Dakota Johnson is no stranger to showbiz, being the daughter of stars Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Johnson would make a name for herself starring in films like the 50 Shades series, Suspiria, How to Be Single, Black Mass and more. As a “nepo baby,” the actress isn’t shy about speaking out against the studio system. Last year, she outlined how things were bleak with streamers. “The people who run streaming platforms don’t trust creative people or artists to know what’s going to work, and that is just going to make us implode,” she continued. “It’s really heartbreaking. It’s just f*cking so hard. It’s so hard to get anything made. All of the stuff I’m interested in making is really different, and it’s unique and it’s very forward in whatever it is.” Johnson is starring in the new Celine Song film Materialists, which has been advertised by A24 as a throwback romantic comedy. However, there may be more than meets the eye with the film, according to our Chris Bumbray’s review. According to THR, while doing press for Materialists, Johnson appeared on Hot Ones — the show with hot questions and even hotter wings. Host Sean Evans asked a burning question to Johnson about why she feels “Hollywood is so risk-averse” after seeing the studio system “up close and personal.” Johnson answered,
I think it’s hard when creative decisions are made by committee and it’s hard when creative decisions are made by people who don’t even really watch movies or know anything about them, and that tends to be what’s occurring a lot.”
She continues to say,
When something does well, studios want to keep that going so they remake the same things, but humans don’t want that. They want fresh, they want to feel new things, experience new things, see new things, so I don’t know, I guess it’s all just a bit of a mess right now, isn’t it?”
The Fifty Shades of Grey star recently experienced a project that audiences felt embodied some of the most questionable creative decisions with the film Madam Web. Johnson threw Sony under the bus for their attempted Spider-Man Universe film, saying that the flop was not her doing: “It wasn’t my fault.” She added, “There’s this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee. Or made by people who don’t have a creative bone in their body. And it’s really hard to make art that way. Or to make something entertaining that way. And I think unfortunately with ‘Madame Web,’ it started out as something and turned into something else. And I was just sort of along for the ride at that point. But that happens. Bigger-budget movies fail all the time.”
