“Materialists” star Dakota Johnson, who founded production label Tea Time Pictures back in 2019, said producing has emphasized a “love-hate” relationship with her career. During an in-depth conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival on Friday, the actor said she feels she is “in an internal battle all the time” working in the film industry.
“I’m in a love-hate relationship with my job in all aspects,” she said. “It’s exhausting. Producing, you see behind the curtain and it’s really ugly. I don’t like it. Also realizing that financiers are really shady sometimes is heartbreaking. As a producer, it’s heartbreaking. As an actress, it’s heartbreaking. But [my job] it’s also quite fulfilling, and I’m very grateful I get to do both.”
Looking back at her career, from the early days of “50 Shades of Grey” to recently starring in films like “Materialists” and “Splitsville,” the actor said she’s currently learning “what’s right” for her. “I’ve definitely been persuaded to do things in the past that I realize in retrospect weren’t right for me. But that’s also part of the experience, and I’m lucky I have a job. Now, I’m looking at: where’s this person in me, and how can I stretch myself? I want to evolve more and, as an actress, go to places I didn’t think I was able to go. There’s a lot that I need to let go of.”
The actor also spoke at length about long-time collaborator Luca Guadagnino, with whom she worked with on films like “Suspiria” and “A Bigger Splash.” Johnson said working with Guadagnino is “the most deeply seen I felt by a director.” “I’ll work with Luca forever. For the rest of my life, I’ll work with him. Working with him when I was so young was… Oh, I didn’t realize that I could go to these places within myself and make these kinds of movies.”
Johnson recalled getting the call she was cast in “A Bigger Splash” while on a tour bus with a close friend’s drummer husband. “I was actually so scared to do that movie,” she said. “I was 24. I was on tour with this band, in the back of this bus in a field and I got the call that Luca wanted me to be on this movie and I had to go there right away.”
The actor’s fears began to dissipate once she began to know her acclaimed screen partners — Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton — a little bit better. She recalled Swinton in particular pulling her aside and calming her nerves: “Tilda sat me down and said, ‘You’re here because you’re meant to be here. You can do this.’”
“With these people, I admired them so much,” Johnson continued. “Being a professional, you want to impress them but also be authentic and have a real performance. It was a huge learning curve for me. I had also just come off the first ‘50 Shades’ movie and then went and did this and went like: ‘Oh, this is what I like.’”
As for the near future, Johnson is busy with Tea Time, working on a slate of projects that include her directorial debut “A Tree Is Blue,” starring Charli XCX, Jessica Alba and “Cha Cha Real Smooth” collaborator Vanessa Burghardt. Asked about what she’s drawn to in terms of producing projects, Johnson said she’s drawn mostly to “female-driven, human experience projects.”
“I want to make movies about women and people who are going through some sort of evolution,” she added. “We are drawn to filmmakers that are bold, writers that are honest and risk-taking, and we want to move the needle in terms of emotion and creativity and entertainment.”
