Dakota Johnson spoke about her own mom Melanie Griffith’s reaction to her movie “The Lost Daughter” in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly‘s “The Awardist” podcast.

The actress, who took on the role of Nina in the critically acclaimed flick, shared: “I’m not a mother, but I do have one, and I have a stepmother, and my family is quite complicated.

“So there are a lot of maternal women around, and every single one is so different, and the way they connect to their children is so different. It’s just so impossible to articulate.

“And it’s a lie that you have to enjoy [motherhood] at all times. I think [director Maggie Gyllenhaal] just tells the truth about it in this film.”

She added that her mother was still processing the film: “My mom watched it three times, and I don’t really know. I think for some people it takes time to marinate. I think when she’s ready to talk to me about it, she will.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Johnson spoke about how sometimes the darker films are the funniest to work on.

She insisted it’s “funny and silly” to “pretend to be so tense all the time. You laugh at each other and yourself because it’s funny.”

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Johnson added of what drew her to the character, “She’s so complicated and misunderstood and it feels very relatable. Oftentimes when a woman looks a certain way, you’re not necessarily thinking about her mind and how it works and what she feels. I just found it beautiful and heartbreaking.”

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Johnson then gushed of director Maggie Gyllenhaal and her feature debut: “I feel like she’s always been a director, and I think that in her heart, she feels like she’s always been a director, but maybe just never allowed herself to believe in it or feel that or think it.

“There was not a moment that she didn’t have a fully realized response or opinion about what this movie was…. She’s just super smart and honest and really always looking for the truth and searching for the truth, and that is so brave and liberating and bold.”