Who is Dakota Johnson?

Dakota Johnson is an American actress and fashion model. In 1999, she made her film debut in Crazy in Alabama (1999), where she and a half-sister played the daughters to their real-life mother. The film was directed by a stepfather, but it wasn't a hit. Dakota resumed her schooling and waited several years before she decided to become a professional actress and model. In 2006, she was voted Miss Golden Globe, a launching pad bestowed on off-spring of famous parents. She served as the first second-generation Miss Golden Globe in the Globes' history. She also signed with IMG Models. In 2009, she modeled for MANGO brand's jeans line. Dakota traveled to Sydney, Australia, where she shot the "Rising Star" campaign for fashion label, "Wish". Once she graduated from high school, she signed with the William Morris Agency and started her acting career. She had her first box office hit in 2010 with David Fincher's film, The Social Network (2010), in which she had a scene with Justin Timberlake. The film received eight Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. She also appeared in three additional films: Beastly (2011), alongside Vanessa Hudgens and Mary-Kate Olsen; Ezna Sands' film, Chloe & Theo (2015); and So Yong Kim's film, For Ellen (2012); She had roles in several 2012 films: Christopher Neil's film, Goats (2012), with David Duchovny; Nicholas Stoller's film, The Five-Year Engagement (2012), for producer Judd Apatow, and the hit feature film version of the 1987 television show, 21 Jump Street (1987) that made Johnny Depp a star. She also won the female lead in Chris Nelson's, film Date and Switch (2014), written by Alan Yang. Her first television show, Ben and Kate (2012), where she played "Kate", aired on Fox during the Fall 2012 season. It was canceled in 2013, and she quickly resumed her feature film career with three high-profile films: Need for Speed (2014), Cymbeline (2014), the modern-day adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, "Cymbeline", and the starring role of "Anastasia Steele" in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), the adaptation of the best-selling erotic novel, "Fifty Shades of Grey". She beat out many young actresses for the coveted role of Anastasia, and the film became a worldwide hit, making her a star. She won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress for "Fifty Shades of Grey". She also starred in the two sequels to the hit film. She has continued to seek challenging roles, such as of a young mother who loses her son in Black Mass (2015) opposite her "21 Jump Street" castmate Johnny Depp, and of a temptress in A Bigger Splash (2015). She has balanced her dramatic career by doing comedies as well, such as How to Be Single (2016). She acted in the hit independent film The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019). She co-produced some of the films that she acted in: Am I OK? (2022) (where she played a lesbian); Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) (where she played mother to an autistic daughter); and Daddio (2023) (where she and Sean Penn are the only two principal actors in the entire film). She won good notices for playing a mother looking for her lost daughter in The Lost Daughter (2021), a film that received several Oscar nominations. She played the title role in the Marvel-adventure Madame Web (2024) and in the period film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Persuasion (2022), both films directed by first time women film directors. She also became the first female member of her family when she turned director by co-directing the music video to the song "Cry Cry Cry" by the band Coldplay

Trivia

  • As a child, she acted in Crazy in Alabama (1999), but she wasn't allowed to act again until several years later, after she graduated from high school.
  • Landed the coveted role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), the film adaptation of the best-selling erotic novel, by reading a long, sexually-explicit monologue from the Ingmar Bergman film Persona (1966). It was an unconventional choice for an audition piece, but Johnson felt that the filmmakers were looking for a leading lady who would address the sexy material in a mature, direct manner. When she advanced to screen testing she re-enacted the first and last chapters of the book with co-star Jamie Dornan.
  • She is an animal rights activist; she saved 12 horses from being killed in 2014 by paying for them.
  • She did not use a body double for any scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) except for one BDSM scene. A double was used for a scene involving her character Anastasia being whipped with a belt. Johnson did not want to participate in the scene to avoid personal injury and to avoid her body being marked in any way.
  • She reportedly beat out Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, Shailene Woodley, Lucy Hale, Chloe Bridges, Felicity Jones, Kristen Stewart, and her Need for Speed (2014) co-star Imogen Poots to land the role of Anastasia in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015).