Dakota Johnson Shares the Hilarious Way She Prepares for Sex Scenes
Dakota Johnson is opening up about her experience filming sex scenes.
On a recent episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler, the Materialists actress got down to the nitty gritty. When Poehler asked how she 'psyches herself up' to film bedroom scenes, Johnson cheekily responded, 'Amy, I don't have to. I'm always psyched up for sex. Let's go to pound town.'
She then spoke about a movie she shot a few months ago where she worked with an intimacy coordinator for the first time. 'She was really great,' she said. 'It was so cool because I'm so used to just… It's a sex scene. It's not sexy. It doesn't feel good.'
She continued to share that preparing for sex scenes differs from role to role. 'First, it depends on who the character is and who the character's supposed to be to the audience,' she said. 'Is she like a super idolized hot girl? Is she a housewife? Is she lonely? Is she scared? Is she conservative? That's obviously character work.'
Johnson also noted that confidence is key. 'I want to feel good in my body if I'm showing my body,' she said. She credited her mom, actress Melanie Griffith, for building her confidence.
'My mom raised me to be really proud of my body and love my body,' she said. 'So I've always felt so grateful for that, especially in my work because I can use it and it feels real.'
Poehler then asked her how Griffith did that, because so many mothers want to know how they can do the same for their daughters. 'It was the way she spoke about it with me. And she was very honest and open about body stuff, like getting my period. She was really good about it. I have friends whose mothers never spoke to them about that stuff. And it's so hard and sad.'
She continued, 'She also talked to me about sex and how precious and important [it is]. So I guess, in my work, it's something I feel brave with.'
Watch the full podcast episode here.
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Nearly every line in the film's ferociously hilarious first hour is like Jane Austen reborn as a shock jock, until Song runs out of material and starts repeating herself. Love should be simple, 'Materialists' believes. It opens (and closes) with an ideal couple: two cave people who pledge their commitment with a fistful of daisies. Unknown millennia later, you'll spot dried daisies on Lucy's dresser, along with more exotic blossoms and puffs and powders that show how overly elaborate courtship has become. Those primitive sweethearts couldn't imagine the need for a shepherd to steer every step of their relationship. What are they, troglodytes? Well, Lucy's 21st century clients are. The requirements they foist on her are superficial and soul-crushing (and the bit players who deliver them are hilarious). New York City, with its high concentration of Wall Street finance bros, is a perfect setting to caricature people who score their dates on a spreadsheet. 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For balance, there's also a scene where Lucy and John stand so close to each other without touching that their chemistry is suffocating. A friend recently gave me a book of the first-ever newspaper advice columns from the 1690s. One questioner asked, 'Are most marriages in this age made for money?' The response was curt: 'Both in this age and in all others.' Fair enough, but in our age, it's refreshing to hear someone admit it. Which makes it a shame when Song feels compelled to slap on a happy ending that you simply don't think she believes. Two films into her career, she still writes scenes better than full scripts. For the sake of one great moment, she'll ask us to forget all the other ones it obliterates. Here, she literally follows up an argument about the impossibility of finding parking in Manhattan by cutting to a shot of the same people in the same car magically pulling up to a spot in front of Lucy's apartment. That's a silly example, but a more pointed one would give away the plot. The final stretch is so absurd that I turned into a jilted lover who kept score of every minor sin to vindicate why the film had broken my trust. I even got ticked off at the clothes Lucy packs for a trip to Iceland. Maybe on her third film, Song will tell us what she really thinks for the full running time. I respect how she writes women who fear that their hearts run too cold to ever feel truly fulfilled. As Pascal's Harry might say, her blunt and brutal parts have a special appeal. Exiting the film, I had the same surge of feeling I did after 'Past Lives.' I wanted to drag Song straight to a couple's therapist and say: I want to commit, but she cheats.
