14 DAY TRIAL // Jamie Dornan has been heavily promoting “Fifty Shades of Grey” for the past few weeks, but his co-star Dakota Johnson wasn’t anywhere to be seen, which sparked some speculation that she might be taking a back seat in the promotion of the highly anticipated flick.
As it turns out, she isn’t. And what a surprise her first appearance is, because she’s the cover girl of the latest issue of Vogue US, aka the Fashion Bible. She even gets to star in her very own short film, called “It’s Never Just a Minute,” which you can find embedded below.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” and fame
In the accompanying interview, Dakota talks about falling into acting because of her upbringing (she’s the daughter of Melanie Griffith and ex-husband Don Johnson), about her godmother Tippi Hedren and how shocking she finds to read accounts of how she was abused by Alfred Hitchcock, and about her love of art and life outside LA.
She also talks about anonymity and how she’s bound to lose it the moment the film arrives in theaters, on February 14 this year. She’s already started to lose chunks of it, and is now being hounded by the paparazzi wherever she goes, like any other regular celebrity.
That is one side of being a part of “Fifty Shades” that she really doesn’t care that much for, to put it gently.
However, she simply could not pass on the opportunity to play Anastasia Steele in the film based on E.L. James’ best-selling trilogy of novels, because the project is “so different” and “an intense love story.” We should trust her on that, because she’s seen the final cut of the film – and she vouches it will have been worth the wait.
“It looks beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it. But it’s confusing to the brain – I still can’t look at it objectively or wrap my head around it. The parts of the movie that are difficult to watch were even more difficult – and emotionally taxing – to shoot,” Dakota says.
A love story, not a faithful rendition of the novel
“Fifty Shades of Grey” is right there with “Twilight” in terms of popularity; besides the fact that both started out as literature works and were then given the big screen treatment, they also have in common the fact that the former started as fanfiction for the latter.
However, “Fifty Shades” the novel would have warranted an NC-17 film, which is a risk that no studio wanted to take: the final version finally got an R-rating because the story has been adapted to play out like a love story with certain elements of BDSM.
So if you read the books and were expecting most of these scenes to be translated to the big screen, you’re bang out of luck because it’s not happening: producers on the film have said it, the final MPAA rating (R-rated) says it, Jamie Dornan said it, and now Dakota too.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” is a love story that just so happens to be a bit more intense and feature some handcuffs and a whip. So, will you be seeing it when it opens in theaters?
