Dakota Johnson Says She's 'Really Excited' to Join the MCU in 'Madame Web' (Exclusive)

Dakota Johnson is ready to join the Marvel Universe! The actress sat down with ET's Lauren Zima to discuss her upcoming film, the comedy-drama Cha Cha Real Smooth, but also took a moment to share how excited she is to be starring in the upcoming Sony-Marvel film Madame Web. 

While the actress is of course under strict orders to keep major Marvel secrets to herself, joking, "I can tell you pretty much nothing that isn't already on the internet," she did admit that, "It's pretty cool to be in the Marvel world, especially with a character that's not so known."

"There's a lot of space for us to make her very cool, and I'm so excited," Johnson added.

In the Marvel comic canon, Madame Web is a clairvoyant mutant, who has served as a mentor to Peter Parker's Spider-Man, as well as several heroes calling themselves Spider-Woman. She is traditionally depicted as an old woman kept alive via a life support system that resembles a spider web, however, it's not yet known how the upcoming film will adapt the character.

"It's always been a dream of mine to do some kind of massive action movie," Johnson shared. "I always wanted to do, like, a female Indiana Jones... There's something about those movies that you're like, 'Wow, a real human being can do that!'"

The actress' role in Cha Cha Real Smooth, however, is certainly a bit more grounded. Johnson stars as a single mom of an autistic daughter, who becomes close with a bar mitzvah party host, played by the film's writer and director, Cooper Raiff.

The film, which also stars Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett, Raúl Castillo and more, has earned positive reviews at festivals like Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca, ahead of its Apple TV+ debut on June 17. According to Johnson and Raiff, the success is due in part to the loose on-set structure, which allowed the film's talented cast to improvise and change lines on the fly.

"Everyone was very, very funny on set," Raiff told ET. "We all had very shared senses of humor and sensibilities. It was really fun to let, like, Dakota and Leslie and Brad say what they wanted to say and kinda throw away the script."

"Cooper was super collaborative and especially in that way he, like me, has the ability to learn lines pretty quickly," Johnson agreed. "So we could rewrite a whole scene beforehand... It was like a real cohesive story."

"Usually people get annoyed with me because I wanna do that," she teased. "I guess now because it's my movie, I was a producer on it, nobody could tell me I couldn't do that."

So did Johnson ask her own famous mom, Melanie Griffith, for any tips on how to play a matriarch in the film? "No," the actress admitted with a laugh. "I think that knowing what she’s like as a mother is pretty ingrained in me. I didn’t really have to ask her what she does. I’m pretty aware."

Cha Cha Real Smooth debuts on Apple TV+ and in limited theaters on June 17.

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