Dakota Johnson revealed that she has secretly been friends with Madonna since childhood, after a photo of them went viral last month.
Madonna posted a shot of herself and Dakota with Dave Chappelle, plus the singer’s manager Guy Oseary, at a birthday party for Tom Cruise’s agent Maha Dhakil.
Fans went into meltdown over the connection between the Materialists actress and the Queen of Pop – which Dakota has now explained.
She shared that their bond dates back to 1996 when Madonna starred in Evita with Antonio Banderas, who was then married to Dakota’s mother Melanie Griffith.
‘I really love her,’ said the 35-year-old Fifty Shades of Grey actress, while speaking to E! News. ‘We’ve been like weird friends for awhile.’
She described Madonna as having ‘an energy to be near that is so beautiful and so wild. It’s just like cool that she even wants to talk to me.’
Madonna posted a shot of herself and Dakota Johnson with Dave Chappelle, plus the singer’s manager Guy Oseary, at a birthday party for Tom Cruise’s agent Maha Dhakil
Dakota explained: ‘I met her when I was really young because she did a movie with my stepfather, and then I got to know her later ‘cause we were gonna work together on something and we’ve always kind of circled each other.’
Although Melanie and Antonio split up in 2014, Dakota has maintained warm ties to him and revealed a few years ago that she still refers to him as ‘Papi.’
Recently Dakota, whose father is Miami Vice star Don Johnson and whose maternal grandmother is Hitchcock blonde Tippi Hedren, gave her view of the sort of person she would prefer not to have as a colleague.
‘I can’t waste time on toxic sets anymore, or in situations that are not fun or fulfilling or healthy,’ she told Variety, elaborating that she had no desire to work with ‘anybody who’s mean or condescending or unkind.’
She added: ‘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.’
Dakota clarified: ‘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.’
The remarks came six years after her awkward on-air clash with Ellen DeGeneres, whose long-running daytime talk show ended in 2022 amid a torrent of allegations that she had presided over a ‘toxic’ work environment.
In 2019, Ellen had Dakota on her show and pointedly accused the young actress of not having invited her to her 30th birthday party.
She shared that their bond dates back to 1996 when Madonna starred in Evita with Antonio Banderas; the pair are pictured together in the film
At the time when Evita was made, Antonio was married to Dakota’s movie star mother Melanie Griffith, whom he is pictured with in Los Angeles in 2012
Although Melanie and Antonio split up in 2014, Dakota has maintained warm ties to him and revealed that she still refers to him as ‘Papi’; Antonio and Dakota pictured 2019
‘Actually no, that’s not the truth, Ellen. You were invited,’ said Dakota, in a moment that became a lasting viral meme online.
‘Last time I was on the show last year, you gave me a bunch of s*** about not inviting you, but I didn’t even know you wanted to be invited. I didn’t even know you liked me!’
Ellen then backpedaled, asking a crew member: ‘I was invited? Why didn’t I go? Oh yeah, I had a thing. It was probably in Malibu. That’s too far for me to go ― I think I do remember I was invited. But I really didn’t remember that until just now.’
It later emerged that Ellen was unavailable the night of Dakota’s party because she was with George W. Bush attending a Dallas Cowboys game.
After Ellen’s show ended in 2022 in a maelstrom of controversy about the backstage treatment of staff, she largely withdrew from the spotlight.
She and her wife Portia de Rossi led a mainly private life in Montecito, and have since decamped to England, settling in the Cotswolds.
Last year she staged a comeback, going on tour with an act called Ellen’s Last Stand…Up, which was filmed as the Netflix special For Your Approval.
While promoting her tour, she addressed the scandal that had overshadowed her career, saying she was ‘kicked out of show business’ for being ‘mean.’
She recalled: ‘The hate went on for a long time and I would try to avoid looking at the news. The “be kind” girl wasn’t kind. That was the headline,’ via Rolling Stone.
In 2019, Ellen DeGeneres had Dakota on her show and pointedly accused the young actress of not having invited her to her 30th birthday party
‘Actually no, that’s not the truth, Ellen,’ said Dakota, in a moment that became a lasting viral meme online: ‘You were invited’
Sarcastically saying there are ‘no mean people in show business,’ she noted: ‘I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps.’
Ellen joked: ‘Do you know how hard it is to dance up steps? Would a mean person dance up steps? Had I ended my show by saying: “Go f*** yourself,” people would’ve been pleasantly surprised.’
She confessed she ‘didn’t know how to be a boss’ and pointed out she learned to practice her profession at ‘Charlie’s Chuckle Hut’ rather than at business school.
‘The show was called Ellen and everybody was wearing T-shirts that said “Ellen” and there were buildings on the Warner Brothers lot that said Ellen, but I don’t know that that meant I should be in charge,’ she observed.
Madonna’s own behind-the-scenes behavior has been subject to criticism by no less than her fellow pop star Cher, who has described her as ‘rude’ and a ‘b****.’
‘It seems to me,’ Cher told Steve Kmetko on CBS in the 1990s: ‘when you reach the kind of acclaim that she’s reached, and you can do whatever you want to do, you should be a little bit more magnanimous and a little bit less of a c***.’
