In a candid conversation with her Materialists costar Pedro Pascal, actor Dakota Johnson revealed that she faced financial struggles in her early 20s after being cut off by her father, actor Don Johnson, when she failed to gain admission to the Juilliard School.
“I didn’t get in and my dad cut me off because I didn’t go to college,” Johnson said in the interview published in Elle UK. “So, I started auditioning. I think I was 19 when I did The Social Network, and then little jobs and stuff after that.”
Though she comes from a prominent Hollywood lineage — her mother is Melanie Griffith and her grandmother is screen icon Tippi Hedren — Johnson said she found herself scraping by in Los Angeles.
“For a couple of years it was hard to make money,” she said. “There were a few times when I’d go to the market and not have money in my bank account or not be able to pay rent, and I’d have to ask my parents for help.”
She added, “I’m very grateful that I had parents that could help me and did help me. But it certainly was not fun. The auditioning process, as you know, is the f—ing worst.”
Johnson, who spent part of her childhood in San Francisco while her father filmed the television series Nash Bridges, recalled growing accustomed to the comforts of luxury hotels like the Fairmont. But after Juilliard turned her down, she found herself facing a far less stable reality.
“That f—ing process was so awful and terrifying,” she said of the auditioning. “When you get accepted for an audition, it’s a two-day-long chorus-line thing. You’re supposed to get called back for a second audition, and I didn’t. It was fine.”
College never appealed to her, she explained.
“Because Juilliard felt so small — the idea of being in a classroom with the same group of people, and figuring out how to be a human in that environment, after growing up surrounded by so many different kinds of people and immersed in different cultures through traveling all over … It just felt really wrong to lock myself in one place,” Johnson said.
Despite the initial struggles, the Fifty Shades of Grey star said she always knew she wanted to act.
“I grew up on set,” Johnson said. “My parents were always working with amazing artists, and I just loved it. I wanted to be a part of it so badly.”
During the same interview, Johnson shared that Pascal once suggested she explore a different kind of side hustle: joining the subscription platform OnlyFans.
“Pedro Pascal told me that I should have an OnlyFans and that I could just like wiggle my toe and make money,” she said. “Should I do that?”
Johnson admitted she was unfamiliar with how the platform works.
“I don’t know anything about that,” she said. “OnlyFans is the place where people go to watch people do weird things? Are OnlyFans models hot? Are they different to regular models?”
While she appeared curious, she stopped short of seriously considering it.
“I feel like I would look at OnlyFans models on Instagram if I knew how to do that,” Johnson said. “It sounds interesting. Sounds intriguing.”
Johnson stars opposite Pascal and Chris Evans in Materialists, a romantic drama from Past Lives director Celine Song. The film opens in theaters June 13.
—Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle (TNS)
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