New Photoshoot + Interview of Dakota for "W Magazine"

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In The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, Dakota Johnson plays Nina, a young mother on vacation in Greece who becomes an object of obsession. The film is based on an Elena Ferrante novel of the same name and follows a woman named Leda, played with searing pathos by Olivia Colman, whose interactions with Nina force her to confront memories of raising her own two daughters. While the story takes a dark psychological turn, it sounds like the filming, which took place on a remote island in the fall of 2020, had the opposite vibe. For W’s annual Best Performances issue, Johnson tells Lynn Hirschberg about the cast’s late-night hotel room hangouts, going deep with Gyllenhaal, and her Hollywood childhood.

How did The Lost Daughter come to you? How did you first hear about it?

I read the script that Maggie Gyllenhaal wrote. And then I had a meeting with her. We had a late lunch in New York, at the Greenwich Hotel, where we immediately went, like, straight into the meat of life. And then I read with her a few weeks later in a casting office. And then she emailed me asking if I would be her Nina.

HQ Pictures of Dakota arriving at a studio in Santa Monica, California (January 6th, 2022)

New Photoshoot + Interview of Dakota with ELLE UK (February 2022)

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Do you know The Birthday Book?’ asks Dakota Johnson. She is sitting at a candlelit table; blue eyes inquisitive, fringe so expertly grazing her eyebrows that its maintenance looks like a full-time job. ‘It’s this huge book that goes through every day of the year and tells you about yourself, and other people born on your birthday. I was born on the Day of the Incorrigibles,’ she says. ‘And I’m like, That makes sense.’

We’ve been inside at Shutters on the Beach for an hour, the winter sun just setting over the Santa Monica sand. Johnson was late – something to do with talking to Andrew Garfield and the LA traffic – and I was recovering from a party the night before, so we started by addressing each of our needs.

‘We should probably order fries because you’re hungover,’ she says, after getting a tea for herself. She holds the warm drink in her hands while she explains more about what kind of person she is, the essence of which can apparently be traced to October 4, 1989, the day she was born. For one thing, she baulks at authority. ‘I do not like stupid rules, like rules for rules’ sake. Or people implementing rules because they’re seeking power,’ she says firmly. ‘If a chair is marked “Do not sit here” I’m like, “Why the f*ck not?” I don’t know where this came from and why it got so bad,’ she says, shaking her head.

New Photoshoot + Interview of Dakota, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley for "Netflix Queue"

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Seen through the eyes of actress and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter is a searingly honest exploration of motherhood’s seldom-discussed effects on one’s sexuality and sense of self. Adapted from Elena Ferrante’s novel, Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut is equal parts drama and emotional thriller. The story follows Leda, a 48-year-old professor of Italian literature who becomes obsessed with a young mother, Nina, during a seaside vacation. As their relationship intensifies, Leda is forced to confront the transgressive decisions she made regarding her two young daughters, told in flashbacks. It is also, Gyllenhaal admits, “Dark, with painful aspects to it. Leda is a tough, tough person to spend time with.”

Casting an actress who could portray the nuances of the complex protagonist required two things: “First, she can’t be crazy. If she’s crazy, we’ve seen that person before, and then everyone can just go, ‘Look at that bad mom who’s so crazy.’ I also felt that it was important to be wonderful and funny and human.”

There was only one choice in her mind: Olivia Colman.

Many Oscar- and Emmy-winning actresses would need a hard sell to agree to star in an independent film helmed by an emerging director. But for Colman, whose recent projects include Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite and the role of Queen Elizabeth II in two seasons of The Crown, the deciding factor for joining The Lost Daughter came down to a shared bottle of wine and the promise of fun.

"The Last Daughter" Cast for Entertainment Weekly

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New Promotional Stills of Dakota as Nina in "The Lost Daughter"

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Pictures of Dakota at "The Lost Daughter" Press Conference in New York City (December 4th, 2021)

HQ Pictures of Dakota arriving at the Deadline Contenders 2021 (December 4th, 2021)

Dakota at the Deadline Contenders Film for "The Lost Daughter" in New York City (December 4th, 2021)

HQ Pictures of Dakota arriving at JFK Airport in New York (December 4th, 2021)

Dakota at the Promotional Photocall for "The Lost Daughter" in London today (December 2nd, 2021)

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HQ Pictures of Dakota tipping "The One Show" in London, UK (December 2nd, 2021)

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Dakota at "The Lost Daughter" Screening in London today (December 1st, 2021)

New Photoshoot + Interview of Dakota for "Town And Country" Magazine (December 21/January 22 Issue)

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Dakota Johnson was dancing in a red slip dress, enormous gold hoops dangling from her ears. She was at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this year for the launch of her latest film, The Lost Daughter, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, when Netflix offered to throw the cast a dinner. “Maggie was like, ‘Instead of having a dinner, let’s have a dance party,’ ” Johnson says. So they invited everyone from the other movies playing at the festival to a local restaurant, and it quickly became the hottest event in town. Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Dornan, and Kirsten Dunst all partied as Whitney Houston blared from the speakers.

There was a lot to celebrate. Only 24 hours earlier The Lost Daughter had premiered to a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. After the screening (Johnson forgot to bring her glasses, but she reports, “I think it was beautiful”) there was time for a quick glass of champagne before she and Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard boarded a jet to Telluride to do it all again. It was a lot to take in. The film, an intimate portrait of complex women making unspeakable choices (it also stars Olivia Colman), was shot on a shoestring on a tiny Greek island at the height of the pandemic, a world away from the festival circuit. Now it was suddenly being talked about as a major award contender. There was also the matter of just being out of the house.