‘Fifty Shades’ Star, 36, Looks Unrecognizable as Marilyn Monroe

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedJul 28, 2026, 4:37 PM EDT

UpdatedJul 29, 2026, 10:54 AM EDT

Updated Jul 29, 2026, 10:54 AM EDTPublished Jul 28, 2026, 4:37 PM EDT

The star of the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise is getting ready for her Seven Year Itch close-up, transforming into Marilyn Monroe for an upcoming biopic on the late starlet.

Dakota Johnson, 36, is the child of Working Girl star Melanie Griffith, 68, and Miami Vice star Don Johnson, 76.

Known for her long brunette hair and bangs since 2018, the 36-year-old actress was unrecognizable with a blond bob hairstyle in first-look photos of the new project.

Dakota Johnson with her mother, Melanie Griffith, at the Los Angeles Premiere of “Splitsville“ in Los Angeles, California, in August 2025.

Savion Washington/WireImage

Johnson will portray Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, in Flesh Impact, a short film set to debut at the Venice Film Festival in September.

Named after a phrase used to describe the tragic Hollywood icon’s performances, the film will honor her 100th birthday, which would have been on June 1.

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Actress Marilyn Monroe poses for a portrait circa 1953. The starlet, who died when she was 36, would have celebrated her 100th birthday in 2026.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Monroe died on Aug. 4, 1962, from a barbiturate overdose in her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

Dakota Johnson looked unrecognizable as Marilyn Monroe in “Flesh Impact.”

The film, which examines an alternate timeline in which the actress lived past 36, will feature two Marilyn Monroes. Johnson portrays the younger version, while Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn, 93, plays a more mature version.

Ellen Burstyn portrays a mature version of Marilyn Monroe in “Flesh Impact.”

The film is written and directed by fellow Hollywood nepo baby Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Gyllenhaal is the daughter of screenwriter and producer Naomi Gyllenhaal, and director Stephen Gyllenhaal. Her brother is Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

Dakota Johnson is best known for her steamy role in the erotic drama film “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters

Dakota’s parents, Griffith and Don, had a notoriously tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship.

After moving together when Griffith was just 15, the couple got engaged on her 18th birthday in 1975 and married in Vegas a year later. The romance was short-lived, however, with the pair divorcing six months later, according to InStyle.

Griffith also has a son with actor Steven Bauer, whom she married in 1981, while Don has a son with actress Patti D’Arbanville.

Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith at Planet Hollywood in Washington, D.C., in 1995.

Griffith and Don reunited and remarried in 1989, welcoming Dakota later that year. In 1994, however, they filed for divorce again, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson posing with their daughter, Dakota Johnson, at the premiere of her film “How To Be Single” in 2016.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Griffith went on to marry Spanish actor Antonio Banderas in 1996. The pair had a daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas, but split in 2014 after 18 years of marriage.

Don married kindergarten teacher Kelley Phleger in 1999. The couple is still married and shares three children: Atherton Grace, 26; Jasper, 24; and Deacon Johnson, 20.

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