Dakota Johnson has a lot going on at the moment. “I’m a busy lady,” she asserts from her couch in her Los Angeles home. Her 10-week-old rescue puppy, Tokyo, sits faithfully out of frame, nipping at the sleeves of the actor’s sweatshirt. “She’s being a terror right now,” Johnson laughs. A few hours after we speak, Johnson will be well on her way to Cannes for the premiere of her upcoming film, Splitsville; after that, an early summer press tour for her highly anticipated A24 romcom Materialists. In her dwindling hours at home, Johnson will be doing what she seems to do best: balancing workload extremes. Today’s tasks? Attempt relaxation. Care for a puppy.

It is this quality about Johnson—the ability to maintain a robust personal life despite decades spent under public scrutiny (as the daughter of Hollywood powerhouses Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson)—that renders her one of the most unshakeably cool and enigmatic figures in Hollywood. Since her debut in 2010’s The Social Network, she’s appeared in polarizing, large-budget franchises, (namely, the Fifty Shades trilogy and Marvel’s Madame Web) and she’s appeared in some of the most tender, arthouse films of the last decade (Cha Cha Real Smooth; Suspiria). She directed 2024 short, “Loser Baby,” which debuted at Toronto International Film Festival. She co-founded a production company with Ro Donnelly, TeaTime Pictures, that will debut her film at Cannes and also posts regular astrology memes to Instagram; she started a book club, TeaTime, that recommends books by up and coming authors; she’s even the co-creative director at maude, a sexual wellness brand focused on sculptural, genderless toys and sex adjacent accouterments. 

Johnson is busy, but unlike the vast majority of the American audiences who have grown up familiar with her name, Dakota Johnson seems to be busy doing exactly what she wants to do.

For Johnson, Cannes is no small feat: this year will not only be her first time attending the annual film festival, but also a first for TeaTime Pictures. “It’s really exciting to be there for the first time with a movie that I produced,” she shares. “It’s cool because I get to roll pretty deep with the girls from the company.” 

Splitsville tells the story of two couples navigating the treacherous waters of modern marriage by exploring nonmonogamy. “It’s a subject that’s so intricate and so confusing and up for so much judgment and discussion and dissection,” says Johnson of the film. “I’m just always drawn to love stories and romance. I love a romantic comedy, and I love exploring new ways to make a romantic comedy so that it doesn’t get pigeonholed into this ridiculous, silly-like, non-movie genre.” 

Showing in theaters this August, Splitsville releases at a time when conversations around monogamy, “traditional” relationship roles, and ideas of what couples owe to one another are of abundance in the zeitgeist. The multivalent nature of love and companionship is perhaps one of the bigger perplexers of adulthood, a concept observed most safely a la romcom. So in June, Johnson will appear in Materialists alongside Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. The film follows Lucy (Johnson), a highly successful corporate matchmaker, as she attempts to help New York singles find their perfect partners. Trouble, terror, and flirtatious delight ensues when Lucy finds herself caught up between her imperfect ex-boyfriend (Evans) and a wealthy, handsome, perfect-on-paper bachelor (Pescal). 

While Materialists and Splitsville are both romantic comedies exploring the intricacies of modern dating, to Johnson, the two films couldn’t be more different. “They are worlds apart,” she explains. “Materialists is obviously a little bit more conventional [than Splitsville]. It’s a conventional trajectory—you date a bit, you like what kind of income they have, you like their hairline, you appreciate their height—they have all these material assets that tick boxes for you.”

While certainly traditional in its subject matter, Materialists brings an openness to the reasons one might opt for the conventional “date for marriage” life path. The characters are largely fearless in outright comparing marriage to a business deal. They seek partners who give them “value” via looks, money, and the like.   

Yet, naturally, Lucy struggles with making the most difficult choice: marrying for lifestyle, or marrying for love. It’s a choice many of us make, yet few speak about openly: “I think now people are really sort of tormented about [it] in their own lives,” says Johnson.  “Do I go for the thing that I think I want in my life…or do I go for the thing that is uncomfortable and scary and hurts, but it’s real, and it’s like this person sees my soul and sees me and loves me. And maybe I don’t have as much money as I thought I would, but I’m truly seen and truly loved.”

I ask Johnson if her own life experience informed some of the honesty she brought to her character. She pauses thoughtfully, and responds, “It’s pretty foreign to me. I never went through a phase of dating people. I’ve always kind of just fallen into long-term relationships…I’m pretty sure I’ve never just gone on a date with someone and then not seen them again. I’ve never done that.” 

Inevitably, Johnson did find a basis upon which she could inform her understanding of that common fear: she looked into the process of how society self-projects our relationships online. “I think a lot of the time nowadays, because of social media and because glamorizing your life on the internet is a job now—I think people are confused about what the point of living is.”

Lucky for Johnson, social media isn’t a medium she feels tethered to—she’s far more interested in self-proclaimed “dorky” puzzle apps. “I do like New York Times games and I do like Duolingo,” she says. “I like brain exercise apps. There’s one that I really love called Imprint, and you just learn. I’m learning loads about philosophy, and it quizzes you.” 

Her affinity for knowledge is perhaps best displayed with TeaTime Book Club, which comes in tandem with TeaTime Pictures. TeaTime Book Club is a uniquely structured community that takes their book of the month format a step further, inviting authors themselves to curate a list of further materials for readers to explore while enjoying the book itself. “The book club operates [in] the way that I read and the way I watch things,” says Johnson. “When I read a book, I will go and I’ll look up references that I don’t know.” She continues, “When we started doing these deep dives with the authors, I learned so much more because the author is the one curating the experience for all the readers—they pull from places that I never thought they would go to, and they have photos of their journey writing, photos of the process, what they were eating—it’s just so much more interesting than anything I could do on my own, researching online.” 

This curiosity, among other things, serves as inspiration for future projects. The window that separates Johnson’s creative, emotional interior and the outside world is one she leaves open, registering the smallest details as important building blocks to a beautiful life or a great idea. “Everything is always informing everything for me. I get inspired by the tree outside and also the movies I’m watching or things I see,” she shares. “I’m always going into, like, weird wormholes, finding new things, but that’s kind of how I work anyway.” 

Perhaps this susceptibility to inspiration informs her creative pursuits, which vary. More interesting than Johnson’s ability to adapt to her interests is her honesty about her attitude towards them. She considers what it feels like to be consumed by these “wormholes” pausing for a bit before admitting: “It really depends on the project. Most of the time, I really love acting, sometimes I really hate it. And that goes for everything, I think. But I also think that’s part of my process as an artist. I’m always wrestling with myself.” She continues, “But producing has been amazing because my ideas get implemented and they make a difference…I just found that I had more to offer and I really love it. I love making movies. I love shows. I love creating things and working with amazing people. I think I would like to direct at some point, but I’m really precious about what that will be.” 

Finding balance between business and artistry is a challenge—the two are constantly in opposition. “The industry is at odds with itself, it’s such a mess,” Johnson posits. “But I really just try to maintain the artistic integrity of everything as much as I can, and of the people I’m working with as much as I can…It’s so hard to get people to believe in something, or take a chance on something, or have just a creative spark that’s like, ‘Let’s do something different. Let’s make you feel something different. Or let’s just make you feel something, for starters.’” 

Such is the wry magic of Dakota Johnson: she’s here to help you feel something, whether it be through her multitudinous filmic projects; her production endeavors; her sex toy brand; or her elective book club selections. Johnson believes in the iterative power of feeling. Shut off the short-form content and open a book; go watch a film—you’ll gain an ounce of that Dakota Johnson fortitude.

Photographed by Su Müstecaplıoğlu

Styled by Jamie Mizrahi

Written by Emma Turetsky

Hair: Mark Townsend

Makeup: Georgie Eisdell

DP: Chevy Tyler

Flaunt Film Editor: Federica Intelisano

Flaunt Film Music: Ailbhe Reddy

Flaunt Film Colorist: Color Studio Niederhaus

Lighting Tech: Jordie Turner

Production: Mateen Mortazavi of Dirty Pretty Productions

Set Design: Isaac Aaron

1st AC and Film Loader: Mikyla Jonck

Steadicam Op: Daniel Willard

Motion Gaffer: Bailey Clark

Set Designer: Isaac Aaron

Styling Assistant: Elisabeth Wagner

Furniture Designer: Amethyst Furniture by Mikey Estrada

Set Assistant: Matthew Douglas Banister 

Production Assistant: Maria Berkowitz

Location: Quixote Studios