Dakota Johnson has revealed a secret about her time filming the X-rated franchise Fifty Shades of Grey that may leave fans of the film's raunchy sex scenes surprised.

Johnson - the daughter of 80s megastars Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson - got her big break as Anastasia Steele in the adaption of EL James' erotic romance sensation, which sees her character enter into a BDSM relationship with an enigmatic rich man, Christian Grey, played by Jamie Dornan.

However, in a new interview, Johnson has revealed that production of the Fifty Shades films commenced under different set conditions than you would find on any film production today.

Namely, the presence of an intimacy coordinator on set for any and all intimate sex scenes.

No intimacy coordinators on BDSM franchise film set, star says

While appearing on Amy Poehler's podcast Good Hang, Johnson made the admission that she'd only ever worked with an intimacy coordinator for the first time while filming last year.

"She was really great," Johnson said. "It was so cool because I’m so used to, you know, it’s a sex scene. It’s not sexy. It doesn’t feel good."

The admission is all the more startling when you realise just how much sex is a part of not just Fifty Shades of Grey but its two sequels; Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.

Johnson though, it seems, is aware of the irony of not having an intimacy coordinator on set for any of the BDSM scenes she shared with her co-star Dornan.

However, it's all easily explained away. Johnson told Poehler that, simply, at the time they were filming the Fifty Shades films, intimacy coordinators were not a major part of Hollywood blockbuster productions as they are today.

Johnson starred in the Fifty Shades trilogy alongside Jamie Dornan. Credit: Universal Pictures

Dakota Johnson recalls tortured production of Fifty Shades of Grey

Johnson has spoken in the past about the struggles of filming the Fifty Shades franchise, specifically the first instalment, which not only changed stars at one point, but also had an entirely different script.

Helmed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the first Fifty Shades of Grey film script was written by scribe Kelly Martel, who described her draft as focused almost entirely on emotion and feeling, with little-to-no dialogue in its scenes.

It was a bold re-imagining of the raunchy but panned novel series, and it attracted the talents of both Dakota Johnson, on the lookout for her big breakout role, and the original choice for Mr Grey, Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam.

"I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making," Johnson recalled to Vanity Fair, explaining that when Hunnam left the production before filming began and was replaced by Jamie Dornan, author EL James took control of the set... and the script.

"[EL James] had a lot of creative control, all day, everyday. When I auditioned for that movie, I read a monologue from Persona and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really special.’"

Featured image credit: Anadolu / Getty Images

It's one of the many questions that a lot of us have when it comes to watching movies; what is it like doing those raunchy scenes? In recent times, we've seen Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson from the 'Fifty Shades' series open up about the rather unsexy ways in which their scenes are shot, with Johnson admitting that it can be quite hard to mentally prepare for the scenes.

"Most of [our preparation] is just really figuring out exactly how were are going to accomplish the scene beforehand—so that there's not a lot of waiting around while we're both vulnerable.

"But, if something is very, very difficult, it's sometimes necessary to have a shot of something strong beforehand.”

The star also opened up about the methods which are used to make the actors look like they are fully nude. As anyone who has watched Fifty Shades will tell you, a lot of the film is based on its extreme sex scenes, which are meant to set blood racing and eyebrows raising. However, while the scenes may look raunchy and sultry, the reality is much different with Dornan admitting that he has to wear a 'c**k-sock' and Johnson revealing that she adorns a stick-on thong.

"Oh yeah, Jamie's little pouch. It's super not glamorous—it's really unsexy. He wore that, and I had these sort of strapless thongs that had glue on them. It's not glue, but it's sticky.

"They're, like, basically if it were a nipple pastie, but underwear. But it's only sticky at the top, it's not sticky the whole way. It would also come off because the adhesive would wear out, so then they would superglue it to my body so that it wouldn't fall off. And I would wear two of them."

Now, in light of the recent trend in exposing movie secrets, guests on The Graham Norton Show, Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Alicia Vikander and Daniel Kaluuya have spilt the beans on the codes that actors use when performing those awkward make-out scenes.

According to Robbie, actors don't use tongues when shooting the kissing scenes, something which Kaluuya wasn't aware of until later in his career.

"I didn't know that," Kaluuya exclaimed, "apparently it's bad etiquette to put your tongue in."

While Robbie, Janney and Vikander all burst out laughing at the Londoner's claims, the actor continued:

"I didn't know that. I was just doing it because I thought, 'We're keeping it real'.

"And then someone said, apparently if you fancy them, you put your tongue in. That's what someone told me and I was like, oh shit."

Once she had managed to compose herself, Robbie revealed that someone had thankfully let her know about the rule early in her career.

"Someone told me early on, thankfully, 'Don't stress about it, but no tongue.' And I was like, 'Oh, got it.' I always say that to other people, like 'Yeah it's all cool, but no tongue,'" she revealed.

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The stars also revealed that the rules when it comes to kissing differ in the UK and America. According to the actors, people in America pass out breath mints before kissing, something which isn't common in the UK or Australia.

“Everyone’s so germaphobic in America,” Margot noted.

While Kaluuya has only just learnt the methods behind the kiss scenes, he's making more than a name for himself in the world of film. Having starred in the best films of the past two years (Get Out and Black Panther), we'll no doubt be seeing more of him, and his awkward kissing scenes, over the coming years.

Some people mark February 14 for Valentine's Day, and others, for the release of the latest Fifty Shades of Grey film. Fifty Shades Freed has just landed in cinemas, and the last instalment of the trilogy sees Anastasia Steele and her brooding lover Christian Grey get married, get pregnant, deal with a deranged former coworker who wants to kill them, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY have a whole lot of kinky sex.

I'll be honest, I kind of lost interest in the Fifty Shades story the moment a vagina was described as a "puckered love cave", and after Ana kept going on about her "inner goddess". But I digress – there's a huge audience of people out there who live for the books/films and they've been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest movie to see how Mr and Mrs Grey get it on outside of the Red Room.

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In a recent interview, Dakota Johnson, who plays Ana in the movie adaptations, has divulged how exactly they film those steamy sex scenes... and it's actually really not that sexy at all. Sorry folks.

Speaking with Marie Claire, the 28-year-old revealed that even after three films, the sex scenes are "never easy" to film: "It's not casual and it's not fun. It never got easy."

Jamie Dornan, who plays Christian Grey, previously revealed during the promotional tour that he had to wear a little penis "bag" to cover up his parts. "Oh yeah, Jamie's little pouch," Johnson said when being asked about it. "It's super not glamorous — it's really unsexy."

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But the modesty cover-up she had to wear sounded pretty horrible too. "He wore that, and I had these sort of strapless thongs that had glue on them," she revealed.

"It's only sticky at the top, it's not sticky the whole way. It would also come off because the adhesive would wear out, so then they would superglue it to my body so that it wouldn't fall off."

I mean, does it get much sexier than supergluing a thong to your body? Even Johnson admitted it was "f*cking bizarre". The Texan also revealed they had a "sex advisor" on hand during shoots, who showed them "how to use certain tools and toys".

"There's a certain method. It's very intricate and the details are really important. The rules are also really important. We didn't want to go make a movie about something we didn't research to the bone. So to really honour the BDSM community we did it the right way."

And when things got too intense, the actors would "have a shot of something strong" before the director called "action" on a scene that involved more, er... "uncomfortable" scenarios.

The most challenging sex scene? No, it wasn't licking ice-cream off Christian's pubes (yuck), but a scene in the Red Room in film number three.

"I was handcuffed with my arms and legs to the gate," Johnson recalled. "It's like a fence thing that comes down. And I was blindfolded. And it was kind of shocking, because I didn't realize that no matter how prepared or rehearsed I was, when your senses are taken away like that, you can't control the way your nervous system will react."

Doesn't sound all too sexy, does it?