How old was Dakota Johnson when she made Fifty Shades of Grey?

When it came to filming Fifty Shades of Grey, Dakota Johnson quickly learned that author E.L. James’ taste was very singular.

Nearly seven years after the first film debuted, the 32-year-old is still reeling from filming, admitting that she hasn’t “been able to talk about this truthfully ever.”

Until now. As she recently told Vanity Fair, “I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making.”

“We’d do the takes of the movie that Erika wanted to make, and then we would do the takes of the movie that we wanted to make,” the actress, who was 23 at the time, noted. “The night before, I would rewrite scenes with the old dialogue so I could add a line here and there. It was like mayhem all the time.”

Was she close to screaming the safe word? Well… “If I had known at the time that’s what it was going to be like, I don’t think anyone would’ve done it,” she admitted. “It would’ve been like, ‘Oh, this is psychotic.’ But no, I don’t regret it.”

Today, however, she’s not seeing red. “Erika is a very nice woman, and she was always kind to me,” she added. “And I am grateful she wanted me to be in those movies.”