Dakota Johnson cover the February issue of Elle UK to promote The Lost Daughter, a film which has gotten great reviews for its script and its triptych of performances by Jessie Buckley, Dakota and Olivia Colman. Dakota seems pretty happy right now, like she’s gotten some stuff figured out in her life. She’s been with Chris Martin for nearly five years, she has a great house, her career is going very well and she’s only 32 years old! She seems older than that at times, and younger than that at times. She talks about that with Elle:
She’s incorrigible: “I was born on the Day of the Incorrigibles. And I’m like, That makes sense. I do not like stupid rules, like rules for rules’ sake. Or people implementing rules because they’re seeking power. If a chair is marked “Do not sit here” I’m like, “Why the f*ck not?” I don’t know where this came from and why it got so bad.”
She also has a sense of serenity & calm: ‘Well, my parents are… I don’t think I get it from them, they were wild when I was growing up. I think maybe I’m guarded. And that comes off as serene.”
Her relationship with Chris Martin: “We’ve been together for quite a while, and we go out sometimes, but we both work so much that it’s nice to be at home and be cosy and private. Most of the partying takes place inside my house.”
How she feels at the age of 32: “I feel both 48 and 26. I’ve had a lot of life in my life. I had a lot of life really young, so I think I feel older.”
On her role in The Lost Daughter: “I don’t read women like Nina very often. It’s very rare to read a young woman who is lost, drowning, angry and hungry to be seen, who isn’t someone’s fully formed idea of what a woman should look like.”
On Olivia Colman: ‘Well, I was like, I wonder what she’s going to be like? But we loved each other. She’s so maternal and embracing and always wants to hang out and drink wine and talk.’
She thought about her own mother as she worked on TLD: Melania Griffith was ‘making everything possible. She was able to be a nurturing, generous, loving mother, and do her job and be an amazing partner to her husbands. But there were also really dark times. So the point is to say that nothing is perfect all the time – nothing. [My mom has] seen it three times. I think it’s coming from being proud of me. I also think it’s something that she hasn’t seen on screen before, and she’s like, “You can say: I f*cking hate being a mother today?”’
It’s crazy to think about the fact that she’s third-generation Hollywood royalty, that she learned how to drive on the set of Nash Bridges, that Antonio Banderas was her step-dad, and on and on. That’s what makes her seem “older,” she has lived a lot of life. But there’s also a girlishness to her, and I mean that in a nice way. Anyway, I’m glad she’s comfortable enough with Chris to say something about him in an interview. I wonder if he still hates it when his ladies talk about him?
Cover & IG courtesy of Elle UK.
I feel like that’s your thirties defined. Still enjoying the frivolity of your twenties while feeling the weightiness of age. Actually, that’s still me in my late 40s so maybe 30 is just when that dichotomy really begins.
I will admit i havent seen anything recent with her,and possibly only 2 movies other than the Shades trilogy. But i have always thought her acting was god awful maybe she got it from her mother who is possibly even worse as an actress. But connections get you far i guess.
I’ve never seen her in anything but I agree with you about Melanie Griffith, who was the queen of the baby whisper.
Has she experienced anything that wasn’t driven by being 3rd Gen Hollywood aside from issues with her family being messy? It might be “a lot of life” but it is still pretty sheltered/ driven by connections / dependent. But I have to admit I am not her fan after her comment a month ago caping for Armie Hammer and Shia Le Boeuf.
Putting the marry, divorce and re-marry thing aside, her parents were addicts who went to rehab a few times when she was growing up, I don’t know to which point she was sheltered, that is a lot for anyone regardless their social status.
I don’t particularly care for her either. If there is a movie I want to see and she is in the cast, I usually just watch her but she doesn’t come off as being extremely talented. Dakota has had ALL of the doors opened for her. Her grandmother is a phenomenal actor, but her mother not so much. But I think I have always enjoyed her fathers acting, as I see Don Johnson as extremely talented. Dakota just seems flat to me. And in her interviews, she seems to try to come off as more mature but with a defiance about her. But I don’t think that she is a great actor. But like everyone else, we all have opinions.
You can’t take your eyes off her in the Lost Daughter. I think this is her best work, she is vulnerable and fierce.
I don’t feel like Dakota Johnson is going to take that sh*t from Chris Martin. Hard to imagine her being MORE confident then Gwyneth. I think GP is very invested in seeming perfect, maybe?
I like Dakota – I was surprised by how much I liked her in “How to be Single”. Yes, it’s a fluffy/fun movie but she’s got this quality on-screen that I feel doesn’t come across in print. In photos, I think she looks nice but nothing that really catches my attention. In film, she’s got the “it” factor.
And all the Melanie Griffith haters… I STILL love her in Working Girl!
Dakota’s parents (Melanie & Don) did a movie together in 1991 that totally flew under the radar, but it was riveting and her acting was achingly good. Without giving too much away, they play a married couple dealing with a terrible tragedy when a young boy (Elijah Wood) comes into their lives for the summer and helps them deal with it. I highly recommend it!
I’m a fan. I think there is no bs to her, and I like that. She cracked me up when she was on Jimmy Kimmel some time ago, she was parking an old truck in front of her house, she was very attached to it as it was her grandfather’s who had passed and he had given it to her. Her neighbor didn’t like the truck as it was old and he thought unsightly. So the bitch had it impounded and taken away. She told Jimmy that she was thinking of having a cake made to look like an old truck and taking it over to him. I hope she did that. I think she is smart and thoughtful, and is employing that in her career, in forming her own production company and developing her own projects. I do think she is a good actress.
Have you all seen Milk Money with Ed Harris and Melanie Griffith? I love Ed Harris. He can’t help himself, he is just sexy.
I’m another one who can’t get past her defense of toxic men. I’m sure they’ve always been nice to her. It’s not about her. Her remarks came across as shallow and uncaring and unintelligent. I hope she’s thought better of them.
Before those remarks, I found her bland, very pretty and just okay as an actor. Maybe she will grow on me, as she matures.