Fifty Shades of Gray had a different director than the rest of the saga, and it was none other than Sam Taylor-Johnson, now on everyone's lips for her marriage to Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
The Fifty Shades saga is one of the highest-grossing films in cinema and launched the careers of Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. But it was also key for the director of the first film, Sam Taylor-Johnson.
The filmmaker signed with Fifty Shades of Gray her first major production, although the experience was very conflictive, as was later publicly known, due to her clashes with the author of the books, E.L. James.
Author and director constantly fought over creative decisions, and now Sam, who is presenting his new film, Back to Black about Amy Winehouse (as you can see above) has opened up about that stage and how it undermined his self-esteem.
"This was his book and he had a very particular vision of what he wanted to see in the film. And I had a radically opposite vision. And we got to where we got. The success it had was great, but the experience was hard," he confesses to THR.
"It took me about four years to regain my confidence and composure. I wanted to go back to being an artist who can make my own decisions, answer only to myself and present to the world something that I created," she explains. Taylor-Jonhson left the saga after the first film.
"I seem to like choosing movies where people have a lot of opinions about the protagonist. But I guess I must like that and I'm attracted to that kind of chaos," reflects Sam, remembering that his next film was also the controversial A Million Little Pieces, and now it's Back to Black, about the late Amy Winehouse.
James, for her part, also spoke about the controversy they experienced in The Times.
"It was a complicated experience. I would have done many things differently. I had much more of a creative process on the second and third films, working with someone who had vision and dynamism and who accepted the original material," he said bluntly. The rest of the Fifty Shades films were directed by James Foley.
Sam Taylor-Johnson also recently made headlines for her marriage to Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who since he was pointed out as the possible new James Bond has made many discover her relationship and the 24-year age difference that separates them. .
