Dakota Johnson will be the first to acknowledge the ‘incredible upsides’ of being the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, but their celebrity could be scary and confusing for her as a child.
‘When I was little, there were times when it was really quite scary, and people would aggressively and physically try to get to my mom when we were just going to the supermarket or something,’ the 36-year-old nepo baby recalled in her Vogue Germany cover story Tuesday.
‘If you accept that as normal as a little kid, it can lead to a lot of complexes. And then, of course, the fact that you’re in the public eye and the world knows about your private life in a way that’s very invasive, rude, and painful.’
Dakota – whose grandmother is Tippi Hedren and stepfather was Antonio Banderas – ‘grew up on set and was always surrounded by people who made movies.’
‘I always knew that my family’s profession was different than, say, my schoolmates whose moms went to the office every day,’ Johnson noted.
‘That was a challenge because it’s hard to make and keep friends when you’re on the road so much as a kid. But I always just accepted it: This is what we do. It’s in our blood.’
Dakota Johnson will be the first to acknowledge the ‘incredible upsides’ of being the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, but their celebrity could be scary and confusing for her as a child (pictured in 2015)
The 36-year-old nepo baby told Vogue Germany: ‘When I was little, there were times when it was really quite scary, and people would aggressively and physically try to get to my mom when we were just going to the supermarket or something’
The Splitsville producer-star had her 68-year-old mother to thank for her big-screen acting debut, at age nine, in her 65-year-old Spanish stepdad’s dismally-reviewed directorial debut Crazy in Alabama in 1999.
‘But I wasn’t allowed to work properly until I graduated from high school,’ Dakota noted.
At age 17, Johnson was anointed as Miss Golden Globe 2006 – an honor strictly reserved for nepo babies – in which the ambassador hands out trophies to winners and escort them offstage.
Unsurprisingly, Melanie was Miss Golden Globe 1975, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association officially discontinued the ambassadorship in 2022.
By age 18, the Independent Spirit Award winner used her famous name to easily sign with IMG for modeling in 2006, and two years later she signed with the William Morris Agency for acting.
Speaking of Griffith, Dakota’s mother taught her ‘how to take care’ of her body ‘and love them’ which gave her the confidence to don sexy red carpet attire.
‘It’s fun to wear a sexy dress,’ Johnson said.
‘And if you’re not told from a young age by the woman you look up to the most that you’re perfect and smart and special and strong and brave, it can really break you. It’s hard to re-teach yourself that love later on. That was a huge gift she gave me.’
On October 11, World of Reel reported that the Materialists actress will make her feature directorial debut helming coming-of-age drama A Tree Is Blue, which begins filming next month in LA.
Dakota will also executive produce the $10M-budget project about an autistic teen which stars Charli XCX, Jessica Alba, and Vanessa Burghardt.
She added: ‘If you accept that as normal as a little kid, it can lead to a lot of complexes. And then, of course, the fact that you’re in the public eye and the world knows about your private life in a way that’s very invasive, rude, and painful’ (pictured in 2002)
Dakota – whose grandmother is Tippi Hedren (M, pictured August 11) and stepfather was Antonio Banderas – ‘grew up on set and was always surrounded by people who made movies’
‘I always knew that my family’s profession was different than, say, my schoolmates whose moms went to the office every day,’ Johnson noted (pictured September 26)
The Splitsville producer-star had her 68-year-old mother to thank for her big-screen acting debut, at age nine, in her 65-year-old Spanish stepdad’s dismally-reviewed directorial debut Crazy in Alabama in 1999
‘But I wasn’t allowed to work properly until I graduated from high school,’ Dakota noted
At age 17, Johnson was anointed as Miss Golden Globe 2006 – the same title held by Melanie in 1975 – in which the ambassador hands out trophies to winners and escort them offstage
By age 18, the Independent Spirit Award winner used her famous name to easily sign with IMG for modeling in 2006, and two years later she signed with the William Morris Agency for acting (pictured August 19)
Dakota will make her feature directorial debut helming the coming-of-age drama A Tree Is Blue, which begins filming next month in LA (pictured September 25)
Johnson executive produced and stars as ghostwriter Lowen Ashleigh in Michael Showalter’s big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2018 novel Verity – which isn’t scheduled to hit US theaters until October 2, 2026 (pictured March 12)
Johnson previously directed the 23-minute queer short film Loser Baby in 2024, and she helmed Coldplay’s music video for Cry Cry Cry in 2020.
The Madame Web action star ended her on/off seven-year relationship with the British band’s frontman Chris Martin in June.
Dakota executive produced and stars as ghostwriter Lowen Ashleigh in Michael Showalter’s big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2018 novel Verity – which isn’t scheduled to hit US theaters until October 2, 2026.
The Amazon MGM Studios psychological romance thriller also stars Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Ismael Cruz Córdova.
Before landing her breakout role in the Fifty Shades trilogy, Johnson first caught the industry’s attention as a panty-clad Harvard University student Amelia in David Fincher’s 2010 drama The Social Network.
