Dakota Johnson fired back at Anne Hathaway with a blunt exit plan after the pregnant star began directing photographers at their film premiere.
The exchange unfolded at the New York premiere of “Verity,” the upcoming thriller pairing Hathaway, 43, and Johnson, 36, alongside co-star Josh Hartnett. Hathaway, who is expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman, took charge of the photo line and started calling out instructions to the press corps.
“Okay everybody ready? We are going to start from the left and then we can make our way that way,” Hathaway said.
As she pointed down the line of photographers, Johnson did a small jig and reached over to touch her co-star’s baby bump. Hathaway pressed on unfazed, continuing to organize the cast for the cameras.
“We are going to start here and then we are going to do what Josh said,” Hathaway added.
Johnson made her impatience plain.
“Then I’m going to leave,” Johnson responded.
The moment quickly drew fan analysis online, though the co-stars have developed a close bond during production. Their red-carpet dynamic came as Hathaway navigates a pregnancy that has already reshaped her promotional duties for the film.
On the Talk of the Townsends podcast, Hathaway revealed she had hoped to appear on the YouTube series “Hot Ones” because her character appears on it in “Verity.”
“I thought that I was gonna be able to do the ‘Hot Ones’ challenge to do press for this film because it just made sense,” she said.
“But then I got pregnant, and my doctor said I couldn’t do it because I might go into early labour.”
She added: “So I still haven’t done the gauntlet yet. I’m not sure when that’s gonna happen. Maybe next year.”
Hathaway disclosed that she managed three real hot wings during filming before switching to milder dummy wings for subsequent takes.
The actor has stacked five feature films for 2026, with “Verity” following “Mother Mary,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “The Odyssey,” and “The End of Oak Street.” In the thriller, she plays author Verity Crawford, a real person who recently appeared on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
Hathaway explained how the promotional landscape expanded beyond that initial booking.
“Alex Cooper and Call Her Daddy was scripted, and then I, just, in a production meeting, said, ‘Is that enough to establish Verity as an iconic cultural figure?'” she continued.
“Because in my head, if we could do something like, I don’t know, get a Gayle King interview and ‘Hot Ones’, that would be kind of the triple crown trifecta.”
The film opens in theaters across the US on October 2.