Before she directed Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey, director Sam Taylor-Johnson made 23 of Hollywood's biggest actors cry -- no, not because they lost out to Dornan for the role of Christian Grey. As it turns out, Taylor-Johnson's greatest feat wasn't trying to get along with author EL James long enough to create a blockbuster hit -- it was getting famous men to let down their guard and weep for cameras.
Before she became a director, Taylor-Johnson was an artist who created a highly regarded work entitled "Crying Men." As the name suggests, she photographed 23 actors as they experienced intense emotional moments in an effort to "demystify celebrity status and explore the authenticity of emotion within actors at work."
The actors were asked to sit in one spot by themselves and think of sad scenarios or painful experiences that would bring on the tears. Whether they were just acting or actually experiencing pain is unknown -- but that's kind of the beauty of her project.
Taylor-Johnson obviously wields influence in Hollywood because she was able to get big-name stars to participate in the endeavor -- it's heartbreaking to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams cry in solitude. It's equally moving to witness men like Paul Newman, Laurence Fishburne, and Daniel Craig (aka James Bond) -- whom we don't automatically associate with emotions -- free themselves enough to express intense sadness.
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This interesting exhibit, which you can view here, reminds me that Taylor-Johnson was an accomplished artist before she agreed to take on Fifty Shades. The majority of her issues with James reportedly revolved around the author's inability to relinquish control over her story and characters, even though film is an entirely different medium than books and requires a different approach.
Taylor-Johnson clearly has an artist's eye and vision, and I think it's a little sad that Fifty Shades fans will never get an opportunity to find out how the film could have been different, had the director been given more control over its outcome.
With all of that said, the first film in the trilogy still profited in a major way, passing $500M at the global box office -- I'm going to go out on a limb and say James probably isn't kicking herself now.
Image via Richie Buxo/Splash News