Profile: Dakota Johnson

Making waves in A Bigger Splash and shooting Fifty Shades Darker

Above: Ralph Fiennes, in the pool, watches Dakota Johnson, who plays his estranged daughter in A Bigger Splash. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

BY: Howard Karren

When Dakota Johnson appears for the first time in the psychological thriller, A Bigger Splash, her character, Penelope, is an unwelcome guest. Penelope’s dad, Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes, in a fearlessly abrasive performance), is a record producer and a former flame of Marianne Lane (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton), a rock singer who is recuperating from vocal-chord surgery on the idyllic Italian island of Pantelleria, halfway between Sicily and the African coast. Harry decides to “drop in” on Marianne—who is lolling about with her boyfriend, Paul, a filmmaker, played by hunky Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts—and Penelope tags along. Until recently, Penelope hadn’t even known that Harry was her father, and they barely have a relationship; for her to be thrown into this volatile mix—the two men vie for Marianne’s affections, and she has feelings for both—is a bit outrageous, like throwing a match to kindling, but Harry doesn’t seem to care.

a bigger splash, dakota johnson — The tense foursome of *A Bigger Splash* (from left): Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

In discussions Johnson had with Bigger Splash director Luca Guadagnino, Penelope began to take shape as a childish nymphet. “She’s trying to figure out what her sexuality is and how to use it,” Johnson said at the Venice Film Festival, where the film premiered last year. “She uses it to manipulate people and gets involved in something that’s beyond her.”

a bigger splash, dakota ohnson and Matthias Schoenaerts — As Penelope in *A Bigger Splash*, Dakota Johnson tries to tempt the filmmaker Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts), who is one of her hosts on the Italian island of Pantelleria. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

As for Johnson and her career, very little seems to be beyond her these days. The phenomenal success of Fifty Shades of Grey, in which she played Anastasia Steele, the sexually submissive partner of kinky billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), has opened many doors, and indeed, Johnson was recommended to Guadagnino for A Bigger Splash by Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson. Despite an incredible pedigree—Johnson is the daughter of movie stars Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and her maternal grandmother is Hitchcock blonde Tippi Hedren—and early success as a model, she has diligently worked her way up the industry ranks, taking on small roles and stealing scenes in The Social Network (bedding Justin Timberlake), the feature-film version of 21 Jump Street (as a cop), and the romantic comedy, The Five-Year Engagement. But then, she knew the drill just from growing up. “I think I spent my entire childhood on film sets, surrounded by filmmakers and actors and people with magnetic energies who make movies,” Johnson told The Telegraph. “Apart from school and friendships, that was the main staple of my life. We were always watching movies and going to the movies and they were always making movies. I just always wanted to make films, too.”

a bigger splash, Matthias Schoenaerts and Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson and Ralph Fiennes — The four frayed vacationers of *A Bigger Splash* (from left): Matthias Schoenaerts and Tilda Swinton, as a couple recuperating in their island getaway, and Dakota Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, as a long-estranged father-daughter pair who impose themselves as guests. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Now that the Fifty Shades juggernaut has taken off, she has appeared in Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger movie starring Johnny Depp, and this spring starred in the comedy How to Be Single. And she’s already begun to shoot Fifty Shades Darker, the first of two sequels, with Jamie Dornan. “I’ve never revisited or resurrected a character before,” she said before production had started. “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.”