Dakota Johnson Explains Why She 'Can't Waste Time on Toxic Sets Anymore'

As an actress and producer, Dakota Johnson knows what it takes to make a movie.

“If there’s not a healthy collaboration, if it’s not a good match, then it’s not a good match. We really don’t move forward if it’s not a good match,” Johnson, 35, told Variety in an interview published on Sunday, July 6. “I can’t waste time on toxic sets anymore, or in situations that are not fun or fulfilling or healthy. That’s one of the perks of [producing], because I get to put amazing people together and make something.”

While Johnson did not reveal which (if any) sets have been toxic behind the scenes, she stressed that she doesn’t want to work alongside “anybody who’s mean or condescending or unkind.”

“I don’t want to face people who are not willing to collaborate, and then there are obvious things,” the Materialists star explained. “We all know what a toxic set is by now. We’re artists, so there’s room for expansive personalities, and we’re working with emotions.”

She continued, “I love a healthy argument on a set, and I also believe that the most excellent idea wins. It’s not a fight. It’s not a race. It’s a collaboration.”

Johnson is also “pretty vocal” when it comes to standing up for herself on a set.

“I think now, just being in the position of being a producer and developing my own films, I can choose all the people who are in it, and that makes a huge difference,” she said.

In addition to acting and producing, Johnson is also gearing up to sit in the director’s chair for the first time.

“I’ve always felt that I’m not ready to direct a feature,” Johnson added to Variety, teasing why she cast “amazing” Cha Cha Real Smooth costar Vanessa Burghardt in the untitled flick. “I don’t have the confidence, but, with her, I feel very protective and I know her very well. I can see this world, so I just won’t let anybody else do it. That’s the real answer.”

Johnson has been acting since high school, getting her big break in 2010’s The Social Network. 

“I didn’t get in [to The Juilliard School] and my dad cut me off because I didn’t go to college. So, I started auditioning,” she recalled in a May interview with Elle UK. “I think I was 19 when I did The Social Network, and then little jobs and stuff after that.”

Dakota is the daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, who also each have multiple children from other relationships.