Dakota Johnson 'Understood' Why Her Famous Parents 'Discouraged' Her Hollywood Aspirations

Dakota Johnson totally gets why her famous parents didn't want her following in their footsteps.

The Lost Daughter actress appears in the latest issue of W Magazine where she spoke about growing up in a famous Hollywood family with mom Melanie Griffith, dad Don Johnson, former stepdad Antonio Banderas and grandmother Tippi Hedren.

"They discouraged [me]," Johnson said of her parents' attitude toward her acting dreams. "See how well that turned out? But I understood. They wanted me to have as much of a childhood as I could."

When asked how old she was when she knew she wanted to act, Johnson said, "Nothing old. Zero old."

"I couldn't wait because I grew up on set. My parents were always working with amazing artists, and I just loved it," she said. "I wanted to be a part of it so badly."

Johnson got her start in the 1999 movie Crazy Alabama followed by appearances in The Social Network, 21 Jump Street and the finale of The Office in 2013.

But her big break came with the role of Anastasia Steele in 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey opposite Jamie Dornan and based on the popular books of the same name.

Since then, Johnson has appeared in two more sequels from the franchise, as well as Bad Times at El Royale, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Suspiria and most recently The Lost Daughter.

In March 2021, Johnson's dad Don revealed he gave his five children, including Dakota, the option of being financially helped under one condition.

"We have a rule in the family that, you know, if you stay in school, you get to stay on the payroll. So, you go to college, you get to stay on the payroll," Don explained on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

He continued, "Toward the end of high school, I went to [Dakota] and I said, 'So, do you want to go visit some colleges?' Or something like that. And she was like, 'Oh, no. I'm not going to college.'"

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"I went, 'OK, you know what that means? You won't be on the payroll anymore,'" the actor recalled. He went on to ask Dakota how she was "going to manage."

Dakota responded, "Don't you worry about it" and when Don asked for details, she wouldn't offer up any.

The actor then proudly shared that the actress was cast in The Social Network three weeks after their conversation.

"And the rest is, shall we say, cinema history," Don said.

The Lost Daughter is available to stream on Netflix.