Dakota Johnson Landed ‘Fifty Shades’ Role Thanks to Ingmar Bergman’s Classic

In one of Hollywood's most unexpected casting stories, Dakota Johnson's path to playing Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy involved a surprising detour through Swedish art house cinema.

In an interview with Vanity Fair back in 2022, the actress revealed that she performed a monologue from Ingmar Bergman's psychological masterpiece Persona during her audition for the erotic drama franchise.

“When I auditioned for that movie, I read a monologue from ‘Persona’ and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special,’” Johnson said.

However, it later turned out that the novel series author Erika L. James had a lot of creative control over the movie as a producer, and it was pretty challenging for the actress. After choosing such a legendary monologue for her audition, Johnson may have expected too much from the monologues taken directly from the books.

“She had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen. There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie, like the inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy. It wouldn’t work to say out loud. It was always a battle. Always,” the actress revealed.

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Wasn’t What Dakota Johnson Expected

Persona explores themes of identity, psychology, and human connection through the relationship between a nurse and her mute patient. In Persona, Alma’s sexually explicit monologue was as intense and compelling as it was controversial. But Fifty Shades turned out to be something completely different.

“I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making. [...] It just became something crazy. There were a lot of different disagreements. I haven’t been able to talk about this truthfully ever, because you want to promote a movie the right way, and I’m proud of what we made ultimately and everything turns out the way it’s supposed to, but it was tricky,” Johnson added.

The success of Johnson's Bergman gambit (and her tumultuous filming process) ultimately paid off, as the Fifty Shades trilogy grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide and established her as a major Hollywood star.

Dakota Johnson’s newest movie, The Materialists, sees her heroine — a successful matchmaker — choosing between Pedro Pascal’s wealthy billionaire and Chris Evans’ less wealthy caterer who is also her ex-boyfriend.

The Materialists is currently running in theaters in the US.