LOS ANGELES — Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Janelle Monae and Hong Chau recently talked to us on a video call about their latest projects and coping with the pandemic and isolation.
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Dakota Johnson and Tracee Ellis Ross, both daughters of celebrities, are both featured in the film, “The High Note.”
Not only does Ross, the daughter of the legendary singer Diana Ross and Robert Ellis Silberstein, sing for the first time in public at age 47 in the movie. She also recorded six original songs for the film and debuted her first song, “Love Myself,” the lead single off the soundtrack of the movie, which she described as simply just appropriate during these challenging times.
Johnson, the 30-year-old daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith who shot to fame with her portrayal of Anastasia Steele in the erotic “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise, is featured in the movie as Maggie Sherwood, a personal assistant.
She talked to us while she was in isolation in her Los Angeles house and opened up about having problems sleeping at night, coping with negativity, fighting for things while she was ascending in her career, and sharing some thoughts and feelings about having famous parents.
“The High Note,” a musical comedy-drama film directed by Nisha Ganatra and written by Flora Greeson, follows a famous singer Grace Davis (Ross) and her personal assistant (Johnson) as they try to record a new album.
In a recent article, you talked about going into dark places because of the situation of the world and that keeps you up all night. What do you do to get all that stuff in check and balance? Do you still have dark thoughts? Is it still hard for you to go through your everyday life? What’s that like?
This time is totally mind-bending for every individual, no matter where you are, where you're from, who you are, and I have difficult days of course. I'm incredibly fortunate to live where I do and have the family and friends that I have but in terms of dealing with the ups and downs of being human every day is different and you just try to do the best you can and be nice to people along the way and sleeping at night, I don't know. I take a lot of Melatonin.
Do you meditate or do yoga to help with anxiety?
I've been doing meditation and yoga for many years and it's so helpful. I'd be totally lost without it. That's a definite life saver. It's a lot better than drinking myself stupid every night which I don't do but that's some peoples' choice. I just think that right now whatever you can do to take care of yourself and the people around you is the best thing you can do.
In the movie, there’s a lot of negativity in the industry. Did you face the same earlier in your career?
It's hard. It's a lot easier when you stay out of the news and out of the way and just, it's a lot of like mosquito noise. When I was growing up, social media didn't exist and that's when I learned about fame. My parents were famous people and it was a really different version of fame. It was very physical. It was very loud. It was very much people and a lot like going places with them in public was scary sometimes.
Now, it's a lot more incognito. People are really sneaky and social media is really sneaky and it's an interesting – it's just a difference and it's hard to wrap your head around that or normalize it in any way because it's not normal.
So I just try to do the best I can and keep my head in my work and make things that hopefully move peoples' hearts and the rest is just the rest.
Did you stand up for the things you wanted as you were ascending in your career?
Yeah, I still do. All the time, I still do. I don't think that that stops. Women that I admire and other actresses, other filmmakers that I admire, it never ends the fight. It's constant and I don't think that you work your way up to one place and then suddenly that's it and it's all easy. It's always difficult but if you can be aware of that and be aware that there are peaks and valleys, then you just learn more on the way and maybe you learn. On every movie, every show, every project I've done, I learn so much about what I'm capable of and more aspects of myself so it's ongoing.
You and Tracee have very famous parents. So did you talk about that and how did that influence your life?
We definitely talked about it, yeah. There's a lot that you can say without saying much when it comes to relating to somebody who grew up with a famous parent or, you know, in her case an icon so yeah, we definitely I think recognized each other, recognized ourselves in each other a bit, and it's very complicated and knowing that there's somebody who can understand even a little bit of what that's like is a wonderful feeling.
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