Dakota Johnson used a high-profile career talk at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah to lay out a blunt view of life on both sides of the camera, describing a “love-hate relationship” with acting and producing and calling parts of the business “really ugly” even as she said the work still fulfils her.
Speaking in the festival’s “In Conversation” series on Friday, Johnson told the audience that producing through her company TeaTime Pictures has exposed her to a harsher layer of the industry. “Financiers are really shady sometimes. It is heartbreaking. As a producer, it can be very heartbreaking. As an actress, it can be heartbreaking,” she said, before adding that both jobs remain “so incredibly fulfilling” for her, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
She linked that frustration to the practical realities of independent filmmaking, where financing can fall apart and contracts mean little if money never arrives. In a separate festival interview, she said producing lets her “see behind the curtain” and called what she finds there “really ugly,” while stressing that she still feels grateful to create work she cares about.
Johnson co-founded TeaTime in 2019 with producer Ro Donnelly and has since steered a slate that includes relationship dramas such as Am I OK?, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Daddio and the upcoming breakup comedy Splitsville, projects built around intimate character work rather than franchises. She said the company seeks filmmakers who are bold and writers who are “honest and risk-taking,” and that she wants to back stories about women and people going through periods of change.
Her candour at Red Sea follows a year of public reflection on big-studio filmmaking after the commercial and critical failure of Sony’s Madame Web. Earlier this year she told the Los Angeles Times that decisions on that film were made “by committee” and blamed the outcome on people “who don’t have a creative bone in their body,” after previously saying she would probably never make a similar superhero project again.
In Jeddah, Johnson balanced criticism with enthusiasm for the setting. She praised the festival’s focus on female filmmakers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia and said the gathering’s energy had renewed her faith in cinema. The event has made women in cinema a visible pillar of its programming, with organizers highlighting a surge in Saudi women working behind the camera.
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Offstage, Johnson has been a constant presence on the festival’s red carpets, first in a black Alessandra Rich gown with sharp cutouts at the opening-night premiere of Giant, then in a sheer lace Chloé look at the Women in Cinema event, appearances that underlined her status as both star guest and ambassador for the kind of personal, director-driven films she says she wants to keep making.
