Dakota Johnson found the audition process for Juilliard drama school "so awful and terrifying".
After she graduated from school, the Fifty Shades of Grey star "didn't want to go" to university so she only applied for one institution - the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City - and endured their "awful and terrifying" audition process.
"When you get accepted for an audition, it's a two-day long chorus-line thing. You're supposed to get called back for a second audition, and I didn't," she told ELLE UK. "It was fine, I really didn't want to go to college.
"And because Juilliard felt so small - the idea of being in a classroom with the same group of people, and figuring out how to be a human in that environment, after growing up surrounded by so many different kinds of people and immersed in different cultures through travelling all over... It just felt really wrong to lock myself in one place."
When her interviewer, co-star Pedro Pascal, suggested that the auditioners could possibly sense that the course wasn't a right fit for her, the actress replied, "No, I think they were like, you don't stand a chance. But thank you, I appreciate it."
The 35-year-old, who is the daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, shared that the Miami Vice actor cut her off financially after she didn't get into Juilliard so she started auditioning for roles.
"For a couple of years it was hard to make money. There were a few times when I'd go to the market and not have money in my bank account or not be able to pay rent, and I'd have to ask my parents for help - I'm very grateful that I had parents that could help me and did help me," she continued. "But it certainly was not fun. The auditioning process, as you know, is the f**king worst."
Johnson and Pascal star alongside Chris Evans in the upcoming romantic comedy Materialists, which will be released in June.
