DANA BRUNETTI: I hadn't read the book.
I only had known everything that was in the press.
So, I picked up the book and realized
there is a really good movie in here,
there is a really romantic love story that hasn't been told.
(VOICE BREAKING) Goodbye, Mr. Grey.
MARCUS VISCIDI: The biggest challenge is taking a book that is iconic
and making sure not only do you capture
the elements that the fans are anticipating,
but taking it to another level.
It was interesting because you have the material
and, as a director, you shape that material.
Well, this was a two-way street.
BRUNETTY. When We first met With Erika
and started talking about doing a movie of the book,
first, she gets a little bashful
when she finds out that guys have read her book
because it's a lot of her inner thoughts.
And so it's kind of cute and funny to talk to her about it,
but, I mean, we're used to it now,
but initially there was a bit of uneasiness and bashfulness.
E L JAMES: I got on board as a producer and it was important to me
because, this book having been born out of fandom,
I wanted to honor the fans who had put me here.
And it was really important for me that they be happy.
That's the most important thing.
So, that's why I inserted myself into the process.
When you've had sex
was there anything that you didn't like doing?
(STAMMERING)
I wouldn't know.
RITA ORA: I'm so happy it was written by a female.
If it was reverse and a male was the author of this book,
I think there would be a lot more questions.
But because it was written from a female perspective,
I think people are starting to now think, "Do all women like this?
"Do women really like butt plugs
"and nipple tassels and things like that?"
Genital clamps?
Absolutely not.
Consider them gone.
BRUNETH: The script was written by Kelly Marcel
and we chose her after meeting with many writers.
She had just written Saving Mr. Banks, which,
we read that writing sample and thought it was fantastic.
And, really, her take and how she saw the world
and how she saw the characters
and her relationship and how she bonded with Erika
made it a perfect fit.
That was really good.
BRUNETH: We met with a lot of directors who wanted to do this.
And it was an amazing amount of names
of people that you would think,
"I would love to work with them."
But ultimately, it came down to their vision and how they saw the film.
And, Sam, when she came in,
she had a great Iookbook.
She had done a sizzle reel
that really got us excited on how she visually saw the movie.
And the theme and the tone of the film was spot on
with what us, as a group, were really thinking.
So, ultimately she became the person for us.
Thank you, everyone, for being here
and this is a huge collaborative project.
Everyone's as important as everyone else on this
and, yeah, welcome to day one. Day one.
(ALL LAUGHING)
MAN 1: Background. MAN 2: Action.
SAM TAYLOR-JOHNSON: Well, the fundamental reason why I wanted to make this movie
is it feels like a fairy tale.
Although this is a very adult version.
So, a young girl meets her prince.
He's unavailable, he's successful,
fabulous, rich, all of those things.
But it twists and unfolds and becomes something very different.
Oh, my God.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: But, for me, it's also the exploration
of this girl on a sexual journey.
You'd use this stuff on me?
Yes.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: For her, it's a kind of coming of age.
And cinematically, I couldn't think of anything like it.
Head only. Perfect.
Slightly that way. There.
Sam is so smart. She is so talented. She's an artist.
She is a filmmaker.
She has a vision for every single scene
and what it's gonna look like and how she's gonna cut it.
How to tell me to not put my face in that direction
because I look terrible.
And I'm like, "Thank you for that." (LAUGHING)
I think, also, maybe when you turn there...
JAMIE DORNAN: I always felt, when I heard they were making the movie,
is that it should be a woman directing it.
The books are told through Ana's perspective.
It's all in her voice.
So, I just thought it made sense to have a woman show that.
And Sam has got an amazing calmness to her
and an amazing temperament
and makes everyone around her feel very relaxed.
ELOISE MUMFORD: Sam has set up a really well-run set
and there's a real sense of calm,
so everyone feels very comfortable
to do their job to the best of their ability.
Which, in this case, means having sex onscreen. (LAUGHING)
MAN: And door.
ELLIOT: Hi. You must be Ana.
So awesome to meet you.
A-only mark.
VISCIDl: We had to do everything we could
to conceal where we were filming.
Not have anyone have access to the set,
or access to be able to see the costumes that we had planned
and, most importantly, the sets that we had planned.
And in order to do that,
we started by making sure that the script went out
and that you never saw the name of Fifty Shades of Grey on it.
In fact, the production has been The Adventures of Max & Banks.
MAN: A-only mark.
VISCIDI: The way that title came about was that
actually Max was Erika, the novelist's, dog
and Banks was the screenplay writer's dog.
And that's how that came about.
But they're definitely looking for Erika,
they're looking for Sam Taylor-Johnson,
they're looking for the actors.
And they're also really looking to find out
not only where we're shooting, but what the sets look like.
And I would say that's one of the harder things for us to do.
But we've done a really good job. I mean, we have security,
and we keep the set very restricted
and we've been effective at doing that.
MAN: Okay, action.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: We shot in Vancouver.
Vancouver is a very film-friendly place to shoot.
We had a fantastic time there.
And a lot of the scenery could double up very well
for the places that we needed to shoot.
I loved it there. I spent almost a year there.
MAN: A-only mark.
What does that mean? (GASPS) Watch it!
VISCIDI: Because of the cast availabilities, because of our release date,
we had to film December 1st till March 1st.
And it was important for us to have that feel of the clouds
and to have overcast skies.
And it works with the mood in a number of the scenes.
So despite the fact that it was cold
and I probably would prefer it if we were in the summer,
I think it was correct for the film.
DAVID VVASCO: After coming up and doing preliminary location scouts, I thought,
"You know, it's actually almost better
"to be in Vancouver than to be in Seattle."
Because it gives you this weird,
heightened, surreal Seattle look
by being in Vancouver.
So, we were able to find really interesting locations.
So, is he your boyfriend?
He's not my boyfriend.
And the guy at the store?
Paul? No.
So, as an example, we filmed at the Hotel Vancouver,
which is a beautiful downtown hotel.
And they allowed us to film there for a few days
to re-create The Heathman Hotel,
which was memorialized in the book.
WASCO: And they happened to have a floor that was done in the '20s,
never updated.
So, we ended up picking up what was actually a conference room,
it was a large room, and we completely took everything out of it,
and we built wooden elements and we turned it into the room.
If you were mine, you wouldn't be able to sit down for a week.
SANDY WASCO: What's nice about that Heathman room that we used
is it looked a little bit like the parents' house.
I gotta take a shower.
It's the first time they are really in a room together
and it will be a look
that kind of goes forward in the story, which is nice.
Good evening, Mr. Grey. DR. GREY: They're here.
You're here. Welcome.
CHRISTIAN: Mother, you've met.
There were two houses side by side
that were built for two brothers that were
Vancouver entrepreneurs during the '20s.
And we used one for the exterior
of the house and the dining room.
And then, in the book and in the original script,
it called for Christian to, after dinner,
taking Ana to show her the grounds and to go to a boathouse.
ANASTASIAI Oh.
When were you gonna tell me about Georgia?
ANASTASIA: You have no right to be mad.
(ANASTASIA EXC LAIMS)
WASCO: But we found in the brother's house,
an incredible glass-enclosed pool
that was also original to the '20s.
And Sam really liked it and said,
"Why don't we use this instead of a boathouse?"
Ana.
What do you want?
I want you.
WASCO". Now Claytons, we looked at every hardware store
in and around the vicinity of Vancouver.
And it's really hard to find a mom-and-pop
hardware store that's not a chain.
How can I help you, Mr. Grey?
Do you stock cable ties?
VISCIDI: I mean, it sounds ridiculous.
We probably went to 10 or 15 hardware stores.
And as soon as we pulled into Ladner and drove down Main Street,
we saw this beautiful, yellow facade of this hardware store.
And it was instantaneous.
One of the things that kind of evolved
thematically through the art direction
was reoccurring subliminal grids or grills
that you end up seeing in the red room.
So, we tried to subliminally have,
even starting at Claytons,
where you're looking through display fixtures
that are grids and grills when she's selling Christian the rope.
We have two-inch and one-inch.
WASCO: Or when Ana is looking out the window at Taylor's car,
she's looking through a grid and a grill.
So, there's always this subliminal image
that the audience is gonna be seeing throughout the movie.
MAN: A-only mark.
Hey, fancy book man,
I'm sending those back
'cause I don't want them
and, evidently, I have them already.
WASCO: Coincidentally, we end up finding
what is really one of the coolest clubs
happened to be a club for hire.
So, we painted it and we changed it around a bit.
And that became the Portland club.
And then, coincidentally, upstairs was this big, open-space loft
that really worked great for the Portland apartment.
Drive safe.
WASCO: So, the producers were thrilled that we were able to have
these two sets that were right side by side.
RAY: Annie!
ANASTASIAI Dad! Hi!
Dad, I saved you a seat next to Kate's family, okay?
MARK BRIDGES: We started out very early in the prep
saying, "I don't think we should use
"any black in this film."
That's a little difficult when you have
400 graduating students all in black graduation gowns.
But, within our power, we tried not to use any black
and we tried not to use any red,
we wanted to save the red for the red room.
So we have very carefully removed the color red
throughout the beginning part of the movie.
And we even went through the great length of...
With Mark Bridges, the costume designer,
the color scheme for
Washington State University was red and gray.
And, with the permission of the college,
for the most part, the bibs and the things
that the graduating students would wear
would be red with gray trim,
and we flip-flopped it and made it primarily gray
with little bits of red
so it would downplay the red.
MAN: Please join me in welcoming Mr. Christian Grey.
(ALL APPLAUDING)
The production value on this film has been amazing.
I mean, they've literally got the best
in the business for every single department.
So, they're gonna have a little bit of dialogue, tick-tock...
And then we're back to this shot and she'll exit.
BRUNETH: Sam also chose Seamus McGarvey as the DP.
He's an amazing artist himself.
Every frame of the film, it's like a photograph.
Maybe if the pencil is...
Well, Seamus McGarvey, my cinematographer, and I
have worked together for 15, 16 years now.
So we have a, sort of, almost secret code of how we work,
but he's very familiar with photography
and he's very familiar with the way I work.
JOHNSON: They've made it a film, they've made it a piece of art.
They know how to bring a mood to a scene
that's already so intense, or even has no dialogue,
just with a camera angle.
And I feel like that is really important for this material
because otherwise, you're left with just a movie about sex,
and that's not what this is about.
Impressive.
I've done this before.
VISCIDI: The way we filmed the movie and the way we scheduled it,
we laid out a plan where we wanted to make sure
that the emotional journey that the characters were going on
were incorporated into that schedule.
JOHNSON: There's, like, a change in Ana
that's a change that happens when women lose their virginity.
And I think that that to me and Sam is very important to see.
So, there's half the movie where she's a virgin
and half the movie where she's not.
And, at first, she doesn't know,
and then you see in her eyes that she knows what that's like.
What?
You look different.
I feel different.
Of course you do. (BOTH CHUCKLING)
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: It's a finely balanced tuning that we had to keep in check
throughout the whole film.
And you don't shoot things in order necessarily.
So, that relationship hadn't quite formed yet, that part.
So, it was trying to make sure that was instilled in the scene
and that we knew exactly the emotional temperature
and to make sure that was right.
VISCIDl: We wanted to make sure, of course,
to try to do the emotional, the sexual work,
the really intense scenes between Christian and Ana,
and make sure that they were scheduled near the end.
That's nice.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON". So, it was really important that by the time we got there,
that Jamie and Dakota trusted each other and trusted me.
And that when we were there that they knew I would look after them,
in the sense that this wasn't going to be
something salacious, gratuitous.
This wasn't going to be something which was tasteless and seedy.
This was going to be something that was handled in line with the book,
but very under strict stylistic conditions.
JOHNSON: Sam is incredibly nurturing, she's like
a friend and a maternal figure to me.
And I feel completely 100% safe, vulnerable, protected.
And that's so great in a movie like this,
especially when we're doing the scenes in the red room,
where things get really intense and it's really emotional.
And I'm the type of actor that
I'm not always pretending to feel something.
I can feel them.
And I wouldn't be able to get to a place like that
without feeling comfortable.
And she makes me feel like I am capable of doing anything.
DORNAN: It's really fun and we get on really well.
That humor that she had when I first met her is very much still there.
We make each other laugh, which I think is really important.
Especially, I think, when we get into the red room
and there will be an intensity to all that
and it won't be easy for either of us, closed set or not.
It's tough to put yourself in those situations.
And I think you've got to have humor to get you through.
I want you to be in the play room in 15 minutes.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: The red room was tough, though. The red room was tough.
I can't say that was fun.
It was really tough because the material that we're dealing with
was very sensitive, dark at times,
and very emotional.
MAN: A-only mark.
The moment in the movie where you see me see the red room,
that was the first time I had actually ever seen it.
I had never seen a photograph, I had never seen them building the set.
They kept it away from me and I didn't want to see it
'cause I wanted the reaction to be as genuine as possible.
You're a sadist?
I'm a dominant.
DORNAN: The red room, I did want to spend a bit of time in,
so I'd be left alone in there a couple of times before we shot there.
I didn't wanna be in there going, "Where did I...
"Where did I keep that?"
I wanted to be pretty down with where everything was
and the layout of the room.
So, I spent a bit of time there.
It's so specific and so different
from the rest of his apartment.
The rest of his apartment is cold, it's hung with works of art,
it's masculine, but it's missing something.
And here is this sensuous, warm, womb-like kind of room,
and it was so important to get it right.
JOHNSON: Then we went into filming all of the red room sex scenes.
And it was difficult, it was very intense.
Especially being someone who's...
I don't live a BDSM lifestyle.
So, we had done a lot of research and we had professionals there
and it was a very safe and professional environment.
But it wasn't, you know, an easy day's work.
The reality of it is when you're shooting scenes like that,
you're surrounded by 25 big guys
who are doing their jobs.
And they're in the middle of it trying
to navigate sensitive material.
So it's tricky. It wasn't an easy thing to shoot.
Please don't hate me.
(CRYING) You'll never do that to me again.
It's not the most classical of love stories,
but I think that's what makes it interesting.
But essentially, it is two people
who've fallen in love with each other
and there's massive hurdles in the way.
I had a rough start in life.
That's all you need to know.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: The journey of Christian and Ana
is really a love story of the
most straightforward kind in many respects,
of two people falling in love and negotiating
what they will and won't do for each other.
What they will give up and what they won't give up.
BRUNETTY. It's really giving women the ability
to explore their inner ambitions
that they might have been bashful about or shy about
in a way that they didn't wanna talk about before.
That's odd.
"Odd" doesn't even cover it.
Honestly, it's all about security.
If you're secure
and you know that you are having the best sex
of your life with your partner,
there's nothing wrong with it.
JAMES: it was challenging in places, it was exciting in places.
And now having seen it all come together,
and having seen the fan reaction,
I can breathe a sigh of relief and think, "Okay, I think we got it."
Why do you want to punish me?
If I told you, you would never look at me the same way again.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: Definitely, the material was powerful.
What I wanted to bring to it was powerful.
And the collaboration of the two things,
hopefully, is equally powerful.
(MUSIC PLAYING)