Kelly Marcel, the screenwriter behind Fifty Shades of Grey,
has revealed she has felt unable to watch the salacious blockbuster
because the final cut was so different to her “crazy and artistic”
original vision.
Production of Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film was plagued by reports that author EL James
clashed heavily with the British director on set, with the novelist
keen to ensure a more literal take on her bestselling book. Now Marcel
has revealed she was left so disheartened by the experience of working
on Fifty Shades of Grey that she has not been able to bring herself to
see it.
“My heart really was broken by that process, I really mean it,” she told Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast.
“I don’t say it out of any kind of bitterness or anger or anything like
that. I just don’t feel like I can watch it without feeling some pain
about how different it is to what I initially wrote.”
Marcel said her plans for a non-linear reading of James’ novel were
initially received with enthusiasm by studio Universal. But she
eventually came to realise that the British writer would only sanction a
final cut that cleaved tightly to her own famously clunky dialogue.
“I didn’t want the story to be linear; I wanted it to begin at the
end of the film, and for us to meet in the middle,” said Marcel. “So you
start with the spanking, and you have these sort of flashes that go
throughout the film … I wanted to take the inner goddess out, and all of
Ana’s inner monologue … I wanted to remove a lot of the dialogue. I
felt it could be a really sexy film if there wasn’t so much talking in
it.
“When I delivered that script was when I realised that all of them
saying, ‘Yeah, absolutely this is what we want!’, and, ‘You can write
anything you like and get crazy and artistic with it’ – that was utter,
utter bullshit. Rightly so. Erika was like, ‘This isn’t what I want it
to be, and I don’t think this is the film the fans are looking for …’
Ultimately, Erika did have all of the control.”
Reports prior to Fifty Shades of Grey’s February release alleged that
James threatened to withdraw her support for the film unless her
original dialogue was retained. Studio Universal hired the award-winning
playwright of Closer and Dealer’s Choice, Patrick Marber, to hone
Marcel’s James-sanctioned screenplay. But the novelist reportedly went
through the final script and removed all Marber’s tinkerings,
threatening to alert her fans on social media if she were challenged.
The author also reportedly refused to allow a subtle change to the film’s denouement
in which Dakota Johnson’s Anastasia Steele was due to mutter the safe
word “red” to Jamie Dornan’s kinky billionaire Christian Grey. In the
final version, Taylor-Johnson and fellow film-makers were overruled, and
Steele speaks the word used in the novel: “Stop.”
Taylor-Johnson admitted to fighting with James over the movie earlier
this year, telling Porter magazine: “It was difficult, I’m not going to
lie.” She has not signed on to direct follow-up Fifty Shades Darker.
Said Marcel: “There was a moment where we were weeks away from shooting …
and it was clear that that was gonna be a struggle. It’s very difficult
to come on as a director and to be handcuffed that way and not be able
to fulfil your creative vision because there are certain restrictions on
you. But at the same time, I would argue that it was very clear that
that was the way it was going to be.”
James is to take even tighter control over Fifty Shades Darker, which
is expected to hit cinemas in 2017. The novelist has hired her husband
Niall Leonard, who has previously written for TV shows including
Ballykissangel, Wire in the Blood and Monarch of the Glen, to oversee
the new screenplay.
Universal can reasonably argue that its approach has proven a highly
profitable one. Despite scathing reviews, Fifty Shades of Grey scored
$569.6m at the global box office and is likely to be one of the top 10
movies of 2015.
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