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Dakota Johnson Needed a ‘Fifty Shades’ Butt Double For One “Annoying” Reason
If you happen to spy Anastasia Steele’s bare backside in Fifty Shades Freed, you likely wouldn’t be seeing Dakota Johnson’s cheeks. Apparently, the actress needed a butt double for Fifty Shades of Grey — and its sequels, presumably — because she has a butt tattoo.
“We did have a butt double for Dakota,” Fifty Shades cinematographer Seamus McGarvey told The New York Times in 2015. “I had the pleasure of casting a non-tattooed bottom.”
In fact, Dakota, the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, has ink all over her body… though it sounds like she wishes she didn’t. “I went through a phase where I loved tattoos, and I loved the feeling of getting tattooed,” she told The Edit in 2016. “But now I’ve outgrown them mostly, and [because] I always have to cover them for jobs, God, they’re annoying!”
The 28-year-old has other tattoos including one of a flock of birds tattooed on her right shoulder, the phrase “Look at the moon” on her right foot, the phrase “acta non verba” (Latin for “deeds not words”) on her arm, and the word “amor” on her neck (matching one her mother has).
Dakota also has at least two tattoos that didn’t make it in Bustle’s tally. Last year, for example, she got a flower tattoo on her arm that she described as “a little f–ked up.” And she also bears a tattoo that she and half-sister Stella Banderas got together, and Observer reports it’s one of the only tattoos she doesn’t regret: a white-ink design reading “Lightly my darling,” a quote from the 1962 novel Island by Aldous Huxley.
Dakota’s posterior tat wasn’t the only challenge for the Fifty Shades production team, though. As Seamus told the Times, there was also the actors’ modesty to consider.
“[Dakota] had kind of a patch that went over her pubic area, and right round her whole body,” he said. “We were in the curious situation, in post-production, of adding [pubic hair]. I wouldn’t say it was one of the highlights of my career, but it certainly was one of the most surreal scenarios.” Well, that’s Hollywood, folks!
