“This place looks Disneyland,” says Dakota Johnson admiringly. It’s her first visit to Karlovy Vary, and her attempts to take in the local sights and delicacies have been sadly scuppered by the sheer number of sightseers on the spa town’s picturesque main drag. “It was kind of hard to get around, so I went to the gym instead,” she recalls. She does, however, admit to having tried absinthe — an extra-strong local spirit also known as The Green Fairy — the night before. “It burned my nose,” she says. “Is it healthy? I only had a mouse-sip.”
Johnson has two films at the festival, Celine Song’s surprise sleeper Materialists and Michael Angelo Corvino’s Cannes hit Splitsville, both female-skewed, adult romcoms set in the modern world of relationships. Though she jokes about her dark side (“I would love to play a psychopath”), right now Johnson has found herself in a good groove. “I’m so interested right now in romance and love,” she says, “and how it can help people and save people and ignite some hope in people’s hearts.”
Speaking of Materialists in particular, she says she thinks that its central dilemma — should her character Lucy end up with the suave, rich Harry (Pedro Pascal) or the hard-scrabble John (Chris Evans)? — is something everyone can relate to. “The question is, do you fight for the life that you think you want, or do you fight for being truly seen and truly loved?” she asks. “Even if that means not having a certain amount of money or not having a certain kind of lifestyle. I think that it’s a really good question. Now, because of social media, and because of the state of the world, people think they’re supposed to have a certain kind of life, because of what it looks like on the internet. But we’re human beings. Wouldn’t it feel better to just feel truly loved? Maybe that’s something that people should ask themselves, and then maybe we would all treat each other better.”
Staying with Materialists, it helped, she said, that director Song — like Lucy — was once a professional matchmaker. “I spoke with her a lot,” she says, “and it was mostly just hearing stories of her experiences, and how she felt people were more honest with her than they would be with their friends or family, or even their therapist, because people become so desperate to lock down a certain ideal. And Celine found it so interesting that it was more about material aspects of living than it was about emotional, visceral, soulful aspects. So that was incredible research.” She laughs. “And I also learned that dating sucks.”
Meaning what? “Well, I don’t honestly know. I don’t have personal experience, but I know from friends of mine that trying to find your person is just difficult. It’s both beautiful and scary and I think it makes every human question their worth, which is sad. Some dating apps are incredible, and I know people that have gotten married and are so in love from them, and people who have been set up by friends or matchmakers. There’s no right or wrong answer to love.”
Reminded that her first screen appearance was over 25 years ago, in Antonio Banderas’s directing debut Crazy in Alabama, Johnson, now 35, was quick to point out the 11-year gap between that film and the first professional acting jobs that followed in 2010. “Yes, of course that was my first job, but I played my mother’s daughter, and I was directed by my stepfather, and I held my sister who was crying the whole time. But after that, I was addicted. I was just like, ‘Get me out of school, I just want to do this. Please!’ And they wouldn’t let me. I wasn’t allowed to do any auditions or anything until I was 18 and I left home. So, I guess, looking back, I’m grateful for the period of time that I had to just be a kid. And then I feel unbelievably grateful for the life I’ve had, the career I’ve had, the people I’ve worked with and met, and the places I’ve been.”
Talking about her career, it seems that everything is on the table for her, and not just with her production company Tea Time Productions. “I would love to do theatre,” she says. “I would love to do a play. There’s been a couple [of opportunities] in my career that have been presented, but it didn’t work with a filming schedule. So, I think at the right time, absolutely. I would love to do that.” There’s also a vague possibility of a musical career. “I can sing, but I have a fear of singing — like, stage fight. But I’m obsessed with music.” In support of this, she cites a regular monthly playlist on Spotify, which you can find here, if you like The Beach Boys, Arthur Russell, Sly Stone and more.
She’s also an avid reader — “I love a hard copy,” she says, “but I also have an iPad, because I want to help the environment — and runs a book club in her increasingly limited spare time. How does she choose, now that the book club has been going for a year? “We get manuscripts really early on from publishing houses, and so we’re able to mark up what books we’re going to be having in the club six months in advance.” Right now, just for pleasure, she’s reading Miranda July’s new book. “I loved her last book, The First Bad Man, and this one is called…” She struggles for a really long time to remember… “All Fours.” She laughs. “My dog chewed half of its cover, so that’s probably why I don’t remember the name.”
Next up for her is Michael Showalter’s Verity, a rare “erotic thriller” for the director of largely comedic indies. Then there’s a project she refuses point blank to discuss (“It’ll be a special one”). But looming on the horizon is the likelihood of Johnson making her directing debut. “I think I will direct a feature, a very small one, hopefully soon. And it’s really close to my heart and very close to Tea Time. We’re making it with Vanessa Burghardt, who played my daughter in Cha Cha Real smooth. She’s an incredible autistic actress. What’s funny is I feel like I’ve always felt that I’m not ready to direct a feature. I don’t have the confidence, but with her I feel very protective, and I know her very well.” She pauses. “I just won’t let anybody else do it. That really is the real answer.”
