As we previewed yesterday, Dakota Johnson covers the February issue of Vogue Magazine (US). Fifty Shades of Grey will be released on Valentine’s Day, and this is probably the first of several major magazine covers for Dakota. Now that I’m looking through the Mario Testino photos… I don’t really get it. Stylistically, Vogue just phoned this in. I guess it’s nice that they don’t go hyper-dramatic with Dakota’s styling, but it feels like her makeup especially is TOO undone, to the point where she looks like Vogue just picked up a girl on the street and put her on the cover. You can read the full Vogue interview here. Some highlights:

Waiting for the release of Fifty Shades: “I think about my dwindling anonymity and that’s really scary because a very large part of me would be perfectly happy living on a ranch in Colorado and having babies and chickens and horses—which I will do anyway.” Still, she could not pass up the opportunity to play a character that so many people felt they knew. “I wanted to be involved because it’s so different,” says Dakota, “and it’s an intense love story.”

Her grandmother, Tippi Hedren, being abused by Alfred Hitchcock: “The studio system then was crazy—you were like a trained animal. It’s hard for me to hear.”

Growing up in LA: “L.A. really doesn’t feel like home to me anymore. Los Angeles is a really strange place. I grew up there like a normal kid, but it was not until I experienced other parts of the world that I realized how really and truly bizarre to the core it is—inside the homes of the powerful and damaged. Nashville is only a couple of hours from New York and people just move at a slower pace there—and they don’t care who you are or what you do.” In fact, her phone has been beeping almost constantly with Zillow alerts on Nashville real estate. “Sometimes it’s nice to just hang out in someone’s backyard instead of prancing around the city,” she says. “But other times . . . it’s nice to prance around the city!”

Falling into acting: “I just assumed that what I would be doing is making films because I grew up around people making films, making art, making music. And being on a film set is the most comforting thing in the world to me. Seeing a catering truck feels like home.”

Seeing the final cut of Fifty Shades: “It looks beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it. But it’s confusing to the brain—I still can’t look at it objectively or wrap my head around it. The parts of the movie that are difficult to watch were even more difficult—and emotionally taxing—to shoot.”

[From Vogue]

What’s funny is that throughout the entire article, Dakota is hanging out in big crowds and she’s with all of these high-fashion people… and barely anyone recognizes her. Is it because she really doesn’t stand out? Is it because she just has that ability to blend? Or is it because she really isn’t that big of a movie star… yet? Anyway, the whole article felt rather lukewarm, and that’s the impression I got from the photoshoot too. Like, this is a profoundly boring girl and Vogue was just going through the motions.

Photos courtesy of Mario Testino for VOGUE.