Currently attending the Venice Film Festival to promote both gangster drama Black Mass and mystery A Bigger Splash, Dakota Johnson sat down with Empire and also discussed another role, playing Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades Of Grey sequel Fifty Shades Darker.
With the first film a success, Universal is naturally pushing ahead with the follow-up. But it has to do so without director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who opted not to return. Confidence's James Foley recently made a deal to direct the sequel, and his leading lady seems to be ready to get back into the world of Anastasia and her emotionally distant paramour, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan).
“It’s quite exciting," she says. “There was a moment of being afraid, because I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I had an experience with Sam [Taylor-Johnson] and then that all went away. Now I’m excited. I think James is a talented filmmaker. How often do you get to reconvene with the same people and have a different spin?”
Asked whether she’s met him and if his approach will be different from Taylor-Johnson’s, the actress demurred. “I have. You’ll just have to see when the movie comes out...”
Fifty Shades Darker, which will be written by Niall Leonard (husband of the books’ author E.L. James), is now targeting a February 10, 2017 release, with the third film, Fifty Shades Freed, eyeing a February 9, 2018 arrival. Black Mass will be out here on November 27, while A Bigger Splash will screen as part of the BFI London Film Festival this October and should be on UK screens on February 12.
Olly Richards