Dakota Johnson Jokes Her Guest Role in ‘The Office’ Finale Was the ‘Worst Time of My Life’

Dakota Johnson is a massive fan of The Office, but she has some regrets about her guest appearance in the 2013 series finale, referring to it as “the worst time of my life.”

The Fifty Shades of Grey star spoke about the experience on Late Night With Seth Meyers, where she opened up about her awkward time on set, which lasted much longer than she’d anticipated.

“That was honestly the worst time of my life,” Johnson told Meyers, who also guested in The Office finale doing a fictional version of “Weekend Update” from Saturday Night Live. “I love that show so much, and they were like, ‘Do you want to be in the series finale?’ and I was like, ‘Of course,’ thinking that I’d show up for, like, half a day.”

“I was there for two weeks, and I’m barely in the f****** show,” she quipped.

Johnson played Dakota, the woman hired to replace Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) after Dwight (Rainn Wilson) fired him. Her character only speaks in two scenes but is often seen in the background throughout the episode, usually flirting with Clark (Clark Duke).

“Wasn’t everybody super sad?” Meyers asked, referring to it being the final episode of a beloved show that had run for eight years.

“They were sad,” Johnson said of the regular cast. “And also, like, there were weird dynamics that had been going on for the last 10 years. Some people didn’t speak to each other, and I’m coming in like, ‘Hahaha, I’m so excited to be here,’ and no one wanted to talk to me, nobody gave a f***… And I was like in the background of all of these scenes, faxing things.”

Meyers joked, “It’s some of the best faxing work I’ve ever seen.”

The Office finale featured many other guest stars, including the return of former cast members Steve Carell, Mindy Kaling, and B.J. Novak. Other stars who popped up in the episode included Ed Begley Jr., Joan Cusack, and Rachael Harris.

At the time, Johnson had just come off her Fox sitcom Ben & Kate, which had been canceled after just one season. However, her career blew up just a couple of years later when she was cast as Anastasia Steele in the big-screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Since then, Johnson has starred in all the Fifty Shades sequels, in addition to How to Be Single (2016), Suspiria (2018), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), The Lost Daughter (2021), and Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022).