Joining the likes of Dua Lipa, Emma Roberts and Kaia Gerber, Dakota Johnson is the latest literary-loving A-lister to have launched a book club.
Named TeaTime Book Club, the community is inspired by the work the Madame Webb star does finding stories to develop into films and TV shows for TeaTime Pictures, the production company she co-founded with former Netflix development executive Ro Donnelly.
Speaking to Bustle in March 2024, the actor said: ‘There are a lot of people who do things like I do and they have book clubs, and I was always like, “Oh, the way that I read books, it’s so different.” I want to fall down the rabbit hole every time I read… to invest in the book, invest in the language, invest in the references. Like, “Oh, what is that piece of art she’s talking about? Who’s that musician?”’
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Fall down the rabbit hole Johnson is continuing to do with TeaTime’s latest collective read, Pink Slime by Fernanda Trias, which is the story of a woman’s gradual mental collapse in the face of insurmountable circumstances.
The book club’s first novel was Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino, which is a novel about a woman who believes she is an alien, with Johnson telling the outlet that the intention of starting the club was to engage in thought-provoking literary conversations with her fans. ‘TeaTime and I have an Instagram channel where you can have a chat with whoever signs up, and every few days we’ll be releasing a deep dive as we read along together,’ she said.
Despite being the latest in a long line of stars to have launched their own book club, Johnson is clear that hers is different to the others. ‘You watch someone like me have a conversation with the author, but I don’t feel invested in that. I’m not very good at Instagram and I am constantly trying to figure it out, but the more I’ve learned and seen, something like this is really needed,’ she told Bustle. ‘People need to deep dive into knowledge about specific things rather than talking about what f*cking face serum they’re using and thinking that that’s the most important thing in the world.’
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Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University’s prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others.
