- She is Melanie Griffith’s daughter with Miami Vice star Don Johnson.
- Her parents met when Melanie Griffith was just 14 years old.
- Her maternal grandmother is Hitchcock actress Tippi Hedren.
- In 1999, aged nine, she made her film debut in Crazy in Alabama where she and her half-sister, Stella Banderas, played daughters to their real-life mother. The film was directed by her stepfather, Antonio Banderas.
- She grew up in Colorado and attended Aspen Community School.
- On leaving school she signed with IMG models and has starred in campaigns for Mango jeans line.
- In 2006, Dakota was chosen to be Miss Golden Globe – a role traditionally conferred on the daughter of a celebrity and that involves assisting in the ceremony. Her mum previously had the honour in 1975.
- Her friends include Paris Hilton, Riley Keough and Mary-Kate Olsen.
- Viewers of The Social Network will remember her love scene with Justin Timberlake’s character.
- Despite being in the film about social media, she doesn’t have a Facebook page. “I was on Facebook until I caught myself being a psycho stalker. That’s when I chose to stop.”
- In 2010 she dated Noah Gersh, a musician in a band called HoneyChild.
- She Was the lead in a TV Show called Ben & Kate but unfortunately it was cancelled after 16 episodes, the final 3 of the season were never even aired in the United States.
- She attended the prestigious New Roads School which has graduated an insane number of Hollywood celebrities including Kate Hudson, Jonah Hill, Sean Astin and Gwyneth Paltrow. Yearly tuition for the private school runs in the five figures, but half of its spots are reserved for bright kids in the Los Angeles area who can’t afford to pay the lofty price tag.
- Atd 17 she checked into rehab, while it was initially alleged to be a substance abuse problem, Dakota has claimed it was actually related to stress and desperately needing therapy.
- She dated actor and Scientologist Jordan Masterson (Last Man Standing) for nearly 4 years but the relationship ended shorty after she filmed Fifty Shades of Grey in 2014.
- In 2010 she auditioned for the show Girls in front of Judd Apatow. He decided she wasn’t right for that show, but when it came time for his buddy Nick Stoller to cast Five Year Engagement her suggested Dakota – she got the part.
- Dakota doesn’t find it annoying talking about her famous family, saying: “I’ve come to understand the allure of that to other people, how it seems so interesting and different. But for me it’s just my family.”
- Her on-screen sex scenes with Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades Of Grey won’t be her first, having previously pretended to do the deed with Jason Segel in The Five-Year Engagement.
- Speaking about filming the sex scenes with Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades Of Grey, she said: “It’s not, like, a romantic situation. It’s more, like, technical and choreographed and less … it’s more of a task.”
- She landed her role as Anastasia Steele by reading a long, sexually-explicit monologue from the Ingmar Bergman film “Personaâ€
- Dakota appeared in the big screen remake of 21 Jump Street while her aunt Tracy Griffith had a cameo in the original television series in 1988.
- Not many people would have the courage to take on the role of Anastasia Steele but in an interview with Elle magazine she said, “I don’t have any problem doing anything. The secret is, I have no shame.â€
- At 25 years old in 2014, and with just a handful of credits, she has already acted with many popular sexy men in her films, such as Channing Tatum, Jamie Dornan, Johnny Depp, Justin Timberlake, Aaron Paul, Alex Pettyfer, Chris Pratt, Penn Badgley, Paul Dano, Jason Segel, Ralph Fiennes, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin.
- On receiving the call she was cast as Anastasia Steele: “They said ‘You got the offer’ and I couldn’t speak. I was just so relieved. I was crying and crying. Water was literally squirting out of my eyes because I had been so stressed out. And there’s this giant Doberman Pincher laying on the bed next to me. And he just slowly fell asleep. It was so special and [this dog] didn’t give a fuck about me and what I was going through.”
- When talking about Fifty Shades of Grey “I just really understand it. I think it’s an incredible love story and that’s why it’s affected so many people. Erica (EL James) did a really good job of explaining how that just can happen sometimes and you have this chemical pull to someone. Adding in the sex makes it perfect. Sometimes you feel a little bit naughty and that’s okay.”