Dakota Johnson | ZFF Masters 2025 | «I'm always second-guessing myself»

Zurich Film Festival. Conversations that celebrate cinema. Cause life is better with movies. Today we're in for a beautiful hour here. Together with a very talented actress that I'm sure most of us adore very much. She balances major studio projects with daring indies and critically acclaimed comedies. Just like the movie that she brought here to Zurich with, Splitzville, that premiered at the festival last night. Beyond acting, she co-founded her own production company, Tea Time Pictures. Looking forward to talk about that and much more. We all know her from great films such as Suspiria, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Cha Cha Real Smooth. Any Fifty Shades of Grey fans in here? Yeah. Alright. Give her a warm welcome. Here's Dakota Johnson. Hi Dakota. Please take a seat. Here's your microphone. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time. I said that you're a little bit under the weather, so we appreciate it the more that you took the time to come out here. I'm happy to be here. Swiss medicine is amazing. Yeah. We wish you get to hopefully experience a little bit of the beauty our city has to offer a little bit later on. But thank you so much for taking the time to be with us here today. It's been really fun to watch, of course I've seen a few of your films prior to knowing that I'm going to have the pleasure of interviewing you. But I saw a few more in the meantime and I was really excited about all the different genres and the great films that you've been able to put together over the years. Also congratulations on winning the Golden Eye Award last night. Thank you. But let's start with your childhood, which we all know. Let's start. What hour were you born? 2.49. I'm really into astrology, so I know my whole birth chart. Do you want to tell us about it? No. Well, what we do know is that, of course, Melanie Griffith is your mother, Don Johnson, your father, Tippi Hedren, your grandmother. And then, of course, also Antonio Banderas is a father figure in your life. Tell us a bit about how it was growing up and, of course, also how that shaped your future. What was to come? Well, you know, I was basically born on set. I was born in Austin, Texas, because my dad was filming a movie there. And then, I think six days later, he wrapped and we moved somewhere else and someone else was. So I just kind of grew up on set. And I grew up around filmmakers. I grew up around really creative people. And I always was so fascinated. I was so in awe of how movies were made and the magic that people carried with them. And I was always watching from the sidelines, you know, and I couldn't wait to be a part of it myself. And when my mom married Antonio, I was six years old and so we moved to Spain. And so I have family in Spain. And then, you know, Antonio made a vida in Budapest. And so we lived there for eight months or something. So my life has been really such a gift and so extraordinary. Of course, it comes with the fact that I never really went to a real school until I was ten. I didn't really have a lot of friends consistently growing up. But it made me a very sort of malleable and embracive person. Embracive of people of all kinds and cultures of all kinds. And when you reflect on that time, was it kind of acting that you drew towards in the beginning? Or was there other elements of the filmmaking process at an early age that fascinated you? I think it was mostly acting early on. I was always watching my mom get ready and trying on her shoes and her jewelry and things. And I just loved watching her prepare to work and then I loved watching her work. And it seemed like it felt so good. Even if she was doing a difficult scene, I wasn't really allowed to watch those, obviously. But I don't know, I just loved the focus and the artistry of acting. So at first it was that. And then as I developed my own relationship with this industry and with filmmaking, I sort of have veered in a path of more of a holistic way of making films by producing and working closely with writers and directors. I can't wait to get to that as well with T-Time Pictures and many of the other projects that you have also coming up. One final question on the childhood part is your parents did try to protect you from getting into the business too soon. You did have that first role, Crazy in Alabama, I think, at the age of 10. But that was just so kind of a one-off. And then it was not until a little bit later with the social network when you were 20. Did you feel as a teenager like, I want to get to this faster? Or did you understand that your parents were protecting you? I mean, I didn't have a choice. It was like a hard no. And yes, when I was a teenager, I did want to work. I also, you know, my mom's agents were always trying to send things to me. So I remember when I was 16, I read the script for Juno. And I was like, oh my God, please, can I audition? And they wouldn't let me. Which is totally fine because obviously Elliot Page was amazing in that film. And that's perfect. But I, you know, I craved working. And I also was told that if I didn't go to college, my father said that I would be off the payroll. And so I said, okay. And I didn't go to college. I started working and I started supporting myself. And then I think I booked the social network when I was 19 and we filmed when I was 20. And in those earlier years as an actress, you built your own career. You kind of worked it step by step with also some smaller roles as any actor or actress would. But was it very beneficial to have kind of the name in the family? Or was it also hard because you wanted to also make your own path? It was hard because I think there's this obvious feeling of, oh, you think you can do this just because your parents do it? So it was tough. People were tough on me and casting directors especially were like, okay, get out of here. It's not always an easy business, especially that earlier stage of it all. But then, of course, the day came when you auditioned for Fifty Shades of Grey. Tell us a bit about that whole auditioning process and how wild that time was and how you must have felt when you got that call or that confirmation with that role. Yeah, that was, the whole thing is so bananas. But I was so young. I was 23 when I was auditioning and I auditioned, my audition piece was a monologue from Persona. And I was like, oh, they're really going to make this movie very intense and good and sort of veer to the more auteur version. And I loved that. And then the script at the time was written by Patrick Marber, who's one of my favorite screenwriters. And it just seemed like, wow, this is going to be, you know, all the, I was learning. I hadn't seen nine and a half weeks before I had auditioned for the film, but I was given all these comps to sort of learn what we were going to be making. And I was like, oh, wow, okay, this is very intense. And then a lot of things happened. And I think I know some of them and I think I don't know a lot of them. And it became a very different project, but it was still Sam Taylor-Johnson directing the first one. And I really trusted her and we were sort of in it together. And originally Charlie Hunnam was set to play my part, what's it called? Co-star? Partner. And then that didn't work out. And then Jamie Dornan came on, who's amazing and lovely. And it all, I think, ended up as it's supposed to be. But it was a very wild experience. And I was so young. And then I remember the day that it was announced that I was cast, I saw my name on CNN. Like, I was watching the news and on the bottom of it, it said, like, Fifty Shades of Grey cast. And then my name, and I was just like, excuse me? What? Breaking news. Yeah, it was truly like on the banner on the bottom, it was breaking news and my name on the news and on CNN. And I was like, what? Like, this is crazy. I just, I don't know. Even growing up in a family that was quite famous at times, I just, for my own self, it was jarring. And then, you know, the rest happened. I mean, it was a phenomenon. I mean, more than a billion dollars at the box office, the whole trilogy obviously catapulted you to stardom. Talking about being so young and being in the business, and yes, you have had seen a lot through your parents, but going through it yourself, something completely different. How did you stay grounded? Were there moments where you're like, ooh, this is getting all a bit crazy? Did you have good friends or did your parents help you? How did you stay grounded? You seem very grounded until today, but there must have been different phases. I, you know, I think I've been so inside of this industry that I've seen the bullshit so up close that I just don't buy into it. And I don't believe I'm above anyone. I don't believe that what we do making movies is saving the world. I do think it reaches people's hearts, which is what I care about the most. But I don't know. I guess, yes, I grew up with amazing people around me. I had friends. I had friends' parents that were, you know, I was exposed to so many different things. It's not like I was raised in a little bubble of privilege. I also dealt with a lot of private family matters that were really intense and a lot for a child. And, you know, adult subject matter that a kid probably shouldn't deal with, like addiction and things. And I think it makes you or it made me be just knowing that life comes in waves and is up and down. And the more you can be true to yourself and the more you can really take care of people around you and allow yourself to be taken care of, I think the more grounded you can be. It's my cue to stop talking about my personal life. At least you didn't lose it along the way. It's hard sometimes, especially when you're part of such a franchise and it's kind of like that kickstart to not get typecast. And, you know, many, many actors and actresses end up getting typecast and for some it works, right? But it's always nice to see actors and actresses who have such a wide range in their, you know, kind of repertoire of films that they've done. So in those years after, was it, I mean, you made yourself such a name but were interesting projects coming your way and it was easy to pick those interesting ones that you ended up doing? Or were just a lot of trash coming your way as well? How easy was it to kind of take the path that you took after this phenomenon? Not easy. I think after something like that people expect a certain performance or a certain person and I'm just not interested in that. I think there's so many facets of myself, of my soul that I want to explore through my work that, you know, I just, like when I was, I think I was filming Fifty Shades and Scott Cooper asked if we could meet about Black Mass. And that was something that I was like, yeah, of course I would play Johnny Depp's wife in a movie, even though I was like way too young. But I did it anyway. I, there were, yes, the answer is yes. There were, you know, weird projects coming towards me but then also I just really wanted to stay true to myself. Speaking of Black Mass, from what I understand, Johnny was friends with your dad, Don. So I think you met him ahead of time in your childhood. A, yeah, what memories do you have of those days? And B, when shooting Black Mass, did you take away anything exciting from working with Johnny? And I mean, just watching that film, I love that film, I rewatched it. I know it's a smaller role but those scenes are so intense. And I'll just ask you three questions at once, I'm sorry. But like, yeah, how was it working with Johnny? And tell us about the intensity of that shoot and those scenes. I mean, watching an actor like Johnny work is so electrifying. He's so talented. And I've had a few experiences in my life, in my career, where I'm working across someone that I'm just, you're just like, what? This is crazy and you're so talented. So it was inspiring. And also working with Scott Cooper, he's an incredible director and I felt like I was lucky to be involved in a movie like that. And I assume the better your counterpart, maybe also the better you raise, or the more you raise your own bar, at least that's how I feel when I play tennis. But I assume in acting it's something similar as well. Let's talk about some of the other great films. I watch about seven, eight films and I had so much fun doing so. One, I watched twice. Wait, what did you say? Seven or eight films a night? No, no, in the last... Oh, you watched seven or eight of my films? Yeah, in the last 14 days. What? Yeah, no, I don't sleep. Suspiria, I had to watch twice. Number one, because it was intense and I'm not necessarily a big horror person, but I loved the film. Psychological and all that. Tell us about preparing for that role. I think it kind of took you to some dark places in preparing for that mentally and physically. Could you share a bit about that? Yeah, so Suspiria was the second movie I made with Luca Guadagnino. And we started talking about Suspiria while we were finishing filming A Bigger Splash. And I started to do a sort of deep dive into this world. Obviously into Dario Argento's world, but the way Luca and I were talking about it for a very long time. Luca Tilda and I were talking about it for a very long time. And I was training for like four months before we were filming, dancing. And I danced growing up, so it was really fun for me. I did hurt myself so much. I tore my labrum in my hip. I hurt my back and had to go to the hospital in the middle of filming. It was wild. But I just loved it, that process so much. And working with Damien Chalet, who is the choreographer of the film. He does dance counts as 1 and 2 and 3, not like 5, 6, 7, 8. So it's very confusing. Then Tom York was doing the score of the film and he was sitting in on our rehearsals. And Radiohead is my favorite band in the world. So this whole experience was just like blowing my mind. And then when we were filming the movie, we were filming in a town called Varese, which is north of Milan in Italy. And it's like this abandoned hotel at the top of a mountain. And on top of the hotel was all of these electrical towers. So everyone was shocking each other all day. And you'd have to go and wash your hands to get the electricity out of your body. I was doing dream work, kind of Stella Adler dream work, where you ask your dreams to give you information about your character. And I started to have excruciating nightmares and night terrors. And I wasn't sleeping. And then the abandoned hotel, surely it was haunted. Surely. And all the demons were attached to me. I'm being very dramatic. It wasn't really like this. But I got home and I felt like I needed an exorcism. I didn't get one. I didn't really need one. But I'm an actress, so I'm allowed to be dramatic. Our takeaways, do not study Stella Adler. No, I'm kidding. Peanut Butter Falcon, another heartwarming story. It must have been as heartwarming creating it as it is for us watching it. How is it working with Zach and of course also Shia? And also, in generic terms as well, that chemistry that the three of you have, and I assume that you go on projects where sometimes you have zero lead time to meet with people and prep and rehearse, and sometimes you have more. But tell us how it was with Peanut Butter Falcon and working with those two. Yeah, that was the best time of my life. If somebody said to me today, you have to go back to that moment, I would go back in a second. I loved making that movie so much. And I was so in love with those two people and who they were to each other. The relationship between Zach and Shia was really incredible to witness. Obviously, Shia is a very complicated person. And Zach is an angel on earth. And the two of them bonding in the way they did just exploded my heart. It was absolutely magical. We did everything together. We'd have breakfast together. We'd go to work together. We'd have dinner. We'd watch movies. We would watch wrestling because Zach loved wrestling. We were always together. And it was so fun. A lot of times when I'm on set, it's very isolating. Some actors don't want to hang out or talk to you. Who doesn't want to hang out with you? I'm not a ---- talker. But that's just some people's process. They don't want to... They're so in it, whatever. But it was just such a beautiful time. And the story was beautiful. I just felt like everyone's hearts were bursting open. And it was incredible to witness. If you haven't watched it, you have to watch it. Zach has Down syndrome and plays a character with Down syndrome. And it's so fascinating to watch. Let's talk a bit about Tea Time. You touched on it in the very beginning. And I know it's dear to your heart to tell fresh stories or give a chance to original stories and kind of champion fresh new ideas. And you started this project with, from what I heard, one of your best friends, or your best friend, Ro O'Donnelly. Tell us about how this partnership came about and what kind of the trajectory is that you guys are now taking. So, yes, Ro is my best friend. She's like my life partner. She's everything to me. And she and I, we were friends and we had very similar taste in music. She was an exec at Netflix for five years. And music, movies, did I say music? Did I? I meant movie. I'm here. I'm fine. We also have similar taste in music, which is good. She was an exec at Netflix. And we just started to sort of dream up this idea of what if there was a world where we could in-house build our own way of making films. What if we could kind of reverse engineer the process and make it really wonderful and a good time and fulfilling and make sure that everyone is kind and loving and embracive of each other and collaborative. And that's not always the case on movie sets. There's this idea of this hierarchy on sets that really segregates people. And it's not great. It doesn't serve the process of making a movie because you can't make a movie by yourself. You need so many people to make a decent film. So we started to build our company called Tea Time. And we now have a staff of people that we're developing so many things. We've made a bunch of movies. And we work with people that want to keep working with us and that we want to keep working with. So now we have a kind of collective of artists that if we're like, okay, we're going to make this movie in the fall, then let's get this person, this person, this person. And they all want to do it. And so it's like, I don't know, it's just become a really, really wonderful process of working and different to my early years in this industry. And up until recently, it was an all-female team as well, right? I think you hired Nelson. It is an all-female team. We have one man working. He's gay. How? He's very feminine. How is he holding up? He's obsessed with us. He's in LA right now and he's emailing. We're like, go to sleep. Also part of the reason I think why I assume you're fascinated and passionate about taking also more control of these projects is you said that just like you told us now with Fifty Shades of Grey and there was other movies too like Madam Web I think where you kind of like, you know, you sign on to a project, read the script and then go watch it in the theater or see it for the first time. And it's a completely different film. Yeah, it happens. It's crazy. And there's nothing much you can do about it, right? I mean, like, because once you sign, you sign and there's no clause that says... No, there's nothing you can do unless you're a producer. And that's taken me so long to get to that place. But yeah, if I can't get into the edit or see an early cut or have a say on anything, I show up and I'm like, well, I guess this is it. Like, I can't do anything about it. And for a long time, and I think for a lot of especially actresses, they don't take you seriously. They don't take your ideas seriously or your thoughts seriously. And like, I actually do feel like I know what will work. And a lot of the times I say it and then it doesn't, especially on things I'm not involved with. Well, mostly, always on things I'm not involved with. But yeah, it's a really wild experience. Like, can you imagine if a musician wrote an album and then sent it to the studio or recorded an album, sent it to the studio and then they released it with them having ever heard the final... Like, that's unbelievable. That would never happen. Like, it's a wild industry. I find it so wild, too, that my wife works in the industry, too. And I always thought like, okay, the script first, right? And I know very often that's the case. Like, who's directing it? And how much did that film gross? And who's the lead? And it's like, oh, the script's not so important. But it's all about the content. So it's great that you're, of course, taking control there. I think you also have the desire to direct. You have directed a short called Loser Baby, which is a proof of concept about a queer story in L.A. which premiered the short at TIFF but has been also quite tough to get done, right? And you said in one of your interviews as well, it's like it's a topic that people are interested in. It's current. Tell us about some of those challenges and tell us about... Are you going to make a feature out of it? I mean, I'd love to. Our aim was for Loser Baby to be a TV show about a group of queer friends in Los Angeles. I mean, it could have been anywhere, but it was set in Los Angeles because that's where we were. And it's really funny. And it's very real. And it's very honest. And it is like a very underrepresented group of people. And it just wasn't something any of the streaming platforms were interested in. But anyone that has seen it is like, I would watch this. I don't get it. How do you make authentic stories? I mean, I'm not whining or complaining. I have had the opportunity to work in this industry for a long time, and I'm so grateful. And I have been able to tell... Splitsville is a different kind of film, and Peanut Butter Falcon... I've made movies I'm so proud of. I'm so proud of all of them, even if they suck. No, but I think it's important for people to know, yes, of course, you're blessed with a lot of things, but you work hard, and there's blood, sweat and tears, and there's ups and downs, and things don't come easy in this industry, which is, until today, just a very tough industry. Let's talk about Splitsville. I had the pleasure, of course, of meeting Michael yesterday. I would have loved to meet Kyle and Adrian and everyone else who was involved in that because it's such a good film, and at the opening night, the feedback was just like, it's such a good film, it's such a laugh out loud. For us, it's just a perfect scenario because sometimes we have a bit more darker films. Did people laugh last night? Oh, yeah. There was a lot of laughing. Great. Congratulations also for world premiering it at Cannes Film Festival for the first time. To be at Cannes for the first time having produced a film, I just never thought that would happen. I also was totally shocked by the reaction of the audience. I was like, what's happening? Why are they laughing so much? It was just crazy. Even walking into the theater, I was like, I don't know if this is going to work, guys. I guess people liked it, so that was really nice. That was the best party anyone's ever been to in their lives. Give us a little hint why it was so good. People were dancing on the tables. Jason Momoa was spraying champagne on people. It was bananas. I don't know. I just sat there being like, what? If you can extend a little bit, Christian, can we put up a party like that? Maybe we need to now rival and we'll make that happen for you. Dance. There we go. Everyone will be dancing on the tables. You met with Michael and Kyle one year ahead of shooting and obviously came on board first with T-Time, also ahead of Neon. T-Time was part of it from an early stage. Tell us about T-Time's involvement in preparing but also during production. Being able to relay what happened and remembering also what happened, those beats on scene and then going into the editing room. Tell us about that whole process. I met with Mike and Kyle a year before. They went away and developed it more. I had a lot going on in that time anyway. I don't even remember what we did. They came back with this script that was so special and so funny and their tone is so specific and their brand of comedy is so special that I was just like, oh, we have to make this. It's very on brand for T-Time. It's a wild subject but it's poignant, it's heartfelt and it's also just ridiculous which is very us. Then with Adam Newport-Berra being the DP, it just was like, oh, it'll also be the producers and then as the characters started to develop, I was like, yeah, I'll do that one. Early on, I actually was a year before looking at the role that Adria plays, the Ashley role and then I switched but whatever. Then we filmed the movie and we shot it in Montreal. We shot it very quickly and then in post, yeah, we're all hands on deck, all of us, especially Sam Raconelli who's sitting here from my company. She was on set with me the whole time because Ro was having a baby and that's the other thing about T-Time. We are a company of women who have families, who have partners, who have lives going on and so we're really working hard to keep jobs going for all of us and creating a world where we can also still have the other side of being a woman which is like being pregnant, raising a baby. Ro also worked until she was eight and a half months pregnant which I was like, you should stop and she's like, don't tell me what to do and she came back two weeks later. It was so annoying. I'll be like, I'm taking three years off but that is one of the amazing things about T-Time is where we are not going to compromise our lives for this job. We're going to expand the job to fit us into it as women. Where can one apply for a job? Truly at any time email Sam. The world needs more T-Times for sure. Or email Isaac. He's awake. The shoot Splitsville I mean, it looked so funny. It was so absurd. There were so many crazy funny scenes and Michael was sharing a little bit about the fighting scene and how they shot that and how they choreographed that. What was for you kind of like was there like a peak where you're like oh my god on set this is getting crazy or was it all day? I know it was shot in 28 days. My favorite day on set was when Nick Braun Nicholas Braun was there. He is one of my favorite people in the world. He's we've made like five or six movies together now. And I just he's like the funniest person and watching him work was just the best. That was my favorite day. And also we were shooting in Montreal which was beautiful. It was a beautiful time of year. It was like crispy outside and everything looked gorgeous. It was just lovely. Yeah. It's a great film and we're so honored that we were able to premiere it here at the at Berserk Film Festival. Of course it's about you know kind of broken relationships the chaos of love and also open marriage and Michael's mentioning or open relationships Michael's mentioning that he got inspired by some of his friends who you know have an open relationship and say everything's great. It all works out great. And then half a year later they get divorced. Did you draw from any of those real life friends? I feel like we're all aware that it never works. I haven't heard any stories. I don't really know closely about that but I can't think of any person I know that that's worked out for them. It's just like a film. But also monogamous marriage doesn't work out for a lot of people so I don't know. I don't have the answers. You brought your mom to the L.A. premiere. Was that a nice evening? Did she have a good time? What did she say? I think she did have a good time. Did she? Did she like the movie? She laughed. That's a positive. Yeah, my family was there. Well, my siblings and my mom. Some fun facts about you is that you love to sleep. I mean, who doesn't? But you sleep for many hours. How many hours on a normal basis when you are at home? Like 9, 10? Is that crazy? I thought This is the most interesting topic of my life now. Everyone's talking about it. 9, 10 is not that, but 12 on a regular basis is a good amount of sleep. I did sleep almost 12 hours last night. But I was not well. You sure you weren't dancing on any tables? I think so. We don't know about that. Another interesting fact about you is you love to cook. Tell us a bit about that. What do you enjoy cooking? Anything, really. I really love a fresh pasta, like a fresh tomato pasta, but steak, I love to grill, I love to bake. What do you bake? Cookies, cakes. I make a really crazy chocolate cake. It's very healthy, surprisingly. We have some really, really yummy Swiss Christmas cookies. Okay. Yeah. Where? Maybe we can. But you know it's difficult, I'm allergic to gluten, so I have to, that's why I bake and make things myself because I can substitute things. But if you have any gluten-free cookies, I'll eat them. We'll get you a recipe. I'm also really excited for the chocolate, obviously. You haven't tried it? No. Okay. We'll take some with you, I'm sure they'll give it to you. I was given a lot of Toblerone, which is my favorite chocolate. Thank you so much. Thank you for mentioning that. Let's talk a little bit about the future. We've talked about wanting to direct or wanting to direct more. Cha-Cha-Cha Real Smooth is one of those films, by the way, probably, well, it's hard to say which one was your favorite, but it was one of my favorites out of all of them. You produced in it, you starred in it, alongside Vanessa Burkhart, who's on the spectrum. There's probably more coming out of it. Tell us about how it was working with her and how that sparked potentially now developing a film with her script. Yeah, so Vanessa played my daughter in Cha-Cha and she is one of the most extraordinary people, extraordinary minds I've ever met. She's hyper talented. She's an incredible writer, artist, musician. She can play every instrument. She sings. For my birthday, she has really specific taste in music and even if she hates a song, like Ro loves Celine Dion more than anything. For Ro's birthday, Vanessa recorded every single part and sang a Celine Dion song for her and then filmed it all and put it together like a music video where she's every band member and it's brilliant and amazing and she hates Celine Dion but because Ro loves Celine Dion, it was like the best thing in the world. So, you know, making Cha-Cha, that was Vanessa's first movie and her first time really having friends. She was 16 when we made the movie and she had never had friends and Ro and I just like adore her and treat her like a normal person and, you know, sometimes people on the spectrum have different things they need to do to express their energy or their anxiety and when you don't make it a weird thing, like she just felt more comfortable and I just don't think that's weird at all. So, when we finished the movie, Vanessa was really sort of anxious and concerned about what she was supposed to do with her life now. She was like, I don't know, what am I going to go back to the suburbs of New Jersey after being on set every day and making a movie. So, we started to work with her writing her life story from as early as she could remember. So, she started to write from when she was actually nonverbal as a four or five year old. And it's incredible what she remembers and the detail and the honesty, the rawness and she's so funny. She's so dry and it's amazing. So, then we were like, this is actually an incredible movie. So, we taught her how to use Final Draft and we worked with her on writing a script about a young woman who is autistic who struggles to connect with other autistic people and also with neurotypical people. She really doesn't like being around other autistic people. She's like, you're weird, get away from me. So, it's so funny. So, she wrote this incredible script and I think we will be making this movie fairly soon. Yeah, I was going to ask you what stage it's in. Okay, sounds great. One last question and then I'd like to open up to the room. It's going to be a great opportunity for all of you. Give it a thought if you haven't already. There's another project that I think is fascinating that you might develop with Elaine May who is 93 years old and hasn't done a feature since 1987. How did that project come about and what stage is that in? This movie, we've been trying to make it for 12 years and I think we might make it soon. We kind of have to. It's very bizarre. It's called Crackpot. It's really funny and strange and Elaine is going to direct it. I don't know. We'll see what happens. I hear it's not so easy with insurance and all that kind of stuff. That would be so wonderful to shoot a movie with her. It goes to show. It's never too late for anything. Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of hands up. We love to see that. Can someone help me with this? Oh, microphone over there. Can someone help with this? We're going to quickly cross over. Over there. Wonderful. First of all, I really love you. I'm a big fan. My question is for young performers and actors, especially here in Switzerland, what would you say is more important, mastering technique or finding your unique voice? Oh, definitely your unique voice. For sure. Technique will come. And it always evolves, I think. But your true self, absolutely. Or, you know, just what you, whatever your specific tone is in your deepest heart. Way more important than technique. Technique is boring. Okay. Hi. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Really appreciate you. It kind of sounds like you followed your intuition from your art when you were like very young and knew that you wanted to be in movies and in the industry. My question to you is, was following this intuition hard or did it make it easy for you, especially in such a tough industry? It's hard to follow your intuition I think in any way. Because you always, like, I'm always second-guessing myself. But I think when you exercise really following your heart and your gut, you almost know what the answer is. Like, I feel like I always, there's definitely been times where I've gone against my intuition and made decisions that haven't panned out as I thought they would. But also, I have probably learned so much from that. So it's not, I don't know, yes, in an industry like this, especially with pressure, outside pressure of like, oh, I need to be a certain way or make a certain kind of impact or a certain kind of movie, whatever, yes, of course, it can feel jarring or scary to follow my intuition, but I really do my best. Because that's, I think, what any of us can do if we really just listen to our hearts and we know the right thing. Yeah, thank you for bringing the your own identity and path as an actress, but maybe a banal question, is there any particular character in your mom's or Antonio Bandera's movie career that has always inspired you and you would like to replay? Thank you for asking that. I would always love to be Zorro. I've been waiting to be asked that question my whole life. Antonio has gotten to do some pretty amazing roles, I can't lie. Desperado? Are you kidding? But I mean, no, I actually haven't thought about any roles from Antonio's career seriously, but my mom's, I don't know. It's weird because she's my mom, you know? So if I think of a movie, there's like some sort of sexual element of it, and then that makes me feel weird. Yeah, maybe stop there. Okay, that's great. Hello, Dakota, thank you very much for being here and for your time. You told you began very young as an actress, you came from a line of actors in your family, and I just wanted to ask you, because you know so well this industry and acting as well, which advice would you give someone who became a little bit older, like, I don't know, 47 or so? Thank you very much. Someone who's 47 who wants to start acting? Are you 47? Are you asking for a friend? Thank you, I'm asking for myself. Yes, I gathered. I don't know, you seem like a lovely, charming person, so why not just try? I feel like there's room for everyone in this industry. I don't believe in this ageist bullshit. All right, one last question. We have time for one last question. Thank you. Hi, Dakota, it's great to have you here today. I would like to ask you how it was living in Spain. It's so different living in the States than living in Spain. Thank you. I love living in Spain. I mean, my little sister, Stella, was born in Spain and it was so wonderful and fun. I learned Spanish. I mean, my Spanish is pretty horrible these days, but if I spend enough time in Spain, I'm pretty good. But I think I had a great time. We, I don't know who was working there, but it was between Madrid, Marbella, and Malaga. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for coming out. Dakota, thank you for taking the time. Thank you so much for having me. Everyone, give it up for Dakota Johnson. Thank you.