Is it possible to forget or confuse with someone the sometimes sad and serious, sometimes smiling and carefree, but always incredibly charming Kate from the series “Kate and Ben”?!
You could meet this bright girl in the Oscar-winning film “The Social Network”, and in the romantic fairy tale “Terribly Beautiful”, and in the action comedy “Macho and Nerd”.
The girl, who appears in films as a single mother, a carefree teenager, and in other roles, is known in real life as Dakota Johnson. The fate of Dakota Johnson, born on October 4, 1989, seemed to have it written: ACTRESS AND MODEL.
Let's start with the second: why MODEL?
It's quite simple. The appearance of the young beauty speaks for itself: incredibly expressive and unusually kind eyes, beautiful full lips, delicate snow-white skin, a slender figure, not without feminine charms - this girl is truly beautiful!
And given that such a spectacular appearance is combined with good taste and unusual style, Dakota Johnson simply had no right not to realize herself in the modeling world.
At the age of 12, Dakota first posed in front of the camera for Teen Vogue magazine.
5 years passed, and the girl entered into a serious contract with one of the main international agencies, IMG Models. A few years later, in 2009, Dakota successfully advertised jeans from the popular MANGO brand.
Let's go back to the first one: why ACTRESS?
Dakota Johnson is the daughter of Dona Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Father Don Johnson is one of the most famous actors of the 80s of the last century, starring in more than 20 films of various genres, winner of the Golden Globe in 1986 as “Best Leading Actor”.
Recognition of his talent is immortalized with a five-sided star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The mother of actress Melanie Griffith is a bright, liberated and incredibly talented American actress who received an Oscar and is a six-time winner of the Golden Globe Award. The actress’s grandmother, Tippy Hender, also belongs to the acting dynasty.
Dakota Johnson followed in the footsteps of her family, but she did not do it blindly or out of despair. Dakota is talented, efficient, energetic and able to transform into different characters.
Dakota's first film was “A Woman Without Rules”, 1999. The actress played a small role in the film, and the film itself cannot be called popular. But those moviegoers who watched this drama with comedy elements note that the film is very successful and unexpected: against the backdrop of a story about dreams of Hollywood fame, the problem of racism, humanity, and loneliness is raised.
Ten years later, when Dakota graduated from high school, she signed a contract with the William Morris Agency, and began her acting career no longer as a teenage girl, but as an interesting and spectacular young actress.
In 2010, she starred in the film “The Social Link,” which received 8 Oscar nominations. The tape tells about the creation of the social network “Facebook”.
This was followed by 2012, which brought the actress the long-awaited leading role in the comedy series Kate and Ben.
Movie game. Dakota Johnson.
Sometimes it happens that when watching a film, the leading actors do not make a strong impression, just like the film through which we met the actors. But over time, you can catch yourself thinking that the actors are not so bad, and later you can watch with interest what other roles they will be able to portray on the screen, so I suggest you draw your attention to the bright representative of young Hollywood - Dakota Johnson.
Dakota Maya Johnson was born on October 4, 1989 in the family of famous Hollywood stars Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, and her maternal grandmother Tippi Hedren was one of the muses of the great and terrible Alfred Hitchcock. But at the beginning of her professional career, Dakota dreamed of a modeling career, so at the age of 18 she enters into a contract with one of the agencies, thanks to which she becomes the face of a Japanese clothing brand, which is actually the main achievement in the modeling field, so after a while the girl decides to try her hand at cinematography
(Don and Dakota Johnson, Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith)
Despite her star family, the start of Dakota’s career can hardly be called dizzying - episodic roles in films and main roles in TV series, which lasted a season at best. One of the significant works at that time was considered the role of the girl with whom Justin Timberlake’s hero woke up in the film “The Social Network” and it lasted only a couple of minutes. But everything changed when the film “50 Shades of Gray” was released in 2020, which, despite many negative reviews, managed to bring worldwide fame to the leading actors.
Trilogy "50 Shades"
To begin with, I want to say that I have a more than positive attitude towards these films, so I don’t understand the hysteria that continued throughout the existence of the franchise. These films were never positioned as masterpieces or films that could make viewers take a fresh look at themselves or everything that happens around them. None of the creators planned to follow Bertolucci's example in creating a film where there would be eroticism that could shock viewers, and cinemas would make sure that people under 17 could not be in the theater. Shades is a purely commercial product based on a controversial literary work, and the main goal of everyone involved in its creation was profit.
However, the Shades series gets a big thumbs up from me for the fact that it led to the discovery of Dakota Johnson. I don’t know whether this is due to the writers, Johnson herself, or the collective mind, but Anastasia in the film has the necessary set of qualities to evoke at least some emotions on the part of the viewer when watching (even if not always positive), while in the book the main character is a ciliate-shoe that, like a ping-pong ball, bounces off any surface on which Gray places it.
Therefore, for me, Dakota is one of the best aspects of the film, and since I was given such an opportunity to discuss “Shades,” it seems to me that this story had the potential to become a good erotic thriller if we take into account the ending of the second part, but since the author of the books could influence the filming process, and from the second part her husband became the screenwriter of the series, these factors negated any attempts to refine the plot, which was probably the reason why Sam Taylor-Johnson dropped out of the project after all the events related to the promotion of the first part.
This is not to say that “Shades” are those films that must be seen - far from it, at the same time, this is a light movie whose goal is to entertain the viewer and provide the film adaptation expected by fans of the books. And judging by the fact that, despite numerous negative reviews from critics and viewers, the series managed to collect more than a billion dollars, “Shades” coped with its task.
And despite filming “Shades,” Dakota had already begun to get rid of the image that threatened to stick with her for many years, so in the same 2020 she will present two films that were shown at the Venice Film Festival and on the example of which I propose to continue our acquaintance with the creativity of Dakota.
"Black mass"
For a long time, Boston has been a battlefield between factions for power, guaranteeing obedience to the laws of the winner, and despite all the efforts made by the FBI to prevent the proliferation of crime - all attempts were in vain, until the idea comes to make a deal with one of the bloodthirsty and cruel gangsters city - James Whitey Bulger, guaranteeing complete immunity for his help, not even suspecting that the price for Bulger's help would be too high. Without exaggeration, the main star of the film is Johnny Depp, but in conveying the character of the bloodthirsty and immoral king of the underworld, he is helped by a whole list of movie stars, including Dakota Johnson.
The role of Dakota takes 10 minutes at most, but it’s worth talking about her because her heroine is Lindsay Kear, the wife of that same gangster who knows the only way to solve problems is to kill everyone who decides to question his authority. But as you can see, even for such a beast nothing human is alien, and all this was contained in his wife and little son, who were the most important things in his life.
Despite the limited screen time, it was Dakota who had the opportunity to show one of the most emotional and significant scenes that influenced Depp’s character, and it seems to me that in the joint scene she is in no way inferior to her star partner.
Already thanks to the cast, “Black Mass” can become a plus in the filmography, but the story on which this movie is based is capable of making viewers think about the events shown on the screen, at the same time remembering each performer, regardless of how much time was at his disposal. And since we are on the topic of time, I propose to move on to the next film, which also took part in the Venice Film Festival.
"Big Splash"
Imagine a quiet corner of Italy with a blinding sun and air that is saturated with sea salt and the bliss of idleness, and everything around makes this place look like a fragment of Paradise, where the rock diva Marianne tries to get lost among the tourists, trying to regain her strength after surgery on her vocal cords, How will her lover Paul, a documentary film director, help her? It would seem that this couple did everything to hide from the outside world and everyone who knows about their existence, but even here they will not be able to escape from their own past, which is about to find them here.
I like to think of each character as a personification of their time - Marianne and Harry, brilliantly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, are a crazy era of rock and roll whose time and former greatness is coming to an end, Paul is a bridge connecting the past and the future, found itself in Johnson’s heroine, Penelope.
Penelope is the wind of intoxicating youth, which over time turns into a crazy whirlwind, threatening to destroy everything that gets in its way. It is impossible not to note how this character is revealed - boldly, arrogantly and harshly, and like an artist using paints to create a picture, so Penelope uses circumstances for the finale, which suggests an interesting thought - that a person’s life is that same splash that, despite its beauty will be fleeting and it depends only on the person whether he will leave a trace behind himself or everything will be hidden under the calmness of the water surface.
Perhaps Dakota will not receive famous awards, and her name will not be included in the lists of the greatest and most talented film actresses, but it seems that she is fine without it, so she is simply doing what she loves and enjoying it. And judging by her filmography, you can see that she is not afraid of difficult roles and working with eminent representatives of cinema, which makes it interesting to watch the choice of future projects.
And it’s very subjective, but based on interviews and reviews, Dakota seems like a fairly pleasant person and I hope that the video with her participation on the Jimmy Fallon show can cheer you up!
(I recommend watching from 1:30)
This concludes my post and once again huge thanks to Skarletty for organizing the movie game and to all bloggers.
Good luck, peace of mind, good news and all the best to everyone!
Dakota Johnson and the film "50 Shades of Gray"
And the coming 2014 will allow film lovers to look at Dakota Johnson in a new way and understand how organic the actress is in the role of a student. On the evening of September 2, it became known that Dakota Johnson would play the main role in the acclaimed erotic novel “50 Shades of Gray.”
This became known from the microblog of the author of the novel E.L.
James, who said the following: “I am pleased to inform you that the charming Dakota Johnson has agreed to be our Anastasia in the film adaptation of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Share the information with your friends!
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Dakota with sister Elle Fanning
No matter how hard the life of an artist is, the young movie star copes with her studies, acting and modeling career with dignity. Already at the moment, actress Elle Fanning has played more than 20 roles and is not going to stop there.
