Dakota Johnson does not need to prepare for intimate scenes; she’s already “always psyched up for sex.”
The star, whose breakout role was Anastasia Steele in the spicy 50 Shades of Grey franchise, appeared on Tuesday’s episode of Amy Poehler‘s Good Hang podcast to chat about her upcoming romance comedy Materialists when the topic turned to how she prepared for sex scenes.
“I don’t have to. I’m, like, always psyched up for sex,” Johnson quipped to Poehler.
“F— yeah,” Poehler said, as the two laughed over the phrasing.
“‘Psyched up?’ Is that a thing?” Johnson asked. “Let’s go to pound town?”
On a more serious note, Johnson recalled how she recently worked on a film a few months ago and it was the first time she had ever worked with an intimacy coordinator.
“And she was really great,” Johnson said. “It was so cool because I’m so used to, just you know, like, it’s a sex scene. It’s not sexy. It doesn’t feel good.”
She shared that character work was integral to preparing for the scenes.
Universal Pictures Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in ‘Fifty Shades Freed’
“First, it depends on who the character is and who the character’s supposed to be to the audience,” Johnson said. “Is she like a super idolized hot girl? Is she a housewife? Is she lonely? Is she scared? Is she conservative?”
“Certain prep would go into it,” Johnson added. “I want to feel good in my body if I’m showing my body.” Johnson, the daughter of actor parents Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, also said that her famous mother helped instill in her the confidence required for such intimate and vulnerable scenes.
“My mom raised me to be really proud of my body and love my body,” Johnson said. “So I’ve always felt so grateful for that, especially in my work because I can use it and it feels real. She was very honest and open about body stuff, like getting my period. She also talked to me about sex and how precious and important it is.”
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Johnson added, “So I guess in my work, it’s something that I feel brave with and that I feel, when it’s used the right way in a story.”
The star is gearing up for the release of Materialists (in theaters June 13), loosely inspired by director-writer Celine Song’s side hustle as a New York City matchmaker when she was a struggling playwright in need of extra income. Johnson plays Lucy, a skilled liaison for lonely hearts at a successful matchmaking firm who isn’t as proficient when it comes to her own love life. She’s torn between her imperfect ex, struggling actor John (Chris Evans), and the perfect and wealthy Harry (Pedro Pascal).
Taylor Hill/Getty
Melanie Griffith and Dakota Johnson in 2017
“She’s at a very interesting time in her life where she’s sort of teetering between two worlds,” Johnson previously told Entertainment Weekly of her character arc. “A lot of what she does is very surface-level stuff. I think for a long time she has been very comfortable in that because it means she doesn’t have to actually go inward and look at herself and what she wants for her own life.”
“It’s a story of bravery, really, and fear,” she added. “Allowing yourself to be loved is scary, and really loving another person is scary . . . a woman having the courage to open her heart is what I loved about it.”
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