Three Great Things: Dakota Johnson

The acclaimed actress, whose new movie with Sean Penn, Daddio, opens in theaters today, on some of life's essentials.

1:30 PM EDT on June 28, 2024

Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the current release in theaters of the acclaimed drama Daddio, starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, the iconic actress shared some of the things that bring her the most joy in life. — N.D.

Baths
I love baths. I take a bath almost every day if there is a tub available. It’s where I feel the most safe and soothed; it's a grounding ritual for me. I'm also a person who gets cold very easily, so having a bath is really a luxury.

I’ll put magnesium salts in the bath, and essential oils; I like to put clary sage in because I feel it gets people's bad energies off of me.

I like to try to be in a body of water every day, it doesn't have to be a bath. The ocean or a river or a pool. I just really love to be in water. I love the cold ocean just as much as a hot bath. I think it's about the effect on my nervous system; when you're immersed in water, it feels like everything is being held, so perhaps it's quieting for my nervous system.

Reading
I love reading, and it is such a part of my creative process, so with my production company I started a book club. There are certain books that I'll revisit to remind myself of myself, or of things that inspired me or taught me. But the essence of our book club is sort of how I read nowadays. Discovering new and established writers and really doing a deep dive into the world and the author.

I read Charles Bukowski when I was 14 or 15, which was actually probably quite traumatizing, now that I think about it. I think the first book of his I read was Women, which was just a cold hard slap in the face as a young woman. I read other works by Bukowski over time, of course, and I discovered Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Anais Nin, Sylvia Plath, Françoise Sagan, Ayn Rand – it was like, Whoa, what?! Life is insane!

Now it's really amazing to have this book club, because it's helping me to discover new voices and get submissions from newer authors before their books even come out. It's such a treat.

My Dog, Zeppelin
I really love my dog. His name is Zeppelin, he is 16 years old, and I've had him since I was 18. We’ve basically grown up together. He is extremely smart and sweet and perfect and soulful. He's always been a very healing dog for people, so I made him a certified emotional support animal. Which is just the sweetest thing ever.

I spoke to a pet psychic the other day (which was one of the weirder things I've done in my life), because Zeppelin’s health isn't great at the moment and I was starting to get a bit panicky. It's not something I have ever worried about before, because he's been healthy for so long that I didn’t think we were ever going to reach a different point. I believed he was just going to always be OK, because love makes you delusional.

Dakota Johnson

Dakota Johnson is a BAFTA-nominated and award-winning actress and producer who is currently starring with Sean Penn in the two-handed drama Daddio. Johnson burst onto the scene with her performance in David Fincher’s critically acclaimed The Social Network and went on to appear in the feature comedies The Five-Year Engagement and 21 Jump Street. She then starred as Anastasia Steele in Universal’s billion-dollar franchise Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. In 2015, she starred opposite Johnny Depp in Scott Cooper’s Black Mass, and starred in Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, with Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, the same director’s critically acclaimed 2018 remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria. Johnson starred alongside Shia LaBeouf and Zack Gottsagen in the indie hit The Peanut Butter Falcon, which won the Audience Award at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and grossed over $20 million in the U.S., making it the top platform release that year. In 2019, the accomplished actress also launched TeaTime Pictures with producing partner, Ro Donnelly. TeaTime’s first two feature films, Cha Cha Real Smooth and Am I OK? sold straight out of their respective premieres at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to Apple TV+ and HBO Max.