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The “Fifty Shades” trilogy catapulted Dakota Johnson to international fame, but as glamorous as the steamy scenes might seem on screen, filming them was anything but. Johnson opened up about how difficult the intimate moments were to shoot, particularly one scene from the final film, Fifty Shades Freed, that proved to be far more challenging than most would expect.
In a 2018 interview with Marie Claire, Johnson was asked to pick the hardest sex scene to film across all three movies. Without hesitation, she singled out a scene from the third installment, where her character Anastasia Steele and her husband Christian Grey (played by Jamie Dornan) get experimental with blindfolds and handcuffs. However, it wasn’t the act itself that made the scene difficult — it was the physical and emotional complexity behind it.
“The most difficult one by far — I think in all three movies — was a sex scene in the third film where I was handcuffed with my arms and legs to the gate,” Johnson revealed. “It’s like a fence thing that comes down. And I was blindfolded. And it was kind of shocking, because I didn’t realize that no matter how prepared or rehearsed I was, when your senses are taken away like that, you can’t control the way your nervous system will react. So it was really tricky to navigate that scene. It was kind of difficult.”
This candid confession sheds light on the challenges that go beyond simply “getting the shot.” As any actor would, Johnson prepared thoroughly for these scenes, but as she noted, when your senses are heightened or eliminated, it can be hard to control your body’s response. This was particularly true for her, as the scene involved a high level of vulnerability and discomfort that is not usually associated with a typical “love scene.”
While Dakota Johnson did her best to keep her nerves in check, the environment on set was far from glamorous. Both she and Jamie Dornan wore some pretty bizarre costume pieces to maintain modesty during the intimate scenes. Johnson described her attire in detail, revealing that she had to wear strapless thongs with a sticky adhesive, similar to a nipple pasty but for more, um, private areas. These “modesty garments” were glued to her skin to keep them from falling off, and sometimes they required a touch-up with superglue.
“Oh yeah, Jamie’s little pouch,” she laughed. “It’s super not glamorous—it’s really unsexy… It’s f***ing bizarre.”
Adding to the intensity of filming these scenes, Johnson admitted that there was a way she and Dornan “prepared” for the more risqué moments. Although their rehearsals and professional commitment were key, sometimes the duo needed a little liquid courage to make it through particularly difficult moments. “But, if something is very, very difficult, it’s sometimes necessary to have a shot of something strong beforehand,” she confessed.
Still, despite the technical preparation and the occasional shot of something strong, Johnson was quick to clarify that shooting these intimate moments never got easier. “No, it’s never easy,” she said bluntly. “It’s not casual and it’s not fun. It never got easy.” Despite the careful choreography, the meticulous scheduling, and the occasional need for a little external support, filming the steamy scenes was never as sexy as it appeared on screen.
While the world of Fifty Shades may have been full of heat and chemistry, behind the scenes, it was an entirely different story. It’s clear that Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, and the entire cast put in a tremendous amount of effort and professionalism to bring these intense moments to life. And for fans of the films, the raw truth behind those scenes only adds to the respect we have for the cast’s dedication.