Dakota Johnson attends Women In Cinema during Red Sea International Film Festival 2025. Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Dakota Johnson revealed she has a "love-hate relationship" with aspects of her job as an actress, and now as a producer, due to the "shady" elements in the entertainment industry, as well as the "exhausting" internal battles she has to endure as a performer trying "fight with myself to get to an emotional place." Taking part in the "In Conversation With" talk series at Saudi Arabia's Red Sea International Film Festival on Friday, a candid Johnson opened up about her career, reflecting on particular projects she was most proud of and providing insights on her push to become a producer through her production company TeaTime Pictures. Related Stories TV 'School Spirits' Reveals First Look at Season 3, Sets January Return Movies Timothée Chalamet Dances to "Crank That," Wears Fan-Made Flag of His Face in High-Energy Brazil Visit Johnson spoke at length about her difficulties with the darker side of Hollywood, something she has had to deal with more and more since she moved into producing and financing her projects. "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, "But then both [producing and acting] are so incredibly fulfilling, and I feel very grateful that I'm able to do both." She added that she found producing as more of a challenge than acting because "there's something about acting where I feel I'm in a bubble, and [with] producing you see behind the curtain, and it's really ugly." Adding that she both doesn't like that, but also loves it at the same time. Asked why she was moving into producing, Johnson said that from "watching my parents work and watching how they would engage with filmmakers and producers and collaborators, I always wanted to be a larger part of the project." She added that as her career developed she "just wanted to make my own projects and explore parts of myself and my artistry that I think other people weren't seeing." Dakota Johnson takes a selfie with fans at the opening night red carpet for 'Giant' at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2025. Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Imagesfor the Red Sea International Film Festival The Materialists star runs TeaTime with her producing partner and best friend Ro Donnelly, and the company has been behind the indie features Splitsville (2025), Daddio (2023), Am I OK? (2022) and Sundance winner Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022), as well as the documentary The Disappearance of Shere Hite (2023). Johnson said the company is focusing "mostly female-driven, human experience projects." "I want to make movies about women and people that are going through some sort of evolution internally or externally," she said. TeaTime is also producing Johnson's feature directorial debut, A Tree Is Blue, which stars fellow Red Sea attendee, and budding producer, Jessica Alba. Johnson, who is the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and the granddaughter of screen legend Tippi Hedren, said she "always wanted to be an actress," and "always wanted to do what I saw my mom doing," but the experience has not always been smooth, and confessed that she's taken on projects in the past that weren't "right for me." "I'm learning more now how to choose what's right for me," she said. "I think I've definitely been persuaded to do some things in the past that I realized, in retrospect, weren't right for me. But that's also part of the experience, and I'm lucky to have a job." Reflecting on her career, Johnson said that working on Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz's 2019 dramedy The Peanut Butter Falcon was one of the "greatest experiences" of her career. "We were shooting in Savannah, Georgia and, it was just me and [Zack Gottsagen] who plays Zak, Shia LaBeouf, and we were like together every day, all day. We had all of our meals together. We were like a little family." Johnson said she really connected with her co-star Gottsagen, and that "Zack brought this energy that was so pure." She continued, "He just is such a performer and such a talented actor. I just feel like [working with him] was a total gift to my life. I don't know how to explain what that experience was, but I think it translates when people see the movie because you can feel the love behind it." Dakota Johnson attends Women In Cinema event during Red Sea International Film Festival 2025. Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival Johnson also spoke about the two films she made with Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, A Bigger Splash (2015) and Suspiria (2018