The role that made Dakota Johnson feel like a “fraud” and induced a “meltdown”
No matter an actor’s background, imposter syndrome seems to haunt many stars, and Dakota Johnson is no exception. Having grown up in Hollywood – her parents are Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, and her grandmother is Tippi Hedren – you’d think that she might feel a little more at home in front of the camera, but she is constantly plagued with doubt.
For a while, Johnson didn’t take on roles you’d exactly call high-brow. Early performances in Beastly, 21 Jump Street, and Date and Switch were rather forgettable, and you can’t help but wonder if it was nepotism that was keeping her afloat during this time. Then came her big break in Fifty Shades of Grey, the BDSM film about as sexy as unclogging your drain.
The movie was a sensation, grossing over $560million against its $40m budget, but the critical response was a lot more damning. Johnson’s performance was ridiculed by many as being stiff and lifeless. She’s hardly a character – one-dimensional and boring – although to be fair, Johnson was working with a pretty dire script. You’d think that the film would hinder the actor’s reputation, and while it certainly did have an effect on the kinds of roles she was offered, it wasn’t enough to stop Luca Guadagnino from casting her in A Bigger Splash that same year.
The Italian filmmaker really hit the big time with the Oscar-winning Call Me By Your Name, but before then, he’d released several movies in his native language. With A Bigger Splash, however, Guadagnino gathered a predominantly Hollywood cast with Johnson in the role of Penelope.
This collaboration established a partnership between Johnson and Guadagnino, suggesting that the actor was capable of more than just forgettable Hollywood flicks and erotic disasters. She could actually turn in a great performance if she were given a good script.
So, following this, Guadagnino asked Johnson back to his cinematic world for a role that would become the most challenging of her career – Susie in Suspiria. Could she hack it? It’s one thing to take on your first horror movie leading role, but to be starring in a film based upon something as iconic as Dario Argento’s 1977 Suspiria is a whole other kettle of fish.
Johnson couldn’t help but feel like she wasn’t well-equipped enough to take on the role, revealing to Variety that she “had this fucking meltdown four days before filming and was like, ‘I can’t do this.’” It was certainly going to be a tough part to take on, but Guadagnino clearly knew that Johnson had the capability to lead the film.
“I was in tears in [Guadagnino’s] office, and I was like, I’m a fraud,” Johnson admitted. “For my whole life, I’ve been railing against myself, thinking that someone’s gonna find out that I’m a fraud.”
The reception to Suspiria was mixed, with some critics believing it to be an astounding reinterpretation of the Argento classic, while others hated it. Regardless, it marked a new chapter in Johnson’s career, who proved she could do so much more than play flaccid characters like Anastasia Steele.
