Paris Match: The first movie was made of sex, humor and domintation. In this one, Ana seems to take the power on Christian.
Dakota: Seeing the end of the first movie, it’s important she takes the control of their relationship. I Christian wants to be with her, it’s on her terms. But they relationship is going to move foward. Ana is not going to do compromises, but she’s going to do some sacrifices for him. Same for him.

Paris Match: It is a love story or fighting between two ego?
Jamie: A love story. It’s the heart of the movie and the book. ‘Fifty Shades’ isn’t a ego battles, but the story of two characters looking for the best way to love each other. The movies do justice to the books, they remain fairly close to their content.

Paris Match: The movies are a bit funnier. Anastasia is way funnier on the screen than in the book, right?
Dakota: It’s a pretty strong character.
Jamie: But it’s probably you who brought her this strenght, her strong character and her humour.
Dakota: Maybe, I did find her quite funny, but not everybody had perceived this dimension of the character.
Jamie: And you’ll see in the second movie, this aspect of the character is even more present [laughs]

Paris Match: How do you see your characters?
Jamie: Ha, if only we knew! We constantly talk about it, between us and with with the director. But I don’t feel like a big brother who’d give advice to his little sister. We just try to be on the same wavelength constantly.

Paris Match: These two roles force you to have a real sexual intimacy. In order to make this to happen, do you have to be friends in real life?
Dakota: We have a very special relationship. I am close to Jamie’s wife, to his children, he’s someone you mean a lot to me. There are many Hollywood franchises, but I think this is the only one where the actors were able to develop a real friendship. Since we’re both on set every day, it would have been hard if it hadn’t been the case.

Paris Match: Do you maintain this friendship outside of work?
Jamie: Not necessarily. When we’re working on the set, it’s 13 hours a day. So we have a lot of time to learn to know each other! [laughs] It creates bonds, memories. A lot of people may think it’s only a movie, but this friendship was born fairly easily. We had the same approach to our roles, and we were also able to laugh about it, especially after very intense scenes. We are now deeply connected. We’ve been through success together, hard times too.

Paris Match: You were in Nice when the attacks happened.
Jamie: I was there with my family, the crew was in Monaco. We were asleep when the attack happened, because my children are still very young and we went to bed early. During the night, I got a lot of phone calls to make sure we were safe and sound.
Dakota: I was still awake. I waited the more I could to know if all the staff were okay. The news were coming slowly. It was a very painful event. We would have wanted to stay and help France. We didn’t want to shock the people and not look not like hollywood people only there to work. As a young american, I was never that close to terrorism. I spent hours watching TV, reading newspapers.

Paris Match: The next day, how to go back to your characters like nothing happened?
Dakota: But something happened. We asked the frech people of the crew if we had to stop the filming, just for respect. They asked us to go on, and not to enter the terrorists games.

Paris Match: How do you see the rest of your careers? There’s a chance that you’ll always be seen as your characters.
Dakota: I don’t care, I don’t think people will always see me as Ana.
Jamie: Same for me, I think I’ll be able to get away from the character. How many actors before me have had emblematic roles and went on to do other character. The real issue would be not to be able to portray characters as strong as Christian. The challenge in Hollywood is to keep working, to find good projects, ones that people want to see.

Paris Match: Jamie, you do choose differents roles. You just shot a movie with French director Alexandre Aja, “The Ninth Life of Louis Drax”. A pretty secret project…
Jamie: It’s different from Hollywood franchises indeed. It’s not the same budget, the same stakes and I need this balance between small projects and big ones. I also really want to be in a TV show again, where you can do so much more, in terms of writing, than in a classical movie. In a way, this freedom that I have now, I owe it to Christian Grey.
Dakota: Fifty Shades is a real platform for the both of us. These movies allow us to be exposed. Instead of being typecast in a role, like you suggested, they open new doors for us.

Paris Match: But today, whatever you do, you’re living your life followed by paparazzi. No pain no gain?
Jamie: I don’t care, I just pretend they don’t exist. I’ve never been interested in the lives of others people, so I just live normally. When people gather in Paris, at the Opéra Garnier because we’re filming there, it’s my life at this moment. The next day, I move on to something else. My daily life is not making a movie in Paris. It’s only a few days in a year. Moreover, this kind of moment is extremely rare.
Dakota: I also try to live as normally as possible. Yes my parents are famous, but a lot of my friends don’t come from the industry. And yes, when I attend a movie premiere, I pay attention to what I wear. But when I go out to shopping, I don’t give a damn! [laughs]
Jamie: The more you think about these kind of things, the crazier you become. It’s better to try and live a normal life.
Dakota: And it’d be so boring to think every day about what you have to do and what you have to say…

Paris Match: So in the fame, beeing recognized is not a problem for you?
Jamie: It’s alright. Maybe we’re able to deal with it better than other people. We live in the countryside, few people are interested in Grey. I’d attract more attention if I spent five nights a week in clubs in New York. These kind of things were fun when I was 21. But now at 34, I moved on.

Paris Match: Jamie, you were part of a rock band in England. Is it its success that pushed you to do films?
Jamie: [laughs] It was a band of mates that we started when we were 17 without thinking any further. A lot of people around us would have wanted us to explode. But the adventure came to a sudden end.
Dakota: I’m having a hard time seeing you in a rock band… [she laughs]

Paris Match: Critics have compared “Fifty Shades” to a mix between ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’. Do you agree with that?
Dakota: Ha, I quite like that. But how many people really did say that? Anyway, that’s the kind of comment that I find very flattering. I’m cool with that!
Jamie: I like these movies so I’m okay with it too. For once!