm. Her hair is now black and she’s really smart.
Do you like a specific movie directed by Amenabar?
Dakota: The Others is the most famous in US, but I know all his work and I like it.
How is working with him in this spot?
Dakota: He’s amazing and charming, with him everything seems really easy. It’s great to work with someone so calm, who knows exactly what he wants, there’s no stress while shooting. Aménabar is adorable.
What can you tell me about your role, Rachel?
Dakota: It’s funny to play the role of a typical American tourist because I think I’m not at all this type of girl. I’ve travelled a lot and I spend a lot of time in Europe.
Have you been in Ibiza before?
Dakota: No, never. It’s the first time and I like it. I have friends that come here and they love this place. But I have discovered that Ibiza is not only about parties, it has beautiful places.
You obviously know the Mediterranean Sea…
Dakota: I’ve been in Spain a very important part of my like. I spend a lot of time in Malaga and Marbella. I adore Spain, I’m really happy to be here again, I’m happy here, I’m feeling at home.
Did you know Estrella Damm bear before shooting this spot?
Dakota: Yeah, some friends of mine did the song of the last year spot, The Vaccines. And, as a good American, I adore drinking beer, at night and very cold.
How is working with Quim Gutierrez and the other spanish actors?
Dakota: They’re amazing. Quim is so cool, they’re all really charming and friendly with me. There’s a good atmosphere here and I like the island.
Maybe you can come on holidays one day…
Dakota: Maybe, I don’t know. Who knows. I don’t know.
It’s time to finish the interview. She stands up and says “Pleased to meet you, sorry but I have to continue working”.
UHQ Scans & Original Pictures: @50SDGfansLyP
