JOIN USDakota Johnson is lamenting the effect playing Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey has had on her dealings with men. Either they are too afraid to talk to her: “I don’t know why. You tell me,” she says. “I think I’m a fairly approachable person.” Or they think she must be into the same kind of kinky sex that Ms Steele enjoys in the film.
“Some people think this is something I’m interested in my private life, which is not the case,” she says firmly. “I’m an actor — I pretend. But I guess it’s something that happens with a lot of actors: people think that in real life they are like the characters they play.”
Since the film came out, she says: “My life has changed dramatically. But there are times I feel lonely and then I just watch movies and read books and I’m happy I have the time to do those things. I cherish my solitude.”
The 26-year-old says she is currently single, having split from her boyfriend, the rock singer Matt Hitt, but is mostly too busy to worry about it. “Luckily I’ve such a distraction in my job at the moment that I don’t think about men very often,” she says. “All of my focus is on my job.”
It’s somewhat fitting, therefore, that her latest film should be called How to be Single. Based on the bestselling novel by Liz Tuccillo, it follows the story of Alice (played by Johnson), who breaks up with a long-term boyfriend to move to New York. There, she must negotiate the complex waters of the city’s dating scene, and, with the help of a self-possessed party girl (played by Rebel Wilson), learn to love not being tied down in a relationship.
“It turns into a total explosion of life as Alice knows it and now she has to figure out how to handle it,” says Johnson. “She has been sheltered and established a lot of boundaries for herself and becomes friends with a girl who has zero boundaries and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks of her so long as she’s having fun.”
Alice’s decision to embrace her independence is something Johnson, who herself lives alone in New York, can relate to. “I think it’s important for young women, especially now, to know that it’s OK to explore the world and yourself without the pressures of other people’s opinion on you,” she says seriously.
Johnson is a relaxed conversationalist with a sly sense of humour and a seductive smile; she shifts easily between serious discussion and light-hearted banter. I ask her how she goes about meeting men — when, of course, she’s not flat out working.
“I don’t know,” she says frankly. “I have my friends that I’ve been friends with forever and it’s kind of hard meeting new people. Why, you got someone for me?” she laughs. She has ruled out using online dating sites. “I can’t say that I have ever been tempted. I’ve heard stories of people meeting the loves of their lives online and that’s great. But it freaks me out.”
As to what’s next, she tells me that she and Jamie Dornan will soon begin filming the Fifty Shades sequel, Fifty Shades Darker. “It’s going to be interesting,” she says. “I’ve never revisited or resurrected a character before. We shot the first movie two years ago, so it’s going to be a challenge to get back into that. But it’s happening and it’s going to be great. The story goes to an interesting place and it’s more of a thriller with new characters, which will be nice.”
Born in Austin, Texas, Johnson has Hollywood in her blood. Her parents are Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and her grandmother is Tippi Hedren, the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. “I think I spent my entire childhood on film sets, surrounded by filmmakers and actors and people with magnetic energies who make movies,” she says.
She made her debut aged 10 alongside her mother in Crazy in Alabama (directed by her stepfather Antonio Banderas) but took a break from acting to pursue modelling. Then, at the age of 17, she checked into rehab for a 30-day treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
Clean and sober, the young actress returned to making films in 2010 with a small role in the Oscar-winning drama The Social Network before going on to supporting roles in 21 Jump Street, Beastly and The Five-Year Engagement. She played the girlfriend of Johnny Depp’s character Whitey Bulger in Black Mass but it was Fifty Shades of Grey that provided her breakthrough to the big time.
She is ambivalent about her newfound fame, “Sometimes it’s so exciting and interesting and I get to learn so much all the time and my opportunities have broadened,” she says. “And then there are other times where it’s scary and daunting and I don’t know if I’m handling it the right way.”