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Dakota Johnson Says She Wants to 'Make a Difference' as a Producer: 'I Have Such Big Dreams'

2021 Gotham Awards
2021 Gotham Awards

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Dakota Johnson

Dakota Johnson is breaking into the world of film production with a bang.

The 32-year-actress both stars in and produces not one but two movies at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which kicked off Thursday and runs through Jan. 30: Am I OK? and Cha Cha Real Smooth, both in association with her production company TeaTime Pictures.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, published Thursday, Dakota says she "just want(s) to make a difference," after a lifetime of "growing up on-set and experiencing so many conversations around this job and this industry and the people in it and then having my own career for the last 14 years." (Her parents are actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.)

"I want to make it better. I want to have a better experience," she told the Times. "I want to give more opportunities to amazing people to make things. I want to make more."

The Lost Daughter star added, "I have such big dreams, it's out of control. And I have so many ideas, and I just need to get them out. Even if they're horrible and [producing partner Ro Donnelly]'s like, 'No, not that one.' "

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Lost Daughter  Venice premiere
Lost Daughter Venice premiere

Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Dakota Johnson

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Donnelly raved to the Times of her "creative" partner, "I like to say she's like the wind."

"She's just always moving and dreaming, and she's pretty ethereal," Donnelly shared of Dakota. "I definitely am the more realist of the two of us, but I love her big dreams. We definitely balance each other out."

Dakota, whose role as protagonist Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey films rocketed her to stardom, told the outlet that the "opinions" people have about "other people, especially famous people, especially famous naked people" are "just like mosquito noise" to her.

In fact, "I think that I just want to do what is true to my heart, and I have done," she said. "And though things don't always turn out what they were supposed to be when I'm there as just an actor, the choices I've made have always been from my heart and not for any other reason."

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While Dakota has certainly made a name for herself in Hollywood separate from Don, 72, and Griffith, 64, she also understands why they didn't want her following in their footsteps.

"They discouraged [me]," she recently told W Magazine of her parents' attitude toward her acting dreams. "See how well that turned out? But I understood. They wanted me to have as much of a childhood as I could."

When asked how old she was when she knew she wanted to act, Dakota said, "Nothing old. Zero old."

"I couldn't wait because I grew up on set. My parents were always working with amazing artists, and I just loved it," she explained. "I wanted to be a part of it so badly."