VOD Spotlight: Fifty Shades of Grey

With all of the fevered speculation and gossip, and anticipation leading up to the filming of 50 Shades of Grey, the actual production process could well have been a chaotic circus. It seems, however, that director Sam Taylor-Johnson managed to make the process anything but. Jamie Dornan, who stars as Christian Grey, says, “Sam, from the start, made you feel that we were just making a movie like any other. In fact, it felt like we were making an indie movie, where the overriding concerns are these characters and their truths, even in the midst of this attention given to the Fifty Shades phenomenon. The atmosphere never felt pressured. There was never this heightened awareness that millions of people had read the book that we were now trying to film. All of that went out the window the minute we stepped onto the set.”

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Taylor-Johnson returns the praise: “I pride myself on having a fun set. I want everyone to enjoy what they’re doing and be part of a team. Although I’m the director, the film isn’t anything without a great gaffer or a great prop master who finely tunes the props. Everything is about teamwork and collaboration.”

Trust between cast and crew, along with the discretion of everyone involved in the project were integral to keeping the production on schedule. And, while name-dropping the project title and its much-discussed cast and crew may have been useful in the time leading up to the start of production, public knowledge that one of the most popular books — and anticipated film — of all times was filming locally had the potential to create clogged highways, crowded locations and delays to the production schedule. Therefore every precaution was taken to conceal the exact nature of the project. The title Fifty Shades of Grey was banished entirely from the set and any correspondences, materials or printed matter remotely connected with the film. In its place was the pseudonym of The Adventure of Max and Banks (Max is the name of Grey‘s author E.L. James’ dog, and Banks is the name of screenwriter Kelly Marcel’s pup).

In the end, Taylor-Johnson says, “The film took me on an unexpected journey. I had very clear ideas about the film I wanted to make. But as I went on that journey, I realized it was shaping me and the way I was thinking in terms of how it should be presented. So, it was interesting because you have the material and as a director, you shape it. Well, this was a two-way street. The material was powerful. What I wanted to bring to it was powerful, and the collaboration between those two things, I’m hopeful, is equally so.”

Fifty Shades of Grey is available now on Video On Demand.  Check your cable system for availability.

© Universal Pictures   Credit: Chuck Zlotnick