“The truth that this movie’s going to be on Netflix streaming — it feels actually punk rock, ?”For over a decade now, Dakota Johnson has carved out a particular area in each big-budget studio tasks (the Fifty Shades collection, 21 Soar Road, The right way to Be Single) and extra far-out arthouse materials (A Greater Splash, Suspiria).
With Maggie Gyllenhaal’s lauded directing debut, The Misplaced Daughter (on Netflix now), the 32-year-old actress finds a candy spot in between, starring as a conflicted younger mom alongside Oscar winner Olivia Colman, Chernobyl star Jessie Buckley and Regular Folks’s Paul Mescal, amongst others, in a sun-drenched psychodrama already shaping as much as be an awards-season MVP. Not too long ago, Johnson sat down with EW for a spoiler-heavy dialog on discovering sisterhood, and herself, in Daughter’s journey to the display screen.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What do you keep in mind out of your first assembly with Maggie? She mentioned all of it got here collectively over one very intense lunch date.
DAKOTA JOHNSON: In my expertise as a girl, generally you meet different girls that you simply acknowledge one thing and so they acknowledge one thing in you, and you’ve got this unstated communication, this settlement, or this type of… Like an understanding, I suppose. And that’s what it felt like.
I believe I additionally was attending to a spot in my work the place I simply was turning into actually bored with falsities and fronts and these simply ridiculous, shallow, surface-level conferences. And that’s simply not what it was together with her. It was very actual and really human and simply precisely what I hoped might exist on this trade.
The movie shot in Greece, which was a mid-pandemic pivot Maggie made principally simply to discover a place the place you may safely movie. That should bond the solid differently, that form of summer-camp island state of affairs.
Yeah, I believe any time you’re on location away from residence, it lends a type of depth and comradery to your work and to the folks you’re working with. Even when you’re in Boston otherwise you’re in Shreveport, La., it does really feel somewhat bit like summer season camp. With Greece, it was only a hyper model of that.
We had been a lot in a bubble. It was a fairly hardcore quarantine earlier than we began taking pictures, and by chance, all of us actually, actually loved one another, so we simply solely frolicked with one another. It was simply the solid and crew on a regular basis, and it was so enjoyable and so cozy… And there weren’t any instances on the island, so folks had been actually simply dwelling their lives there.
After we sat down for a roundtable a couple of months in the past, you referred to as Maggie “a seeker of reality,” and your costars Dagmara Domińczyk and Jessie Buckley each mentioned she’s very a lot a observe whisperer. Do you keep in mind any specific character notes for Nina that had been gentle bulbs for you?
Talking of Dagmara, there’s that scene the place Nina goes as much as [Colman’s] Leda and thanks her for locating her daughter, after which Callie [Domińczyk] comes up behind her and places the sunscreen on. And Maggie gave me a observe one take that possibly Nina finds Callie actually hilarious — like genuinely, ridiculously humorous. And there was one thing about that that I beloved a lot.
Like Nina f—ing hates her but additionally finds her so amusing as a result of she has to as a result of she’s caught, ? She’s imprisoned on this life, so she may be completely f—ed off by Callie, however then additionally simply discover her ridiculous.
Paul Mescal’s character additionally warns Olivia’s away from you and your loved ones at one level, telling her, “They’re dangerous folks.” Do you assume he means really prison, or simply vaguely untrustable?
[Laughs] I imply, pretty prison, I might say. I believe that they most likely rise up to some shady offers and sure issues, however I suppose it’s good to go away that open to anybody’s creativeness.
As a solid, you all clearly spent plenty of time in bathing fits, which might be no actress’s dream. Nevertheless it doesn’t really feel uncomfortable or disempowered on this movie for some cause.
It’s such an fascinating dialog to have, as a result of it’s positively not a dream. There’s a part of it that’s like, “Oh my God, I get to be on a seaside in Greece and simply be a freak? Cool.” However then within the actuality of it, there’s cameras and folks, and it’s not stress-free.
Maggie’s hand as a director is so secure, it’s so nurturing, and it wasn’t about our our bodies. She’s talked about how, at first of the movie, it was nearly objectifying Nina with the digital camera angles and the gap — like she was an Antonioni character like Monica Vitti, however you then get to go inside her thoughts. The factor was, it didn’t really feel lecherous, Maggie’s eye. It felt like she was observing and finding out. I believe another person’s eye might really feel fairly harmful.
You guys have taken this movie to so many festivals, and it looks like somewhat little bit of a Rorschach blot, who viewers establish with. Would folks come as much as you and have totally different concepts of villains and heroes on this story or who they had been rooting for?
Yeah, I like when males, after having seen the movie, come up and so they actually acknowledge the ladies in it. They’re like, “Oh, that’s what my mom was like!” or, “That’s my aunt,” or “I acknowledge components of my spouse.” That’s actually cool to me.
After which I’ve additionally skilled younger girls actually disliking some characters. And I discover it actually fascinating as a result of the journey of being a girl actually is a journey, have you learnt what I imply? At some levels quite a bit, after which instantly so little, and you then be taught extra. However the different facet of that’s girls feeling so seen and feeling much less loopy and fewer responsible, and feeling like they’re not alone in having sophisticated emotions as a girl or as a mom.
I considered A Greater Splash greater than as soon as whereas I used to be watching, simply when it comes to the trickiness of the script and the fantastic thing about the setting. Which is certainly a praise, however I don’t know if it felt comparable for you in any respect when you had been making it, it may need been a very totally different expertise.
I can see the similarities. I believe there’s plenty of European filmmaker in Maggie’s thoughts — Italian cinema, French cinema has actually spoken to her coronary heart. The expertise wasn’t the identical, although. This movie for me felt like Maggie provided me her hand and was like, “I see you. I see one thing in you that possibly you don’t see but, however include me and include these different girls, who’re probably the most f—ing gifted actresses, and are available on this journey with us.”
And it was a second of evolution for me as an artist, but additionally for me as a girl. I turned 31 after I was there [in Greece], and it was only a actually fascinating time to go deeper into what it actually feels prefer to be a girl on the earth.
In your thoughts, did you play out a future for Nina? Do you assume she stays together with her clan and her man?
I’ve a intestine intuition about her. You realize, generally there’s these relationships that thrive on turmoil, they want the friction to be able to transfer ahead? I believe that that’s form of what she has together with her husband. And what occurs with Leda on the finish of the movie with the hatpin, that’s Nina mothering, that’s her going, “Oh, no, that is the top for you. You don’t do that to my household.” It’s ultra-protective, ? It’s primal.
I don’t know if any actor can ever say they really get pleasure from a press tour, however the Daughter solid does look like they’ve been having a greater time than most.
There’s nothing higher than doing press with folks that you simply genuinely love, as a result of it may be fairly exposing and tough generally. It’s superb as a result of we get to journey everywhere in the world and be collectively and discuss to so many individuals and expertise so many individuals watching the movie, however then additionally it may be quite a bit, ? Loads of opening your coronary heart.
So what is that this enterprise about you giving Olivia a stick-and-poke tattoo after a New York screening — do you simply go round branding Oscar winners now?
[Laughs] Yep. That’s my facet hustle. However I don’t need to let you know [what it is] if she hasn’t mentioned something about it! That’s her physique to speak about.
A model of this story seems within the February difficulty of Leisure Weekly, on newsstands Friday and obtainable to order right here. Don’t overlook to subscribe for extra unique interviews and images, solely in EW.
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