Sam Taylor-Johnson and 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Producers Talk About The Movie and Jamie

 
Variety: One of the most talked about scenes from E.L. James’ bestseller “Fifty Shades of Grey” — involving Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele and a tampon — won’t be featured in the film version.
 
“It didn’t make it into the movie,” says director Sam Taylor-Johnson, in an interview with Variety. “It was never even discussed.” The scene is a memorable moment between Christian (played by Jamie Dornan) and Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) on the page. Over the summer, MTV asked: “Should ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Include The Book’s Grossest Sex Scene?”

The producers decided if it was best if it didn’t. “The book needed to put you in Ana’s shoes to be a successful experience,” says producer Michael De Luca. “A lot of it was very literal. The movie didn’t need to do that. It’s a completely different medium.”

 

One of the challenges in bringing “Fifty Shades” to the bigscreen, as detailed in this week’s Variety cover story featuring Dornan, was figuring out how much of the book’s sex would make it into the film. An early draft of the script, by Kelly Marcel, was toned down through rewrites to make “Fifty Shades” less racy, so that it would secure an R (and not a NC-17) rating, Variety learned.

“It’s say it’s pretty 50/50,” says Taylor-Johnson, when described the sex vs. non-sex split in the film. “I think the sex scenes are integral to the story. They are not gratuitous. It tracks the story.”

De Luca says the most intense onscreen sex between Christian and Ana is their last encounter from the first book. “The scene that we talked about a lot is the final scene, where Ana asks him to do the worst he can do to show her how bad it’s going to get,” De Luca says. “It’s the closest Christian comes in the first book to being his full dominant self. Jamie’s performance in that scene is a miracle. He really gets carried away in the moment.”

Author E.L. James, who was a producer on the Focus Features release, approves of the adaptation, even if some of the content had to be toned down. “‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is first and foremost a romantic love story, and the sex is only part of that,” James tells Variety. “People who haven’t read the books might be surprised that there isn’t more sex on the screen, but that’s because they’ve gone by media reports of ‘Fifty Shades,’ which have tended to err on the side of the sensational. I’m pretty sure the millions of fans who have the read the trilogy will think there is enough sex.”

'Fifty Shades of Grey' producer Michael De Luca talks about the movie (January 2014)

The Hollywood Reporter - "Obviously, the movie can't be as explicit as the book," Michael De Luca said. "The book is explicit by design because the author wanted to go inside the head of Anna -- the female lead -- and detail her experience. On the literary level, that was necessary. But in a film or any visual medium, a picture is worth a thousand words. To be erotic onscreen is going to have more power than to read the words on a page."

He added that adapting the book was easier for him than it was for author EL James. "We had to lose some stuff. We had to create some stuff," he said. "Because with the dramatic arc, it's a 2-hour, three-act structure...Charlie Hunnam (who dropped out of the production) wanted certain things for his character in the adaptation."

De Luca said he is taking his lead from Adrian Lyne.

"[Lyne's movies] are classy and erotic without being exploitative," he said.

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Deadline - “We’re going to give them [the fans] what they expect, which is an intense and erotic love story,” Michael De Luca added. “Obviously the film can’t be as explicit as the book,” De Luca noted. “A picture is worth a 1000 words. So to be erotic onscreen means I think an image is going to have way more power than reading the words on a page.”

“Not to sound corny, but it is, at its heart, a young love story. I think those things always work,” he said of the blockbuster trilogy of books. “No matter what you think about the book, those things are in that story and they are very cinematic. I think people love a good love story and the these two characters endeared themselves to 90 million readers so it’s hard to say that it didn’t connect on a deeper level than just its more sensationalist aspects, but it was the love story that did it for me.”

'Fifty Shades of Grey' producer Michael De Luca talks about Jamie and Dakota Johnson (January 2014)

E! Online - The highly anticipated film's producer, Michael De Luca, spoke with E! News about how filming is going at the Producers Guild Awards over the weekend in Los Angeles.

"It's hot," he said of Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan's chemistry throughout shooting. "I think we are a little more than halfway through but it's going really good. I'm excited!"

So how are the future Mr. Grey and Anastasia Steele getting along with one another when the cameras aren't rolling?

"The chemistry is there, they genuinely like each other," De Luca revealed to us. "They're enjoying the story, the story is so powerful."

'Fifty Shades of Grey' Producer Michael De Luca talks about Charlie Hunnam and Jamie (November 2013)

Mike, you're dealing with this on Fifty Shades of Grey. How much of that noise has seeped into the process? You had a very public exit by an actor, Charlie Hunnam.

Michael De Luca: I didn't feel pressure because we had a possible replacement in place before the thing actually went down. It's just called being prepared. But I am on Twitter constantly. I am a masochist. I'm into the fandom, so I was aware of what was coming the first time around, when Charlie Hunnam wasn't what most readers pictured. But he was so awesome in this audition that he did with Dakota Johnson, and he really wanted to play that character, and we're not making the movie based on Twitter. We thought we'd get there with him, and then when we couldn't, we anticipated that the new guy, Jamie Dornan, was going to be more of what the fans conjured in their imaginations.

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