Dakota Johnson and Cooper Raiff in Cha Cha Real Smooth
Dakota Johnson appears in CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH by Cooper Raiff, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Credit: C/O

Dakota Johnson is on a mothering streak. Not in real life, but in two of the most recent movies she’s starred in — Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Netflix film The Lost Daughter, and Cooper Raiff’s Sundance drama Cha Cha Real Smooth.

In The Lost Daughter, Johnson plays a young woman struggling with motherhood who finds comfort in Olivia Colman’s character, Lena. In Cha Cha Real Smooth, Johnson plays a woman whose autistic daughter (Vanessa Burghardt) forms an unlikely friendship with a recent college grad (Raiff) at a bar mitzvah party.

The actor says that although she herself isn’t a mother “yet,” she gets her inspiration from the mothers in her life, including her best friend.

“My best friend is a mother of two kids who are my god babies, and she’s a big part of if I have to — if I play a mother in a film, it’s a lot of watching her be a mom and asking her questions about what it really looks like, deep on the inside,” Johnson said on Sunday during a virtual Q&A session after the film’s world premiere at Sundance.

“I also grew up with a lot of siblings. I mean, I’m not a mother yet, so I don’t have my own experience to draw from, but I did have a lot of siblings and I did raise a lot of them or take care of them,” Johnson added. Her dog, Zeppelin, was also present during this Q&A, which makes her a dog mom, too.

Also Read: How Shithouse Director Cooper Raiff Lied and Manipulated His Way to a Stellar Debut

Raiff, who directs and stars in the movie, jumped in to give Johnson props on her maternal instincts.

“I can say, I think you’re just so maternal. I think Dakota’s got this very open heart that a lot of mothers that I know have, but they have very great boundaries as well,” he said. “Of course, Dakota, or Domino, the character, has a lot going on.”

“She doesn’t really have boundaries,” Johnson joked.

Cooper added: “But at the core, there’s a line that she has, and I think it’s very specific to certain mothers. They have this switch, and Dakota is very, very protective in real life and very much has that. All of a sudden, there’s a line, and it’s very, very, very maternal. Vanessa [Burghardt] and I were talking about that yesterday, actually, how maternal you are.”

That last bit made Johnson smile.

Main image: Dakota Johnson appears in Cha Cha Real Smooth, directed by Cooper Raiff, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

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