Dakota Johnson touched down at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this week where the producer, actress and soon-to-be director teased her upcoming debut A Tree Is Blue and also weighed in on the impact of consolidation in Hollywood.
The Materialists star came into Deadline’s Red Sea Studio not long after Netflix won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery in an $82.7B deal. Pressed on her thoughts on the changing ecosystem in Hollywood, she said that she did not fear the demise of the entertainment business or the film industry.
“People will always fight to be creative and tell stories – I just know that to be true,” she said. “The way in which that operates will shift and change throughout time. It always has. Hollywood has been in dire situations since it started, so right now, it’s just another version of a rebirth.
“And I see that, especially since being here at this incredible festival. It is the collaboration, the excitement, the ambition behind filmmaking, the support of female filmmakers here, the stories that are being told here, the collaboration throughout nations and countries that is so beautiful and inspiring.”
Johnson also touched upon her recently announced directorial debut A Tree Is Blue, which is the story of a young woman on the autism spectrum who breaks free from her overprotective but loving mother in search for freedom and friendship.
“I can’t say much really,” Johnson said. “But it’s centered around and written by Vanessa Burkhart. She’s a young, autistic woman and she is a remarkable human. She wrote this story about what it’s like to be an autistic girl who just wants connection and independence and is trying to figure out who she is in relation to other people.”
Johnson, who has been producing projects for six years now via her TeaTime Pictures banner, which she established with Ro Donnelly, emphasized that she enjoyed working behind the camera. “It’s so rewarding and educational and liberating in a lot of ways,” she said. “So, it’s something that just happened where I feel like I have to make this movie.”
Asked about the challenge of getting her first directorial effort off the ground, Johnson admitted that it “certainly isn’t easy.”
“I think people are afraid to take risks and making an independent film written by and starring an autistic girl, for me it’s a no brainer,” she said. “But for a lot of people, that’s a big risk. And I just don’t agree. I don’t understand. But we’re working our way through, and Vanessa will make her movie. But that landscape right now is really interesting, and I think people are a bit more inhibited when it comes to what they want to decide to understand in terms of cinema intelligence. This film is a battle that I’m fighting, and I will fight until we get it out to the world.”
Check out the video above.