The director of “Fifty Shades of Grey” has spoken about the difficulties she experienced on set

Just like working in any job, there are bound to be high and low points when making a film. However, Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of Fifty Shades of Grey, is now speaking about her experiences making the movie, and it seems that things weren’t all that simple.

The British director, who is married to actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, was speaking to The Sunday Times about her involvement with the popular erotic movie franchise. The second film in the series, Fifty Shades Darker, was released this year.

First, she explained what drew her to divisive franchise, noting that it was because it felt like “a very dysfunctional fairy tale.” 

“A controlling prince and an unsuspecting young village girl,” she explained. “What I wanted to achieve is [for her] to usurp him against the odds.”

Despite initially being drawn to the franchise, however, Taylor-Johnson refused to sign up to direct the two subsequent sequels, and it seems like she had a pretty legitimate reason: She and the author of the Fifty Shades books, E.L. James, didn’t see eye-to-eye.

“I like everyone — and I get really confused when they don’t like me,” she told the paper. “I was so confused by E.L. James. I don’t understand when I can’t navigate a person, when there’s no synergy.”

Of course, when Fifty Shades of Grey was released in theaters, controversy arose, especially over a scene where Christian Grey (played by Jamie Dornan) punishes Anastasia Steele (played by Dakota Johnson) with six lashes.

“The idea was she would hold a mirror to his darkness and come out with the power,” Taylor-Johnson explained. “[But] it was a struggle and there were lots of onset tête-à-têtes, with me trying to bat it into the [right] place.”

In fact, Taylor-Johnson’s experience making the movie was so bad that she swore off even watching the next two installments of the series.

“I’m not going to ever watch [the sequels]. I have literally zero interest. I can never say I regret it because that would just finish me off,” she said.

"With the benefit of hindsight, would I go through it again?" she added "Of course I wouldn't. I'd be mad!"

While this difficult creative experience may have turned Taylor-Johnson off from working on the sequels, that hasn’t stopped the films from continuing ahead, with the final movie, Fifty Shades Freed, due to hit theaters next year.

Meanwhile, Taylor-Johnson has been working on a new Netflix series, Gypsy, starring Naomi Watts, which is due for release on June 30th.