It’s been 10 years since Fifty Shades of Grey graced the silver screen. From Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan’s offscreen dynamic to the stars that were almost cast, these secrets will shock you.
In the decade since the phrase “fifty shades of f–ked up” entered the public lexicon, rumors surrounding Fifty Shades of Grey’s behind-the-scenes drama have only intensified.
Even as those involved have attempted to set the record straight. For instance, for years there were rumblings that stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were at odds while filming the 2015 movie—based on the E.L. James novel—and its two sequels. However, looking back on that time, the Madame Web alum has noted that in truth, the source of the tension was the author (real name Erika Mitchell) and creative team’s struggles to get on the same page.
“There were a lot of different disagreements,” Johnson told Vanity Fair in 2022. “We’d do the takes of the movie that Erika wanted to make, and then we would do the takes of the movie that we wanted to make.”
Hindsight being 20/20, she admitted, “If I had known what it was going to be like, I don’t think anyone would’ve done it. It would’ve been like, ‘Oh, this is psychotic.’”
But she has no regrets working on the films—after all, it bonded her for life with Dornan.
“There was never a time when we didn’t get along,” she said. “I know it’s weird, but he’s like a brother to me. I love him so, so, so much. And we were really there for each other. We had to really trust each other and protect each other.”
Dornan has also defended his and Johnson’s work on the sexy saga amid ridicule from critics.
“But I take issue with the whole thing just being a bit of a joke,” Dornan—who shares three daughters with wife Amelia Warner—emphasized to British GQ in 2021. “Everyone involved worked as hard as they could on those films, including myself.”
In the years since the final installment, Fifty Shades Freed, was released, the Fall star and Johnson have made it clear they’ve remained close friends with each other and their partners. (Johnson has been dating Coldplay’s Chris Martin for seven years.)
“I was just texting with her a couple days ago,” Dornan told U.K.’s Metro last July. “I think she’s London bound a wee bit over the next few weeks so trying to see her and Chris for dinner.”
The truth of the costars’ dynamic is one of the most-talked-about aspects of the series. A decade down the line, we’re reflecting on the steamiest behind-the-scenes rumors.
Come into our playroom, these Fifty Shades of Grey secrets will see you now…
American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis tweeted in June 2012, “I’m putting myself out there to write the movie adaptation of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’…” And he meant it, publicly lobbying via Twitter and telling whomever would listen that he wanted to adapt E.L. James‘ book for the big screen.
“I read the book out of curiosity. If it had not been as big of a hit, I would not have picked it up,” Ellis later told Vanity Fair. “I realized, Oh, this isn’t well written. It isn’t a good book. But this is a really good story, and it would make a really good movie.”
Instead, Universal’s Focus Features went with Kelly Marcel, who had penned the screenplay for Saving Mr. Banks—about Walt Disney’s struggle to get Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers to let him make a movie about her magical nanny. The Wolverine scribe Mark Bomback was brought in to polish the Fifty Shades script in late October 2013.
“I had never been on a project with that much secrecy around it,” Bomback later told The Hollywood Reporter about the experience. “The set was on lockdown, and it was just really fascinating.”
American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis tweeted in June 2012, “I’m putting myself out there to write the movie adaptation of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’…” And he meant it, publicly lobbying via Twitter and telling whomever would listen that he wanted to adapt E.L. James‘ book for the big screen.
“I read the book out of curiosity. If it had not been as big of a hit, I would not have picked it up,” Ellis later told Vanity Fair. “I realized, Oh, this isn’t well written. It isn’t a good book. But this is a really good story, and it would make a really good movie.”
Instead, Universal’s Focus Features went with Kelly Marcel, who had penned the screenplay for Saving Mr. Banks—about Walt Disney’s struggle to get Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers to let him make a movie about her magical nanny. The Wolverine scribe Mark Bomback was brought in to polish the Fifty Shades script in late October 2013.
“I had never been on a project with that much secrecy around it,” Bomback later told The Hollywood Reporter about the experience. “The set was on lockdown, and it was just really fascinating.”
Casting rumors ran rampant as to who would play Christian and Ana (Matt Bomer was flattered; Emma Watson was not; Taylor-Johnson wanted Robert Pattinson), but Charlie Hunnam really was planning to make the film his next big project after Sons of Anarchy ended.
“There are so many fans of that book and I know that on the surface, I’m probably not what everybody imagined,” the British actor told Entertainment Weekly in October 2013. “Because reading is so personal and people bring a character to life in their imagination, they feel ownership over that character.”
He added, “That’s daunting if I allowed myself to think about it too much. I’m taking it very seriously and intend to explore the nature of who this character is, what motivates him—and also dress up nice and look good in those suits.”
Days later, he exited the project, officially due to a scheduling conflict but reportedly due to creative differences with the film’s creative team, including Taylor-Johnson, as well as second thoughts about whether it was the right career move for him.
Young actresses ranging from Shailene Woodley and Elizabeth Olsen to Alicia Vikander and Felicity Jones were said to be in the running, but once Dakota Johnson landed the role of Ana, she kept it.
“She’s just so Anastasia Steele. She’s the best partner a producer could have,” De Luca told E! News, calling Johnson “our rock.” He said that the actress was “helping us look through the candidates [to play Christian] to see which chemistry kind of captures our attention.”
About two weeks after Hunnam’s exit, Jamie Dornan officially signed on. A source told E! News that the Belfast-born actor, best known then for ABC’s Once Upon a Time, “had a really good read” at his audition, but as far as chemistry with his leading lady, “the studio isn’t worried about Dakota. They think she could handle whoever the guy is.”
“I’m sure he’ll do a great job,” Hunnam told TMZ in passing.
Originally scheduled to start in November, principal photography was pushed back a month as they got their casting ducks in a row.
Cameras finally started rolling on Dec. 2, 2013, with Vancouver, British Columbia, standing in for Seattle.
“The release date is preserved and we’re gonna kind of keep going,” De Luca also said that October, days before the film’s release date was changed from Aug. 1, 2014, to Feb. 13, 2015.
Dornan’s wife, Amelia Warner, was about 8 months pregnant with their first child when he was cast as Christian, but she packed up and moved to Vancouver, where daughter Dulcie was born on Nov. 21, 2013.
“Then Jamie had a brand-new baby the first week of shooting,” Taylor-Johnson recalled to Vanity Fair.
To make everything as comfortable as possible for Johnson and Dornan during the sex scenes, Taylor-Johnson tried to downsize the crew in the room as much as possible.
“I didn’t want [Dakota or Jamie] to have to come re-shoot those kinds of scenes,” the director told Vanity Fair.
“It was a closed set, and so we couldn’t be there for those very intimate scenes…but so much of the movie turns on those intimate scenes,” producer De Luca explained. “We’d be in our trailers, but [the actors] were miked, and we had cans—you know, headphones—but I actually got shy from listening. There was something about not being there and having the audio that made us feel like peeping listeners, and so we all put them down.”
James legendarily wanted as many scenes as possible to play out exactly as she’d written them, but Taylor-Johnson focused on “details, flesh and fingers and skin and eyes and looks.” She felt if they showed too much “the mystery would be gone. You see a lot, but you don’t have to see anything graphic.”
The first trailer was going to go viral anyway, but it didn’t hurt to have a slowed-down version of Beyoncé‘s “Crazy in Love” setting the mood.
“Obviously I know how ‘Crazy in Love’ goes, but I knew there was the possibility her vocals would be different,” violinist and recording artist Margot told TIME. “It’s almost more vulnerable and beautiful this way, because you do do crazy things when you fall in love. To hear the mood reversed and flipped makes it even more powerful.”
Ellie Goulding‘s “Love Me Like You Do” was made specifically for this soundtrack and was nominated for two Grammys and a Golden Globe—but the Oscar nomination went to The Weeknd‘s “Earned It” (which in turn lost to the latest Bond tune, Sam Smith‘s “Writing’s on the Wall,” from Spectre).
Who wants a fantasy when you could have feud rumors?
“Look, people are going to say that because it’s a story and people like to create a little bit of hype leading up to the film,” Dornan told E! News at Fifty Shades of Grey‘s London premiere. “It’s an obvious story to come up with, you know, if I was into the world of coming up with fake stories I’d maybe start to do that on a blog.”
He quickly added, “No, I would never become that person, but I understand it. It creates a bit of…whatever.”
13. Reviews Are In
The reviews ranged from middling to savage to hilarious, but the movie was a blockbuster, raking in $570 million worldwide on a reported $40 million budget. The sequels, both directed by James Foley, made $381 million and $372 million respectively.
14. Box Office Debut
Its $85 million opening weekend held the record for the highest U.S. opening for a female director until Patty Jenkins‘ Wonder Woman opened with $103 million in 2017.
Taylor-Johnson didn’t return to the franchise, at least in part due to her problems working with James—who exercised as much creative control as she could, even bringing in her husband, Niall Leonard, to write the script for the sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.
“We would have proper on-set barneys,” Taylor-Johnson recalled to Porter magazine in 2015. “I’m not confrontational, but it was about finding a way between the two of us, satisfying her vision of what she’d written as well as my need to visualize this person on screen.”
She also told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 that James “would be the first to say as well that it was not easy. It was not easy. But we got there. I think both of us felt it was an incredibly painful process.” James said in an appearance on MSNBC that “people are going to butt heads, and that is exactly what happened.”
Opening up to the Sunday Times magazine in 2017, Taylor-Johnson said she didn’t regret doing the film, per se, “because that would just finish me off. With the benefit of hindsight would I go through it again? Of course I wouldn’t. I’d be mad.”
She continued, “I like everyone, and I get really confused when they don’t like me. I was so confused by EL James. I don’t understand when I can’t navigate a person, when there’s no synergy.”
Source: www.eonline.com