Dakota Johnson has never been to Cannes before. “Somebody told me that people wear gowns and flip-flops and run into hotels,” she laughs, “That sounds like something I’d love to do.” In the past, she’s been more of a Venice person, she says, with The Lost Daughter, Black Mass, A Bigger Splash and Suspiria premiering at the Italian fest, rather than the French one. “I feel like I was branded as Italian cinema-only and I’m so excited,” she says.
Splitsville, screening in Cannes Premiere, is also the first time Johnson’s production company TeaTime Pictures has had a film at Cannes. Directed by Michael Angelo Covino and co-written and produced with his longtime The Climb collaborator Kyle Marvin, Splitsville follows two couples in a friendship group. When Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce from Carey (Marvin), Carey seeks solace in his happily coupled friends Julie (Johnson) and Paul (Covino). But when he realizes they are in an open marriage, he crosses a line, and things become more complicated.
Johnson recently directed Loser Baby, her first short, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and she’s also appearing in Celine Song’s June release Materialists as a matchmaker caught in a love triangle with an affluent businessman (Pedro Pascal) and an old flame (Chris Evans). She describes Song’s film as “really reminiscent of rom-coms that were my jam growing up. Very Jim Brooks, Nora Ephron.” And she’s just wrapped shooting on Verity, the latest Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us) novel adaptation. Directed by Michael Showalter, Johnson stars as a ghostwriter hired by Josh Hartnett’s character to finish his writer wife Verity (Anne Hathaway)’s novels. “I’m basically the bad guy I think,” Johnson says. “It’s so fun.”
DEADLINE: How would you describe the premise of Splitsville?
DAKOTA JOHNSON: Gosh, it’s an interesting tone because I guess, off the bat, it reads as a comedy, but it’s a very soulful, unique comedy about two couples and the challenging dynamics of their relationships individually, and then their relationships intertwined with each other. It’s about the complexities of love.
DEADLINE: So, Carey starts hanging out with your character Julie and her partner Paul who are in an open relationship. Are we talking a love triangle?
JOHNSON: It’s less of a love triangle and more of a love experiment. it’s enmeshed, codependent, incestuous, and all the while really deeply loving ultimately, but pretty f*cked up a lot of the time.
DEADLINE: I know a lot of people believe that non-monogamy is the future and that’s the evolution of where we’re going in terms of how human relationships will survive. What were your thoughts about the themes of this film?
JOHNSON: I think it’s such an interesting topic because I don’t feel like there’s one right way to love, or one right way to live your life, and I think human beings are being allowed to evolve. I think it’s rare that we hear of people being in a partnership or a relationship that’s like, “Yeah, and then we grow together and separately, and it’s super healthy and fun.” It’s rare that that happens. I don’t think there’s any right way. I feel like, if you want to have multiple relationships in your life, great. If you want to go really deep with one person, great. If you want to have both of those at the same time, great. Why not, really? But also scary, you know?
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DEADLINE: I think people are trying to find a new way and it’s a very interesting subject.
JOHNSON: But is it a new way? Because I feel like we could look at that in a really positive way, or say someone says they want to explore every version of themselves and they want to have as many experiences as possible, and whatever that is in this short life we have. Or, is it that, as humanity, we are starting to evolve into people who don’t tolerate each other and don’t tolerate each other’s flaws and don’t heal and don’t grow? A lot of times I see relationships break up when it’s either or both people in a phase of immense challenge, which leads to immense growth. But if you just split up all the time, or if you’re like, “You’re sucking right now, so I’m going to go and be with my other boyfriend.” How am I growing and how am I actually loving you? But I don’t know. I don’t know the answer. I think everything works, or it can.
DEADLINE: As my mother would say, “It’s horses for courses,” meaning each to their own and whatever works for you. How did you come to the film and why was it also the right producing project for TeaTime?
JOHNSON: So it came around actually quite a while before I signed on to do it. It was brought to TeaTime and I was really busy. I don’t remember what was happening, but maybe we were releasing Daddio and it was just a really crazy time. And then it came back around for me to play Julie.
First of all, I met with Mike and Kyle ages ago, and it was not a fully fleshed-out idea, and then they went away and did a lot of work. They just are such amazing partners and so brilliant together at being extremely funny, but also weird and soulful at the same time. And Adria was signing on as well, and it just made sense. And we really like to work with filmmakers that have a really fresh interesting voice. I don’t know if you saw their movie, The Climb? I was like, “How is this movie not massive?” It’s so good. And Mike, he has such a director’s mind. He really has artistry in that way, coupled with understanding comedic beats, and those things don’t always come together. Really it just felt very right, and I like being really in the trenches with the people I work with. So being able to sit with them for a few weeks before, and go through the script and write jokes and make Julia a strange person, and give her a different kind of a character, I don’t know, it was very TeaTime, I think.
DEADLINE: What does it mean to you to be at Cannes?
JOHNSON: Well, truly, I honestly thought I would never go to Cannes. I was like, “There must be some weird curse on me where I’ll just never get to do it.”
DEADLINE: It’s a scene for sure. A lot of crowds waiting outside of hotels.
JOHNSON: So, I won’t be just strolling along in my bikini? That’s really what I was picturing.
DEADLINE: It’s going to be a bit crazier than that I’m afraid.
JOHNSON: There is something so magical about… I remember the first time I went to Venice. Every time I have gone to Venice, it’s like the most magical time because I just think there’s something ineffable in the air around film festivals where it’s the artistry and the excitement about what the movies have made people feel, and you can really feel that there. And then of course, the glamour and it’s so beautiful and opulent. But for me, it’s really being around all of those other artists and being around people who are like, “Oh, I’ve just seen this.” That to me is so fun. It’s so exciting.
DEADLINE: With Michael and Kyle, it sounds like you had a great collaboration on building your character. What was the process like?
JOHNSON: Yes, we did, and then it was really funnily combative on set. I think they are so used to working with each other that they have a very specific cadence. It’s a very specific dance they do. And I would butt heads with both of them a lot, but in a healthy way, I think.
DEADLINE: Just from the creative process, you mean?
JOHNSON: Yeah. At least I’m honest about it.
DEADLINE: Yes. Not everyone tells you the nitty gritty of those combative moments, but that can often be a part of the creative process.
JOHNSON: Yeah. I’ve been on sets where the nitty gritty leads to a great movie and then I’ve been on sets where it doesn’t and that sucks a lot more.
DEADLINE: Where did you shoot the film and for how long?
JOHNSON: We shot it in Montreal and I want to say it was 25 days. It was pretty short.
DEADLINE: I’m also so excited about Materialists. How was working with Celine Song on that?
JOHNSON: Oh, God, that was really a magical, magical, magical time. Talk about not combative at all. We were of one mind. It was so beautiful, really, really beautiful. I think, because of her background as a playwright, she is really in the space with you, and it almost felt like she was in the scenes with me. If this was the shot, she’d be down here on the floor right next to me, just out of frame. So, it was very, very close. And she’s so poetic in her writing and in her filmmaking. She’s really a true real deal filmmaker and it’s just an amazing to see that. It’s rare and I think it’s amazing to be like, “Oh, you’re going to make a lot of really incredible things in this life.” I just felt so lucky to be there. And filming in New York in the spring was just magical. And yeah, I’m excited for people to see that movie.
DEADLINE: How was working with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans?
JOHNSON: Chris and Pedro were wonderful. They’re both pretty funny dudes. They both really make me laugh. I really make Chris laugh, which I like a lot. And Pedro and I were friends before, so just being able to hang out all day was really fun. Because when you’re on set, you’re just like, “Oh, I’m in movie prison and I can’t do anything, and I can’t see anybody and I live on set.” So, it was just so fun to have a friend there. But they’re both, I think, really wonderful in this movie.
DEADLINE: And then next year we’ll see Verity that you’re also executive producing.
JOHNSON: Yes, we just finished filming. I didn’t know what Verity was before I was sent the script, and it’s based on a Colleen Hoover novel that I guess is quite popular. People are really into it.
DEADLINE: It’s very big. She has such a huge following.
JOHNSON: I know. And she’s such a funny person as well. She’s a really cool person. But yeah, it’s Josh Hartnett, Anne Hathaway and me. I mean, obviously, everyone knows what it’s about from the book, but it’s about a ghostwriter or a writer who goes to finish the novels of this very established writer because she had been in an accident. So, she moves into the house with her and her husband and their kid and then all of these really weird twists and turns take place. It’s juicy.
The post Dakota Johnson Talks Romantic Experiments In Cannes Comedy ‘Splitsville’, Upcoming ‘Materialists’ And “Juicy” Colleen Hoover Adaptation ‘Verity’ appeared first on Deadline.
