The Fifty Shades film trilogy has very nearly groaned and heaved its way to completion, with one more pearlescent cinematic discharge, Fifty Shades Freed, due for release some time next year.
If you’re not super keen on the series, well, it may or may not comfort you to know that Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of the first film, feels pretty much the same way you do.
In an unusually candid interview with The Sunday Times, Johnson, who clearly has no fucks left to give, said that if she had the chance to do it over, she’d never have agreed to direct the first Fifty Shades in the first place.
“With the benefit of hindsight, would I go through Fifty Shades of Grey again?” she said to the interviewer, gleefully burning any number of bridges. “Of course I wouldn’t. I’d be mad.”
Author E.L. James was given a great deal of creative input in the film, and according to Taylor-Johnson, working with her was a bit of a nightmare scenario. She continued:
“I like everyone – and I get really confused when they don’t like me. I was so confused by E.L James. I don’t understand when I can’t navigate a person, when there’s no synergy.”
The two reportedly fought a lot about the creative direction the movie would take. “Her thing was, ‘This is what the fans expect.’ I’d be like, ‘Well, let’s try and hit those marks but create a new universe at the same time.’”
“Her vision versus mine, and they were polar opposite. Every scene was fought over. It was tough. It was like wading uphill through sticky tar.”
The second film in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker, was released earlier this year, but its worldwide gross was around $200m less than its predecessor, suggesting the public’s thirst might for the series be diminishing a bit.
Either way, Taylor-Johnson won’t be checking it out. “I’m not ever going to watch them,” she told the Sunday Telegraph of the sequels. “I have literally zero interest.” We feel you, mate, we feel you.
Source: Entertainment Weekly.
Photo: Zak Hussein / Getty.
