Dakota Johnson Used an Intimacy Coordinator for the First Time on New Movie and ‘She Was Really Great’: Sex Scenes ‘Are Not Sexy. It Doesn’t Feel Good’

Dakota Johnson has been acting for 15 years, but she revealed during an interview on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast that just used an intimacy coordinator for the very first time on a recent movie production. Despite earning international fame with the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy, which included a lot of nudity and sex scenes, Johnson noted there were “no intimacy coordinators then.”

“She was really great,” Johnson said about her first intimacy coordinator. “It was so cool because I’m so used to — you know, it’s a sex scene. It’s not sexy. It doesn’t feel good.”

Johnson has acted in many sex scenes throughout her career and walked Poehler through her mental approach to such material.

“First, I think it depends on, who is the character, and who is the character supposed to be to the audience,” Johnson explained. “Is she a super idolized hot girl? Is she a housewife? Is she lonely? Is she scared? Is she conservative? So, that’s obviously character work, but then certain prep would go into it. I want to feel good in my body if I’m showing my body. My mom raised me to be really, really proud of my body and love my body. So, I’ve always felt so grateful for that, especially in my work because I can use it and it feels real.”

Johnson filmed many intimate scenes for the “Fifty Shades” movies. She told Vanity Fair in 2022 that making the movies was “psychotic.”

“I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making,” Johnson said at the time. “[E.L. James] had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen. There were parts of the books that just wouldn’t work in a movie, like the inner monologue, which was at times incredibly cheesy. It wouldn’t work to say out loud. It was always a battle. Always. When I auditioned for that movie, I read a monologue from ‘Persona’ and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’”

Johnson said making the “Fifty Shades” trilogy “became something crazy,” adding, “There were a lot of different disagreements. I haven’t been able to talk about this truthfully ever, because you want to promote a movie the right way, and I’m proud of what we made ultimately and everything turns out the way it’s supposed to, but it was tricky.”

Watch Johnson’s full interview on the “Good Hang” podcast in the video below.