The Onion's Exclusive Interview With Dakota Johnson
Dakota Johnson stars in Materialists , a new romance from director Celine Song. The Onion sat down with the actress to discuss love, ambition, and what's next.
The Onion : What drew you to Materialists ?
Johnson: I wanted a free trip to New York City. I'd never been before. It's cute.
The Onion : What was it like working with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans?
Johnson: Tough. They kept getting into the trash. You can clap your hands really loudly or try a spray, but face it: If they want to get in, they'll get in.
The Onion : Last year, you launched an online book club. What book are you reading now?
Johnson: We finished them all! We have moved on to songs.
The Onion : How do you prepare for a typical role?
Johnson: I practice looking directly at people while simultaneously looking past them.
The Onion: What's in your purse?
Johnson: More bangs.
The Onion : How do you deal with the accusations that you wouldn't be where you are today if it wasn't for your famous family?
Johnson: Whenever someone says something like that, I kill one of my parents.
The Onion : It's been 10 years since Fifty Shades Of Grey came out. What message do you hope people took from that film?
Johnson: That sex is immoral and disgusting.
The Onion : What's next for you?
Johnson: I'm trying to learn 'walk the dog' on my yo-yo.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
At The Box Office: ‘Materialists'
COLCHESTER, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) – This week on 'At The Box Office' film critic Julia Swift discussed 'Materialists', which is about a matchmaker stuck between two love interests. Swift said that the movie 'comes off as more of a pretty typical romantic comedy' without looking down on the genre. Still, the movie has hidden depth that Swift found enjoyable. She also highlighted the film's director, Celine Song, who reportedly wrote this film based on her time as a matchmaker in NYC. Dakota Johnson, who plays the titular matchmaker, 'always plays the same character,' according to Swift. While she would have loved to see a different actor portray that character, she praised Chris Evans and his performance. Pedro Pascal also stars along side them in this movie. Overall, there is 'so much to enjoy.' Anyone interested can catch 'Materialists' in theatres. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
‘Materialists' Filmmaker Celine Song On Love And Her ‘Incredible' Cast
She might have only two feature films under her belt so far, but cinematic storyteller Celine Song has already made a lasting impression in Hollywood and with moviegoers everywhere. Following the success of her breakout 2023 film Past Lives, with Oscar nominations for her Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for the A24 film, Song, 36, has now brought another story about love to the big screen with Materialists. Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in "Materialists" A24 Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, Materialists centers around Lucy, a successful matchmaker in New York City, who begins to question her work practices and her overall outlook on what love actually means. Sitting down with the writer, director and producer on Zoom, I first wondered how this modern Materialists story about dating, romance and love initially came about for Song. 'So, I worked as a matchmaker for six months. I did that as a day job because I couldn't afford to pay rent being a playwright. So, I actually needed to make some money and this was kind of the only job that I could get, because of course in New York City, to be a barista, you need 10 years of barista experience. I couldn't get any of these other day jobs that my other playwrights were getting. So, I was looking for something and this is something that a friend of mine, I learned, was doing. I applied for the job and I got it. I only did it for six months, because the truth is that I was having too much fun doing it. It's an amazing experience. I feel like I learned more in those six months than I did in any other part of my life, because people are very, very honest with their matchmaker. It's a little different than talking to a therapist, where you are intentionally talking about intangible. You're talking about the things that are going on in your heart and your mind - that's what you're talking to your therapist about - but a matchmaker, you talk about the asset that you would like to acquire, which is a boyfriend or a girlfriend. The way that people will talk about the partner for life that they're looking for, it would be in numbers, but the truth is that I also knew that's just not what love feels like. It just has nothing to do with what love is. I wish it was, so that we can all gain it - the way that we're gaming everything else in life, but the love is an ancient feeling and it's one of the great mysteries that have been with us forever' When the Materialists trailer premiered to the public earlier this year, people were immediately struck by the nostalgic vibe of its storytelling teaser - with a comforting charm that moviegoers had come to know from romantic comedies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So, was the trailer cut Song's idea or her film distributor, A24? Song said, 'It's kind of like that would always be the thing that would guide the tone, or the way that I wanted to make it or how real I wanted it to be. What's amazing about those [earlier rom com] She added: 'A24, my favorite part and what I really love so much about working with them is always that they listen to the filmmaker about what the movie is. I can say all those things and then the studio can take it and not believe a word I say - but when they actually listen. They believe that the filmmaker knows the movie better than anybody else, which is a fact. I'm the person who has worked on it the longest, know it the deepest and I know every single person who worked on it. I'm the only person who knows the guys who drive the trucks on it and also the actors. I know everybody in the studio. I know what it was like when I was sitting in my room looking at my final draft, just typing away, dreaming about this movie. [A24] will always believe me when I say this is what the movie is.' Coming off of her filming Past Lives, I was curious what Song might have taken from that experiences and brought to her filming with Materialists next. 'Well, I wish that it worked that way, where I was like building it from that place - but the truth is that, in both cases, I'm just telling the story that I want to tell. Honestly, it's just purely that I didn't know how to make a movie before I made Past Lives, and Materialists is lucky because as a film, it's being made by somebody who has made a movie before. So, I think that I brought everything I know about filmmaking. So to me, it's just a step forward as a filmmaker, more than it being something like that. It's so fundamentally a step forward, just in terms of like the craft of it or like what I get interested in it and what I want to achieve. I wrote the script for Materialists before Past Lives came out. So, there was no way for me to know.' Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in "Materialists" A24 Song added: 'So to me, it's like Materialists wasn't like a response to Past Lives, as much as it is another first movie in a way. By the time that I was making Materialists, I knew how to do prep for production or post-production. Also, I could get more ambitious doing it because I knew more.' When it came to her Materialists stars Johnson, Evans and Pascal, Song has nothing but praise to say about her film's actors, not only as professionals, but as collaborators and fellow humans. Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans in "Materialists" A24 'I think it's so clear just how incredible they are and how amazing they are. It's always a very intimate relationship that I have with my actors, because we're often talking about - at least in the two movies I made - is we're talking about love, connection, empathy. What we have is what they're able to convey with their performance - what they're going through as characters. So, we get really deep into the character and we often meet somewhere in the character, and in doing so, I think we get really close. So, I got really close to all of them and I love them. I'm so happy that they're the ones who are making this movie with me. They showed up with such a deep understanding of their characters.' Being the leading filmmaker on this Materialists project, I wondered what it means to Song to have such agency over her work and becoming such a strong force in Hollywood today. Song said, 'I feel like it's something that is quite true and it's something that I know is being protected so beautifully by my studio, first of all, which is that it's the belief that I'm the person who understands and knows my movie the best. If you don't believe in me, if you don't want to take the leap of faith on me, then I don't know what they want to take the leap of faith on. That's what I feel. So, I think maybe that's the only thing I can do. There would be so many moments [on-set] where Dakota would just look at me and she would say, 'It's going to be amazing.' It's faith.' Coming off of her experiences thus far in her career, I was curious of the advice that Song has for other creatives, who have a good idea for film or for television, but do not know how to effectively get it off the ground. 'I would say write the script. I've always found that the way into convincing somebody to make something is to write the script. It'd be so much easier if we didn't have to write the script. Writing is so hard - it's so hard and frustrating and annoying and takes a lot of time. I wish that we didn't have to write anything and still get to be a filmmaker. You write a script and then you show it to somebody that will be so jazzed about it. The only way that's going to happen is if you yourself are jazzed about it.' While concluding my conversation with Song, I wondered what the Materialists filmmaker would say to her main characters Lucy, John and Harry within this cinematic universe. After seeing their intertwining stories from the outside in, what does she feel they need to hear most about love and dating? Song said, 'I think the thing is they all get told what I want to say to them in the movie. I feel like that's the truth. I think they are all told what they need to hear in the movie. It's very hard to hold onto hope, that love is possible, even more than being able to get a guy who is, you know, six feet tall and makes this much money. It feels like it's easier to try to get that right, than to fall in love - but what I believe is that everyone will be able to fall in love. It's actually entirely a possibility, believe it or not. It's very hard to believe, but it is true. I believe in it for all of them. I believe that every single character in the film will fall in love. I can't tell them what the specs of that person is going to be, but I can tell you that you will fall in love and that is going to happen. That is completely a possible thing, even though it feels impossible, at times.'
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
‘Materialists' Reviews: Do Critics Love Dakota Johnson's Romantic Comedy?
Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in "Materialists." A24 Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans' Materialists is now in theaters. Are critics falling for the film or suggesting that viewers don't make it a date? Rated R, Materialists is written and directed by Past Lives Oscar-nominated filmmaker Celine Song. The logline for Materials reads, 'A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.' Johnson stars as the matchmaker Lucy, in Materialists, while Pascal plays Harry, a wealthy financier and potential perfect match. Evans plays John, Lucy's ex-boyfriend. Materialists opens in theaters in wide release on Friday. Rotten Tomatoes critics to date have given Materialists an 87% 'fresh' rating based on 101 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for the film reads, 'A mature deconstruction of the conventional rom-com, Materialists provides its trio of swoon-worthy stars some of their meatiest material yet while reaffirming Celine Song as a modern master of relationship dramas.' Materialists also currently has a 78% 'fresh' Popcornmeter score on RT based on 100-plus verified user ratings. The RT audience summary is still pending. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post is among the top critics on RT who gives Materialists a 'fresh' rating on RT, writing how the film 'marks the emergence of a new genre: the rom-con, not in the sense that it's against the vicarious pleasures of flirting, seduction and finally finding true love, but that it's painfully aware of the coldhearted calculation that so often lies beneath.' Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair also gives Materialists a 'fresh' rating on RT, writing in his summary, 'Materialists is successfully seductive, eventually revealing a few potential deal-breakers but otherwise proving an engaging date. I wanted to fall in love, as I had with Past Lives. But a diverting, heady fling will do too.' Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal also gives the film a 'fresh' review on RT, although he notes some reservations, writing, 'Though Materialists only partially delivers on its promise, is only occasionally funny, and has little to say that's new, Ms. Song and her cast put enough feeling into it to make it glow.' Among the top critics on RT who give Materialists a 'rotten' review is Odie Henderson of the Boston Globe, who writes, 'You are being misled by the marketing of Materialists. The new film by writer-director Celine Song is being pitched to you as a light romantic comedy and date movie, which it most decidedly is not.' Justin Chang of The New Yorker also gives the film a 'rotten' review on RT, writing, 'I don't buy it, Jane Austen wouldn't buy it, and deep down I don't think [Celine] Song buys it. In attempting to merge escapist pleasures with financial realities, Materialists trips up on its own high-mindedness.' The Globe and Mail's Saffron Maeve also gives the film a 'rotten' review on RT, noting, 'Materialists is, at best, genre confused and, at worst, negligent to its own ideological position — a stiff, reluctant rom-com that cannot square the footloose idealism of its predecessors with the terrifying realities of today's dating pool.' Materialists is opening in theaters Friday in wide release.
