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Daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, her fate was to end in the world of acting. Dakota gained fame for her role in '50 Shades of Grey '. Nothing to do with the projects about to release.
After a plunged into a media whirlwind year which earned her the shot to fame with her starring role in '50 Shades of Grey ', Dakota Johnson has barely had time to rest from her success. She is eager to prove herself in serious films, where her work may take priority over the media frenzy that brought to light. It has a natural attitude towards popularity. Logical having lived all her life with the attention that comes from being the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and growing up with Antonio Banderas as stepfather.
"When you grow up in a family where a lot of time is spent on the sets is natural to feel attracted to that world," she says. "When your family is talking about the media, sometimes causes anxiety. But learning to focus on the things that are real, in the end, makes you stronger. I try to live as normally as I can" she concludes.
Johnson's next film is 'Black Mass', a gangster drama directed by Scott Cooper and starring Johnny Depp. She plays the wife of Bulger Lindsey -Depp- with a high level of intensity and sensitivity, as she did to give life to Anastasia Steele in '50 shades".
However, as a new project, 'A Bigger Splash', plays a very different kind of woman. There Dakota shares the bill with Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Matthieu Schoenaerts. Prepared for launch in the UK in February, this film is a remake of 'The Pool' (1969), by Jacques Deray. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film gives Johnson the opportunity to demonstrate her great sex appeal as Penelope, an object of desire that accompanies to her maniacal music producer father, Harry -Fiennes-, on a trip to Sicily to visit his ex-lover Marianne -Swinton- a female rock who stars recovering from vocal cord surgery.
At 26, Dakota now has no boyfriend. In conversation, it is very reflective but may be indecisive and timid at times. She has lived a life relatively free of scandal, despite growing up with famous parents, and she says: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional," a slogan coined by the late Hunter S. Thompson, who was a friend of his father, Don Johnson.
You grew up in a family of actors and they all have had significant careers in film. Do you feel you are starting your own career?
Dakota Johnson: It's a start. I decided to follow the footsteps of my parents and they feel concern, because they want to establish my own identity within the business. I tried to get good roles where I can be judged only by my performance.
Did your parents have helped launch her career as an actress?
Dakota: I am very grateful to have the support of my family. I think I inherited, among other things, the strong character of my grandmother (Tippi Hedren) and my mother. But I've also learned a lot from my father and my stepfather.
Has been very hard this year at the center of media interest?
Dakota: My parents have taught me to take a safe distance from all that is written about me and never let it affect me. I try to keep quiet.
Are films like Black Mass and A Bigger Splash projects seeking to evolve as an actress?
Dakota: Not every day you have the opportunity to work with actors like Johnny Depp, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes. They are people from who you're going to learn a lot, they will help you to become better at what you do. I am also very fortunate to collaborate with directors like Scott Cooper, with whom he had always wanted to work because I love his work. I was also moved by the idea of being with Luca Guadagnino, who believed in me, and we got very good atmosphere on the set of A Bigger Splash.
How was been at the Venice Film Festival, where both films were presented?
Dakota: I was really overwhelmed by the architecture of the city. I would have liked to have spent more time walking around Venice. But the atmosphere is amazing and made me think that one day I would make a period film and try to imagine how life was like in the sixteenth century, for example.
A Bigger Splash and obviously in 50 Shades of Grey, you were naked. You seem to be quite relaxed in those scenes.
Dakota: I've never had trouble about be naked on films, because it's part of my job. I've always been comfortable with my body, I use to express myself and to play the characters that I have to give life. My parents were very open and helped me to feel comfortable when it came to how I saw myself and in my appearance issues. I think it helps if you have a good picture of yourself. It is essential to be comfortable when you roll those scenes, provided they are not free or distasteful.
In Black Mass you play a woman who tries to do everything possible to deal with life with the life of a vicious mobster husband while caring for your child. How did you approach the character?
Dakota: He saw her as a woman who is in a difficult situation, you want to give your child a healthy family life, although they are aware that probably enters the life of the father, a man linked to organized crime . She knows what is right and wrong and what you would like for your child. She tries to instill values, but it is very complicated with the parent who has: a very energetic and charismatic man who teaches him it's okay to hit people if they do something wrong to you.
It was interesting to be part of a great crime story like this?
Dakota: It was fascinated by the way in which these people were considered outside the law and enjoy the challenge of breaking the law and defying authority. Although they are criminals, they are strong characters, with very distinct personalities and their own sense of values they have in life. What makes this job really interesting, from my point of view, it is that the women in the film are very strong. They stood in front of men with such strong characters and they were an important part of history.
What attracts a woman to a man like Whitey Bulger, a mobster who has this terrible dark side?
Dakota: Men like that, with a very powerful personality, you have women who are attracted because they are very strong and very charismatic. Those are two qualities that can be very attractive.
Could you, Dakota Johnson, be attracted by someone like Whitey Bulger?
Dakota: (Laughter) No, I'd rather be with someone who was very nice and respectful to me. With someone you can have fun in life.
You have some very intense scenes in Black Mass. There is one in particular, with Johnny Depp, who will surprise the public and will give much to talk about. How was that experience, being next to Depp?
Dakota: They were very complicated scenes, because they are very intense emotionally. They are the kind of moments that you really want as an actor. But if you worry about if you are convincing with such scenes. When I read the script I knew it would be a very powerful and intense moment. But Johnny is so big and so good that it is a luxury to work with him. It makes everything much easier. So that the public will fall when you see the film, I talk about the scenes in which Whitey shows a side of himself that he would never show to anyone but her.
What can you tell us about your role in A Bigger Splash?
Dakota: I play a young girl who is in the process of discovering her sexuality. Penelope is very intelligent, but has a strange connection to the world around her and tries to knowing herself through that sexuality is still not too clear.
She does not know that, however, has the ability to manipulate others and play with the emotions of people. Has a twisted side thinks that is fun and stir things up. Penelope is at a point in her life where she's playing with different ideas of what she is and who she wants to be. It's a girl, somehow, still in the process to become a woman.
Are we going to see some of your tattoos in Penelope?
Dakota: We decided not to hide them, because Penelope, like me, also brings repentance of past decisions that can not be changed now. When I was very young, I did not realize how precious it was my body. In this story, Penelope is not yet aware of how precious are certain things in life and how other things that you do can have permanent consequences. Tattoos are a way to play with that idea.
Could you also enjoy the tranquility that roll on the field when you moved to Sicily.
Dakota: I spent summers at the family home in Aspen, Colorado. I have so many fond memories of that time in my life...Especially every Christmas, wonderful, where the whole family gathered there. Sicily is obviously a very different place, but it makes you feel you are in an environment very isolated and life is much more relaxed and simple. I was impressed by the beauty of the landscape.
You have said in the past that would like to live in your own ranch sometime in the future.
Dakota: I'd love to be able to settle down and raise my children in Colorado or a similar place. I grew up surrounded by animals and I want to raise a lot of animals on the way my grandmother did, though perhaps not the lions and tigers that she still has. I'd settle for keeping horses and pigs (smiles).
How was working with an Italian director to shoot the film in Sicily?
Dakota: It was strange because I entered the film quite late and I did not have much time to start my interpretation of the role as I would have liked. Luca and I had some amazing conversations about it. Penelope does not have enough life experience to understand everything that she is trying to assimilate. Either to try to fit adults who have around and that, in turn, they have a lot of complex issues circumscribed. I tried to compare myself with Penelope and I had some interesting similarities.
¿What were they?
Dakota: (Laughter) I will not confess! That I'm staying for me, for my privacy.
Source | Scans The50Shadesworld.
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