If you were wondering why that interview between Dakota Johnson and Ellen DeGeneres was so painfully awkward, internet sleuths may have dug up your answer.
Last week, the Fifty Shades of Grey actor appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for an interview, which later went viral for its major cringe factor.
To start off the segment, Ellen had jokingly grilled Dakota over why she wasn’t invited to her 30th birthday party.
“Actually no. That’s not the truth, Ellen. You were invited,” the actor said. “Last time I was on the show, last year, you gave me a bunch of shit about not inviting you, but I didn’t even know you wanted to be invited. I didn’t even know you liked me!”
“Of course I like you,” Ellen insisted. “You knew I liked you. You’ve been on the show many times,” DeGeneres replied, asking if Johnson was “sure” she’d invited her.
“Yeah... Ask everybody,” Dakota said. “Ask your producer,” she added with a smile. When Ellen asked her producer why she didn’t attend, a male voice in the room (ostensibly the producer) called out: “You were out of town.“
As the internet super sleuths went to work, it quickly came to light that the weekend of Dakota’s star-studded Malibu party coincided with Ellen’s appearance at the Dallas Cowboys’ game, when she sparked major controversy for sitting beside former President George W. Bush. Dakota’s party was on Saturday 6 October, and the Texas football game was the following day.
At the time, Ellen responded to criticism over her decision to sit beside Bush by declaring that she considered the former president a friend and that she was friends with many people with whom she did not share the same beliefs.
However, many critics were not satisfied with Ellen’s explanation, calling out the talk show host and fierce LGBTQ advocate for supporting a man who had publicly opposed same-sex marriage and overseen a war that killed thousands of civilians and troops.
When people discovered the timing of Dakota’s party after that very awkward interview, Twitter lit up.