Movies - TV
How Suspiria Changed Dakota Johnson Forever
By SHAE SENNETT
The running list of actors who were psychologically impacted by major roles just got its latest member — Dakota Johnson for her role in the mind-bending "Suspiria."
In "Suspiria," a remake of a 1977 film, Suzy (Dakota Johnson) takes the place of a lead dancer who went insane because the dance academy is run by a coven of witches.
The key difference in the remake is the incorporation of dance, moving into the realm of body horror. Guadagnino "felt that dance needed to be part of the process of witchcraft."
Johnson describes the choreography to W Magazine as "sexual in an animalistic way" and describes her character as "feeling an unearthly pull from the center of her body."
In addition to the film’s exhaustive physical demands, its themes of manipulation weighed heavily on Johnson. She told Elle, “No lie…had to go to therapy.”
"When you're working sometimes with dark subject matter, it can stay with you and then to talk to [my therapist] about it afterwards is a really nice way to move on," she told EW.
Johnson told W Magazine that the cold hotel they shot the film in gave her "crazy nightmares" and one of the crew members was even injured. "It was a dangerous set," she said.