Dakota Johnson covers the latest issue of Elle UK. She’s promoting The Materialists, Celine Song’s follow-up film after Past Lives (I loved Past Lives). The Materialists has an old-school romantic-dramedy feel to it – Dakota plays a matchmaker who is being pursued by Pedro Pascal (a wealthy man who has his life together) and Chris Evans (a working-class scrub and her ex). Just from the trailers, I know that I’m going to be rooting for Dakota to get with Pedro. Hell, I would root for that regardless of the story. It’s Pedro Pascal! Choose him! Anyway, it looks like Dakota and Pedro get along famously and they’ve known each other for years in real life, so Pedro was the one who conducted her Elle interview. Some highlights:
Dakota & Pedro spent time together at a Met Gala over a decade ago: “I find the Met Gala is like The Twilight Zone. I don’t know what the f*ck is going on. I don’t feel I connect with any human beings in a real way; it’s like going into some sort of vortex. By the way, this is not the first time I’ve had this conversation with you. This is maybe the 37th time we’ve had this conversation. The 37th time Pedro makes me feel like an absolute piece of sh-t for not remembering him. My first impression of you was: ‘Wow, this guy is so cool. What a nice man that I’ve definitely never met before.’ And then I loved you very quickly.
Why she wanted to do ‘The Materialists’: “I wanted to do our movie because I really wanted to work with Celine. I loved Past Lives. I loved meeting her even more. I loved the way she spoke about movies and people and feelings. And the reason I met her is because of you, isn’t it?… I also loved that Celine used to be a matchmaker in real life. I find the whole concept of the film so interesting, because it’s so foreign to me. I’ve never dated anybody. I’ve had boyfriends, but I have never been on a dating app. I just don’t know that world. So, it was so interesting and intriguing. It’s the most beautiful side of humanity, but it can also be the most ugly. Loving someone is the most scary and beautiful thing you can do.
What she finds ugly about dating apps: “Even the title of our movie – that people can basically get to a place where they deny their true soul’s needs or their true heart’s needs because of what they think they want or need in a materialistic way, which is sad to me. But also, for some people, really great. Who the f*ck am I to judge?”
She didn’t get into Juilliard: “I graduated [high school] and only applied to Juilliard. And I didn’t get in. That f*cking process was so awful and terrifying. When you get accepted for an audition, it’s a two-day long chorus-line thing. You’re supposed to get called back for a second audition, and I didn’t. It was fine, I really didn’t want to go to college. And because Juilliard felt so small – the idea of being in a classroom with the same group of people, and figuring out how to be a human in that environment, after growing up surrounded by so many different kinds of people and immersed in different cultures through travelling all over… It just felt really wrong to lock myself in one place.
She went back to LA & started working: “I didn’t get in and my dad cut me off because I didn’t go to college. So, I started auditioning. I think I was 19 when I did The Social Network, and then little jobs and stuff after that…For a couple of years it was hard to make money. There were a few times when I’d go to the market and not have money in my bank account or not be able to pay rent, and I’d have to ask my parents for help – I’m very grateful that I had parents that could help me and did help me. But it certainly was not fun. The auditioning process, as you know, is the f*cking worst.
A restless actor: “I feel home is Malibu now. I like it, and I like that you are not so far away. I also think, in my deepest truth, I feel I don’t live anywhere. I nest kind of wherever I am. If I’m in a hotel for six weeks, if I’m in a hotel for four days, if I’m in a rental, I’m like, I live here now – this is my home.”
What she hopes people take away from The Materialists: “It would be so lovely if Materialists ignited a sense of hope in people, especially about love. But ultimately, I feel every human being has the option in this life to question and interrogate themselves, and to go inward and ask: ‘What is my real desire? What is my real truth? Who am I?’ It’s not easy to do, and I get why not holding up a mirror to yourself can be a way more enjoyable path. Untangling yourself is uncomfortable and can be quite ugly. But I like that film and art can maybe just whisper a question or an idea to people’s hearts.
I’ll only know the answer to this when I watch The Materialists, but it feels like Celine Song is also asking the audience if they were presented with the “perfect on paper” person, would they go for that person in a real way or would they still seek out the same toxic people and toxic cycles they know? As for her nepo-baby answer about asking her parents for money… Dakota is absolutely a nepo baby who only “struggled” in the audition rat race for a couple of years. I’m not making fun of that, but let’s not pretend that she didn’t have a leg up. That being said, she seems to have really great relationships with her parents, stepparents and half-siblings (she seems to have so much affection for Antonio Banderas especially). I think she’s really just this hippie girl who lives out of hotels and appreciates what she has.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of Elle UK.
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- 2024 Kering Foundation Caring for Women Event Featuring: Dakota Johnson Where: New York, New York, United States When: 10 Sep 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- Milan Women’s Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025 Gucci arrivals Featuring: Dakota Johnson Where: Milan, Italy When: 20 Sep 2024 Credit: IPA/INSTARimages **UK, USA AND AUSTRALIA RIGHTS ONLY**
I will be so glad when she moves on from her see-through dress era. So very tacky! Who wants to see people’s underwear all the time.
Her stylist Kate Young briefly posted YouTube videos and spoke about her dislike of the naked dress. It just goes to show that Dakota really has control over what she’s wearing and is choosing this.
I was reading some goofy web article about dressing like your astrological sign—either your Venus or your Lilith sign, I cannot remember which—and the article concluded that Dakota Johnson looks best dressed “like a Capricorn,” i.e. her daywear uniform of blazers with jeans. I don’t know why she vacillates between these two extremes, but the see-through sheaths look so uncomfortable to me! I do like her in daring plunging necklines though. Her chosen style of structured clothing with a messy updo looks so effortlessly elegant in a “1990s star power” way.
Wow, I hope she does not really talk this way and it’s just her publicist speaking for her cause she sounds pretentious as hell. The Juilliard thing sounded like sour grapes . The whole I am so used to being surrounded by different people, as if a school with 1000 students in Manhattan of all places would be limiting. Sheesh. What was that whole 37th time didn’t recognize Pedro Pascal about? If she is this pretentious, then she was a good match with Chris Martin.
It definitely sounds like sour grapes that you didn’t get in but I guess she’s allowed to be better about it. Nobody asked her if she tried to go to drama school she brought it up herself. She’s probably doing better than a lot of people that got in the year she got rejected.
To me, that’s one of the most fun things about her, the way she is constantly outing herself as a ridiculous person. She’s a third generation movie star whose grandmother kept pet lions in the family home, FFS. Lying to interviewers and deliberately not remembering people you meet at celebrity events seem like decent coping mechanisms.
She’s not a good actor, I’m not surprised she didn’t get into Juilliard.
I am glad she was honest about having her rent and bills paid when in a bind. And this is one of the things with nepo kids that chaffs buttocks. Which also, negates things Don Johnson said in interviews that he cut her off completely. Since she chose not to go to college. Or maybe it was Melanie and Antonio (when they were still married) that did. But regardless, she was not exactly pulling herself up by the bootstraps.
You have the luxury of audition all day long. Since you know at the end of the day. Your parents will pay your rent and bills for you if needed. And you come to the table with a last name that will draw attention and free publicity to projects. Since your famous parents will show up to help promote it for free. The average actor off the bus from Kansas. Can’t compete with you. Even if they went to Julliard or have an MFA from Yale. Casting agents will pick you over a an unknown almost every time.
I mean, sorry Dakota you couldn’t get your organic Kale at Erewhon. On a Tuesday, after an audition.
But thank you for confirming what we all know. You’re a bland actress that coasts on your name and better than average looks. Julliard knew it back then too.
Yes, it’s hard to make a living as an actor. That’s why most actors have other jobs to help pay the bills.
I hope she ends up with Pedro in the movie. This has been my hope since seeing the trailer for the first time. Even the best Chris has no hope of beating The Glorious Pedro.
And I saw an interview with Dakota recently and I think I understand her dry humor a little better. It doesn’t come across in written interviews very well. She seems (in her spoken interviews) like she’s chuckling to herself about everything, including herself.
Dakota is third generation Hollywood muckty muck. Her grandma kept tigers. These people take nothing seriously.
She’s saying the same thing here about money and auditioning as Domnhall Gleason — that it’s lucky she had parents who could help her out when she wasn’t getting roles that allowed her to support herself. That’s important help to acknowledge so idk why so many people were praising him for saying it but hating on her.
I never really get the nepo baby discourse to be quite honest. You see it in every single industry from people in construction to lawyers to actors and musicians. Your dentist whose kid took over the family practice is just as much of an nepo baby as she is.
There’s nothing she can do about being third generation Hollywood unless we believe that people can’t hold the same jobs that their parents did, regardless of their interest in it because it won’t be ” fair”. Yes she had a step up, and yes it was easier for her, but I don’t understand what people want them to do turn down jobs? Say I don’t deserve this?
This industry is so subjective about who is talented, that it always amuses me that people are upset about these kids being actors or musicians or whatever when a lot of times I don’t think their parents were that great at the job.
I think it’s about them creating opportunities for others who didn’t have that step up when they’re in a position to do so. I also think it’s ridiculous people are expecting them to turn down jobs.
Are you really comparing acting to dentists? To be a dentist or a doctor you have to at least get some sort of license. Proof that you have some idea what you are doing. Acting is just pretending.
Amy: Acting is like any art — to do it well takes talent, study, practice, the ability to collaborate… it’s not just pretending. Also, people who go into any family profession — including dentistry — have a leg up. They have access to knowledge and resources in ways that others don’t have.
I like her. She won me over by embarrassing Ellen.
She didn’t sound bad here, imo.
I was shocked she was rejected by Julliard since she is a nepo baby. Or that she admitted it. I guess you can’t buy your way into that school. Who knew.
I think having well connected parents helped, but so did starring in Fifty Shades of Gray. The fact she had to do that movie suggests you do sort of have to sell parts of yourself in Hollywood even if you’re as well-connected as she is. I guess she wouldn’t look at it that way, but if I was well-connected I’d hope I could make it in better movies where I don’t need to be naked. I think that indicates how tough that industry is.
Her recent interview with Amy Poehler (Amy Poehler’s Good Hang) is a lot of fun. I’ve always liked her – and her slinky dresses. I think she’s smart + thoughtful and takes the work, but not herself, seriously. She has terrible social anxiety, which was a surprise. She’s very funny in an almost dadaist way. Dry.
She is not problematic or scandalous or anything, but she is terrible to watch on screen. Nepo baby or not. Criminal that she has a career (excuse my hyperbole).