Dakota Johnson was called ‘pompous’ for shaking hands & introducing herself

Have you guys seen Splitsville? Dakota Johnson starred in and produced the film, which came out in the US last year. I rented it at some point and I thought it was okay. It was a weird film overall, and it reminded me of an offbeat ‘90s pseudo-romance but with modern references. Anyway, Splitsville is coming out in the UK, and Dakota is currently promoting it by doing some British media. She ended up telling a really interesting and infuriating story about one of her worst auditions:

Dakota Johnson revealed during a recent interview on Hits Radio while promoting the U.K. release of “Splitsville” that she once failed an audition simply for shaking the hands of the creative team when she entered the room. The actor was just trying to be polite ahead of reading her lines. She was later told that she was “pompous” and “cocky.”

“I had an audition once, and it was a callback, and I went into the room, and I shook everyone’s hand and introduced myself. Then I did the scene, and I left,” Johnson said. “The feedback I got was that because I had gone and introduced myself and shook everyone’s hand is that I was pompous. That I was schmoozing, and I was full of myself, and I was like: ‘What?’ I didn’t get the job because they said that I was being cocky, but I just had manners… It was pretty crazy.”

Johnson’s dark comedy “Splitsville” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year before opening in the U.S. in late August from Neon. Not only does Johnson star in the film but she also produced it through TeaTime Pictures, the production banner she co-founded with Ro Donnelly.

[From Variety]

What’s crazy about “walking into a room, shaking everyone’s hand and introducing yourself” is what men are expected to do as a bare minimum, right? That’s seen as businesslike and professional when a man does it. What was Dakota supposed to do, slink into a room demurely, quietly announce “I’m Dakota” while looking at the floor, and then do her audition? I guess that’s how a lot of men expect women to act. I bet you anything that Dakota, a nepo baby, was told by her parents to always shake hands and introduce herself too – that sounds exactly like the kind of advice that Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith would have given her.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.