'Fifty Shades Darker' Actress Dakota Johnson Doesn't Regret Her Role In Trilogy For One Key Reason

With 2015 behind us, actress Dakota Johnson is looking back at her time working on one of the most popular and controversial movies of the year. Despite its critical backlash, Johnson says she has no regrets taking on the role of Anastasia Steele in the live-action adaptation of the novel “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Speaking to Vogue U.K., the actress opened up about a great many things, such as her distaste for Hollywood’s often ageist treatment of actresses in the industry and how she’s unsure if she’ll ever work again each time she’s between roles. When the conversation turned to her most iconic role to date, the 26-year-old film star said she remains proud of her role in the movie and has no plans to try and remove herself or her reputation from the blossoming franchise.

“I don’t need to distance myself from [‘Fifty Shades of Grey’],” Johnson told the outlet (via Entertainment Tonight). “The more work I do, the more the general public sees the different things I can do. Do I think it opened doors? Yeah. More people know my name.”

It seems as though Johnson doesn’t feel the need to backpedal on her previous excitement to be in the very popular, and sexually provocative, movie. Thanks to its popularity, it clearly propelled Johnson’s career to a place the former indie actress may never have gone. Ironically, the very thing Johnson credits as the biggest appeal of her involvement with the film was the thing she was most worried about before the movie came out. Speaking to American Vogue in January 2015, just weeks before “Fifty Shades of Grey” hit theaters, Johnson confessed that she was worried about her profile increasing too far too fast.

“I think about my dwindling anonymity,” she said. “And that’s really scary because a very large part of me would be perfectly happy living on a ranch in Colorado and having babies and chickens and horses — which I will do anyway.”

Fortunately for fans, Johnson is still on board with the film franchise going into the highly anticipated upcoming sequel, “Fifty Shades Darker,” which is also based on a novel by author E.L. James. As previously reported, Johnson will return in the sequel, currently scheduled for a Feb. 10, 2017 release date.