Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn share a cab and life-changing conversation in 'Daddio'

"It goes through all these different dynamics. A brother-sister dynamic and a father-daughter dynamic. And is it sexual? Is it dangerous? Is it creepy? It never remains one thing for any time for very long."

Girlie is returning to Manhattan after a life-changing moment in Oklahoma, where she confronts her past and the distance she always felt from her father, as well as her present with an older, married boyfriend who texts her periodically throughout the cab ride.

As Johnson talked about Girlie's mix of vulnerability and bravery, Penn nodded his head in agreement.

"Too many victims telling us they're victims these days," he says. "And she wasn't one. So to see a character finding that and owning that, that struck me. If film can be important, if a character in a film can be important, it's not because they say, 'Do this.' It's because they're showing you that it's who you are."

For Hall, the goal of her story was to invite viewers into the cab to see "how these kinds of things can kind of flourish and open up like a flower," she says. "But it requires a space of nonjudgment. That she does not judge him, but he doesn't judge her either. And I think they're both surprised by it and forever changed by it."

Casting coincidences

A connection between Hall and producer Ro Donnelly, with whom Hall had worked as co-creator and writer on the Netflix series "I Am Not Okay With This," was the key to landing Johnson in the lead role.

After that series ended, Donnelly, who with Johnson had formed TeaTime Pictures to develop projects together, asked Hall whatever happened with her "Daddio" script. When she learned it was in early development, Donnelly asked Hall what she thought of Johnson as the lead.

"I was like, 'I would be so lucky! Are you kidding me?' Do you think she would read it?'" Hall says. "She said, 'Yeah, I'll slip it to her.'"

Johnson took the on-screen role as Girlie and the behind-the-camera one as a producer with Donnelly and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, a three-time nominee for the best picture Oscar for "The Wolf of Wall Street," "The Irishman" and "Joker." She also stepped in as a sort of informal casting director, Hall says.

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