'Fifty Shades of Grey' director Sam Taylor-Johnson has a new interview with The Guardian, in which she discusses her controversial masterpiece, her relationship with husband Aaron, and her career.
on her marriage to husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson:“It was so amazing to fall crazily in love and get married and have kids. I didn’t really think about it. I was so not interested in my career. Being in an amazing relationship, having come out of a difficult one, it felt so good. And I feel like that stability has enabled me to get on with doing this momentous project. The great thing about Aaron is that he’s happy not working and being at home with the kids while I work. We’re actually fighting over it. He’s like, ‘No no, I like being an at-home dad, doing the cooking and the school runs.’ What happens next depends on what comes up, on whether Aaron decides to do another blockbuster or an independent movie. I don’t think I can afford to take six months off.”
on her artistic approach for the movie:“I needed to find a story there that I could respond to. When I read it,
I thought, ‘What’s at the heart of this is really a dark fairy story – this handsome, rich prince and this lowly girl. It could be really interesting if you do it that way, as a fantasy that you just go into. And then, of course, the sex side of it, which is what everybody talks about. But I thought, if we can take this girl on a journey, where we empower her and don’t leave her as a victim, that’s job done. I think it was Elisabeth Shue who said that if you start a movie with a woman seen through a man’s eyes, that woman is objectified by him throughout. So we deliberately don’t start that way. We start with Anastasia coming into his world and grappling with it – so she’s an autonomous person.”
on the #feminist critique of her #art:“To be feminist doesn’t mean you can’t be submissive. It doesn’t mean you always have to be on top.”
on the sex scenes:“The thing that was most difficult was how and where to pepper the sex, and to not make it feel like it was gratuitous. So it had to be a really strong part of the story, and I had to give characterisation to each sex scene, to make them different. I didn’t want it to be graphically explicit, and I know that’s going to be disappointing to some people. For me, that’s unerotic. The minute you sense penetration, it’s all over. It’s the buildup and the titillation of touch and sensuality.”
