Dakota Johnson, the master of shade, is sharing personal details of what she calls a “psychotic” filming experience, in which the author, studio, and filmmakers caused several disputes on the set, four years after the 50 Shades trilogy came to an end.

Johnson, who is set to release an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and is currently starring in the award-winning independent comedy Cha Cha Real Smooth, spoke to Vanity Fair about her role as Anastacia opposite Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey in the 2015 movie adaptation of EL James’ best-selling book Fifty Shades of Grey. The movie was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. James Foley replaced Taylor-Johnson as director for the other two movies, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, which were released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. James was granted what has been referred to as “unprecedented control” over these movies.

Johnson claims that the major cause of the issues was disputes by the filmmakers over the script. Kelly Marcel, best known as the co-writer of Saving Mr. Banks, is listed as the credited author, and it was widely rumored that Taylor-Johnson recruited Patrick Marber from Notes on a Scandal to “polish” the screenplay. Johnson claims that James “scrapped” the draft when Charlie Hunnam, the actor initially slated as Grey, withdrew.

Dakota Johnson claims in a recent interview with vanity fair that screenwriter James was “so upset” because Hunnam quit that she abandoned the original screenplay.

“It just got crazy,” Johnson explained. “There were a lot of different disagreements.”

“I’ve never been able to speak truthfully about it because you want to promote a film the right way and I’m proud of what we ended up doing and it’s all going the way it is it’s supposed to, but it was tricky,” she continued.

With James and Johnson, along with the rest of the crew, often having conflicting visions for scenes, Johnson said she would often end up rewriting the night before filming. This was only the beginning of conflicts Johnson and others had with James.

“She had a lot of creative control, all day, every day, and she just demanded that certain things happen,” Johnson told Vanity Fair. “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.”

The actor said, “We’d do the takes of the movie that Erika wanted to make, and then we would do the takes of the movie that we wanted to make. The night before, I would rewrite scenes with the old dialogue so I could add a line here and there. It was like mayhem all the time.”

Johnson also said that after being requested to perform a monologue from Ingmar Bergman’s well-known psychological thriller Persona as an audition piece, she had the wrong impression of the movie. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’ ”

Despite the involvement of an intimacy coordinator, there were a lot of sexual sequences in Fifty Shades of Grey, and the awkwardness of filming them led to a strong relationship between Dakota and Jamie Dornan.

“There was never a time when we didn’t get along,” stated Dakota. “I know it’s weird, but he’s like a brother to me. I love him so, so, so much. And we were really there for each other. We had to really trust each other and protect each other.”

She continued by saying that Jamie stood by her when she defied orders in the sensual sequences. “We were doing the weirdest things for years, and we needed to be a team: ‘We’re not doing that,’ or ‘You can’t do that camera angle.’ Sam [director Sam Taylor-Johnson] didn’t come back to direct after the first movie, and, as a female, she had brought a softer perspective,” the star stated.

Dakota added that a male directing intimate scenes had a very different ‘energy.’ “James Foley came on to direct, and he’s an interesting man. It was different doing those bizarre things with a man behind the camera. Just a different energy. There are things that I still cannot say because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s career and I don’t want to damage anybody’s reputation, but both Jamie and I were treated really well. Erika is a very nice woman, and she was always kind to me and I am grateful she wanted me to be in those movies.”

Johnson later disputed the claim but said that she wouldn’t have consented to participate in the movie if she had realized the turmoil would ensue. When questioned whether she regretted her role with the movie, Johnson said she didn’t.

“No. I don’t think it’s a matter of regret,”  she explained before adding,  “If I had known at the time that’s what it was going to be like, I don’t think anyone would’ve done it.”

“It would’ve been like, ‘Oh, this is psychotic.’ But no, I don’t regret it.”