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In the March 2014 issue of ELLE, Dakota Johnson was 24, freshly cast as Anastasia Steele, and best known as someone\u2019s daughter and the star of a Fox sitcom that got cancelled after 13 episodes. The only question anyone had was whether she could handle the nudity and the BDSM that came with Fifty Shades of Grey. Her full answer: \u201cI don\u2019t have any problem doing anything. The secret is I have no shame.\u201d<\/p>\nDakota Johnson steps out of Windsor Pilates in Los Angeles in January 2015. Photo by Michael Wright \/ WENN \/ MEGA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJohnson, whose parents are Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith and whose grandmother is Tippi Hedren, said inhibition was never the obstacle. Fear of the material was, and she took that as the reason to do it.<\/p>\nDakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan film a rainy reunion scene for Fifty Shades Darker on location in Vancouver\u2019s Gastown neighbourhood. Photo by Atlantic Images \/ MEGA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI wasn\u2019t very invested at first,\u201d she said, because the book scared her and she\u2019d never done anything like it. \u201cBut that just told me it was something I should do.\u201d<\/p>\nDakota Johnson photographed at a public appearance. Photo by Carlos Alvarez \/ Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhat drew her in wasn\u2019t the sex. \u201cReading the book, I found myself more interested in the ways they were breaking each other down emotionally than the sex scenes,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a part of a woman that wants to be the thing that breaks a man down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interview ran with her first major fashion cover, under the headline \u201cMeet Dakota Johnson, the star of \u201950 Shades of Grey.’\u201d The casting had been announced September 2, 2013, pairing her with Charlie Hunnam, and fans turned on it fast.<\/p>\n
Hunnam dropped out weeks later and Jamie Dornan replaced him. Johnson stayed.<\/p>\nDakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan at the Kinepolis cinema in Madrid for the February 2017 premiere of Fifty Shades Darker. Photo by Carlos Alvarez \/ Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFor weeks after she got the part, she wasn\u2019t allowed to tell anyone, not her father, not her mother, not her grandmother. Her reason: \u201csometimes your parents are the ones with the biggest mouths of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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