Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James and Sam Taylor-Johnson clashed over sex scenes for the film

FIFTY Shades author and the film’s director clashed over the amount of S&M on-screen. How much sex was enough?

Sex sells ... Will there be enough sex in Fifty Shades of Grey the movie. Picture: YouTube

FIFTY Shades of Grey author EL James clashed with the film’s director Sam Taylor-Johnson over S&M sex scenes and the creative direction for the steamy film.

“It was difficult, I’m not going to lie,” Taylor-Johnson tells Porter magazine of her fraught relationship with James. “We definitely fought, but they were creative fights, and we would resolve them. We would have proper onset ‘barneys,’ and 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 visualise this person on-screen, but, you know, we got there.”

Christian Grey ... Jamie Dornan had to learn all about being a dominator. Picture: Supplied

Vanity Fair reported in its February issue that Taylor-Johnson and James had differences of opinion over the filming of sex scenes involving whips and other bondage apparatuses between leading man Christian Grey (played by Jamie Dornan) and lead actor Dakota Johnson.

Lots to learn ... Fifty Shades of Grey stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. Picture: Supplied.

The New York Post reports that onset dominatrixes helped the actors and director, according to Taylor-Johnson. “Jamie had an onset dominatrix to show him how it all worked, and I had a female dominatrix who helped me enhance my understanding,” she said.

Red room ... How much sex is too much sex in a Hollywood movie. Picture: Supplied

Viewers will experience 20 minutes of sex scenes in the film, out on Valentine’s Day weekend, which equals one-fifth of the 100-minute movie — which means there’s much less sex than in James’ book. But Taylor-Johnson said it won’t be “Fifty Shades of Vanilla.”

“It’s a Hollywood movie, but it’s going to be extreme for that world,” she told Porter, which is on newsstands Friday. “It’s going to be pretty sexually explicit because, let’s face it, we know what this book is about. It’s a sexual journey.”