E L James is still not happy with how that first “Fifty Shades of Grey” movie turned out and places the blame with director Sam Taylor-Johnson.
In a recent interview with The Times, the 56-year-old author said it was “a challenging experience” working on the first big-screen adaptation of her erotic romance novel and that she would have done “a lot of things differently.”
Taylor-Johnson directed the first movie in the trilogy, but stepped away from the sequels due to well-publicized creative differences. The following films were taken over by “Glengarry Glen Ross” director James Foley.
“I had a far more creative process on the second and third movie, working with someone who had vision and dynamism and embraced the material,” James told The Times. “As a woman holding on to your IP [intellectual property] it’s like what the f**k. I knew this was born of a fandom, I knew it needed to be made right for those people. If we get that right it will be fine, it was just a struggle.”
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In 2015, Taylor-Johnson opened up about her issues with James, telling Porter magazine, “It was difficult, I’m not going to lie. We would have proper on-set barneys… and I’m not confrontational.”
“Every scene was fought over. It was tough. It was like wading uphill through sticky tar,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “[James’s] thing was, ‘This is what the fans expect.’ I’d be like, ‘Well, let’s try and hit those marks but create a new universe at the same time.'”
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“I can never say I regret it because that would just finish me off,” she later told Sunday Times magazine. “[But] would I go through it again? I’d be mad.”
James has written five books in the “Fifty Shades” series up until this point.
