Dakota Johnson, star of Fifty Shades of Grey, on what it’s like to lose your screen virginity in an erotically-charged romance

FIFTY Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson reveals why she signed up to the controversial film, and how she felt losing her screen virginity in it.

CHRISTIAN Grey’s headline-grabbing sexual predilections are really the least of Dakota Johnson’s problems.

As a third-generation actress trying to make a name for yourself in Hollywood, it’s hard enough to get the suits to take you seriously.

Add the prejudices, preconceptions — and fervid fan commentary — that are part and parcel of any screen adaptation of a book as infamous as Fifty Shades Of Grey, and you are talking about a degree of difficulty that would make most people quake in their boots.

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Unapologetic ... Dakota Johnson. Picture: Supplied

Interviewing Johnson about her first lead feature film role — as Anastasia Steele, the virginal college graduate who experiences her sexual awakening at the hands of the handsome, filthy rich, bondage and discipline-oriented Christian Grey — it’s tempting to ask her WHAT ON EARTH SHE WAS THINKING.

The late French actress Maria Schneider, who was only 19 when Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci cast her as the free-spirited Jeanne in Last Tango In Paris, spent years trying to move beyond the role and the notoriety that came with it.

“I wanted to be recognised as an actress and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy,” Schneider told London’s Daily Mail 2007.

Johnson, perhaps unsurprisingly, defends the 1972 classic.

“Last Tango In Paris is one of the best movies of all time,’’ she says.

“I completely understand looking back on something and having some regrets but maybe the only reason she felt that was because of the judgement she received from people who were perhaps more close minded than other people.”

Risk-taking behaviour ... Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey.

Maybe so. But a long list of actresses, including Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) and Kim Basinger (Nine 1/2 weeks), have found the provocative sex symbol image extraordinarily difficult to shake.

Up till this point, Johnson, 25, has made a name for herself with small roles in big films such as The Five-Year Engagement, 21 Jump Street and The Social Network.

Her TV comedy, Ben & Kate, built up a small but dedicated following before being dropped by Fox after 16 episodes after it failed to find a broader audience.

Surely 85-year-old grandmother Tippi Hedren, who made her big screen debut in 1963 in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds would have been urging her towards an alternative, more conservative career path.

Didn’t Melanie Griffith, who has had her fair share of unwelcome media attention in the past, offer her tuppenceworth when her daughter was weighing up the pros and cons of taking the part?

“Sometimes she offers me advice,’’ says Johnson. “But she also lets me figure things out for myself.”

Friendly fire ... Johnson and Dornan at the Golden Globe Awards.

In her interviews to promote Fifty Shades of Grey, Johnson has come across as guarded, even taciturn. Her clipped responses might well be explained by the rumours of an unhappy set, on which author E.L. James, who had unprecedented control as a producer of the film, reportedly clashed with director Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Many column centimetres have also been devoted to the perceived lack of screen chemistry between Johnson and co-star Jamie Dornan, with some commentators going so far as to suggest that the pair actually can’t stand each other.

Johnson’s testiness, however, could just as well be attributed to plain old-fashioned nerves in the lead-up to a hotly-anticipated film release that has already polarised commentators and fans alike.

“Honestly, I don’t think anyone can prepare themselves for that sort of attention,’’ says Johnson.

“I think you just have to try and deal with it with as much grace and honour as possible.”

And Johnson is doing exactly that.

Having seen her parents grapple with celebrity, the actress is perhaps better prepared than the average first-timer.

Family business ... Johnson and Griffith at the Carousel of Hope 30th Anniversary Ball in Beverly Hills in 2008. Picture: AP/Dan Steinberg

“It does help to a certain extent but it’s one thing to watch your family member go through it — there were times when things were scary with my parents and media. It’s different when it’s you.”

And of course, in the post-social media landscape, much of Don, Melanie and former stepfather Antonio Banderas’s advice would now be out of date.

Johnson has revealed in the past that the media attention that surrounded her family, particularly when her parents were battling personal problems, affected her as a teenager. At 17, she checked herself into rehab to tackle the fallout.

That counselling stint might well have provided some solid psychological tools to help her with her current challenges.

“Like all life experiences, you learn from them and then you move on.”

Equal opportunity employer ... A scene from Fifty Shades of Grey.

Johnson says she did, of course, consider the potential consequences of playing the lead in an erotically-charged film before she signed up for the job.

“But I feel like you just can’t go into a project wondering if you are going to be exploited.

“If the material is fascinating, and the people are good creative people, then there is no reason not to do it.

“I was intrigued by the arc of the character and the story itself is fairly magical I think.

“The time in a woman’s life when she loses her virginity is a really profound and intimate moment. (Anastasia) becomes a woman in this first film and begins to understand parts of herself that she didn’t know existed.”

In Fifty Shades Of Grey, of course, that discovery is set against the sexual backdrop of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism (BDSM for short.)

“That content was equally intriguing because I didn’t know anything about the details of BDSM subculture. I didn’t even know how massive it is,” says Johnson.

It helped to know she had a female director — Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) — at the helm.

Surprise package ... Johnson says audiences will relate to the characters.

“Absolutely. I felt very safe and protected with Sam. And she has such a wonderful vision and she is such an incredible artist and director that it was very comforting.”

Taylor-Johnson has said that unlike her male predecessors, she has tried to be very equal opportunity with the nudity — “a nipple from Anastasia, a butt cheek from Christian.”

Some critics of the book have described the naive, submissive Anastasia as a pre-feminist throwback.

“I think it’s an uneducated point of view,’’ says Johnson primly. “This film is made by women. For women and men.

“I think people will be pleasantly surprised. I think they will be able to relate to the characters. It’s a love story ultimately.”

According to the actress, there is no truth to reports that her father and grandmother were upset about her choice of material.

Proud ... Don Johnson and wife Kelley Phleger, left, with Dakota Johnson, at the premiere of Django Unchained in New York in 2012.

“No, they are very proud and happy for me.”

But her recent comments in Glamour magazine suggest that things are a little more complicated than that.

“I don’t want my family to see [the movie], because it’s inappropriate. Or my brothers’ friends, who I grew up with. I think they’d be like, ‘Blegh.’ Also there’s part of me that’s like, I don’t want anyone to see this movie. Just kidding.”

Intimacy issues ... Dornan and Johnson in a scene from the film.

Despite her protestations to the contrary, Johnson is clearly keenly aware that her future career doesn’t rest entirely on her acting performance in Fifty Shades Of Grey.

The response of casting agents, even more than the critics, will be a good test of just how much has changed in the gender stakes since Last Tango In Paris. Or even Basic Instinct, which was released 20 years later.

SEE Fifty Shades Of Grey opens today.

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Originally published as Dakota Johnson, star of Fifty Shades of Grey, on what it’s like to lose your screen virginity in an erotically-charged romance