A decade after production fifty shades of gray, Sam Taylor Johnson‘s perspective remains anything but.
The director opened up about how difficult the experience was in a new interview The Hollywood ReporterHe told the magazine: “The success was great, but the experience was hard.”
From Taylor-Johnson’s perspective, the resulting challenges arose from her conflicting viewpoint with EL James, author of the blockbuster book series on which the film trilogy is based.
“This was her book and she had a very specific idea of how she wanted this film to look,” Taylor-Johnson explains. “And I had a diametrically opposite vision. We got to where we got to.”
Taylor-Johnson directed episodes of the series Gypsiesas well as A million little pieces – based on James Frey’s 2003 book – and the upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to black. However, according to her Fifty shades Experience didn’t make it easy to continue directing. “It took me about four years to regain my confidence and composure,” she says THR. “I will be an artist again where I can make all my own decisions, answer myself and present something I have created to the world.”
This is not the first time she has expressed such feelings. During an interview with THR back in 2017Taylor-Johnson referenced the “Touch” experience, again citing her and James’ “opposite” creative visions.
“Every scene was competitive. It was hard. “It was like wading uphill through sticky tar,” she described at the time. “Their thing was, ‘This is what the fans expect.’ I would say, ‘Well, let’s try to achieve these goals but at the same time create a new universe.'”
While James Foley directed the two sequels, Fifty shades darker And Fifty Shades freedTaylor Johnson said THR At the time, she had difficulty getting job offers fifty shades of gray It earned more than $500 million at the box office.
“There was no full throttle [job] “I made offers straight away,” she revealed. “It damaged me, which maybe wasn’t a bad thing.” At the same time, I thought, “Oh, I still have something to fight for.” I just thought it would get a lot easier.
Dakota Johnsonthe franchise’s lead actor as Anastasia Steele, echoed some of Taylor-Johnson’s pain points years later in a headline-grabbing interview with Taylor-Johnson Vanity Fair.
By James, Johnson told the magazine“She had a lot of creative control all day, every day, and just demanded certain things happen… There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie, like the inner monologue that was.” Sometimes it was unbelievable cheesy to say it out loud.
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