You are not used to it anymore. That there is a star in Munich who is known or read all over the world. EL James (official spelling without dots) presented himself to her fans on Friday evening, in person, at the publishing house of her German publisher, at Penguin Random House in Berg am Laim, to answer questions about her books, her life and new projects. A little teaser up front: Two finished novels have not yet been published, but will probably appear. Teaser two: EL James believes her protagonists are feminists.
Anyone who does not know the Englishwoman, born in 1963 as Erika Mitchell (later her real name is Erika Leonard), is either lying or has lived behind the moon for the past decade. In any case, the following happened on earth: The “Shades of Gray” trilogy, published in 2011 and 2012, sold around 150 million copies to date, translated into 52 languages.
The films broke records too (and won Golden Raspberries, too). The sexually charged relationship story about student Anastasia Steele and billionaire Christian Gray combined traditional rescue fantasies of women in love with fairy tales with a bit of BDSM. For some, the simply written books “Mummy Porn”, either “SM like special waste” or Emancipation Killer, were irresistible for others. Hardly anyone could escape the hype.
For EL James, who started out as a self-publisher and “fan fiction” author and worked for many years as a television production manager, the decade was without a doubt a fabulous and unforgettable decade. If something hadn’t happened recently that she spoke about surprisingly openly on her first visit to Munich.
The mother of two sons, who lives with her husband in London, apparently had serious health problems and suffered from memory loss. “I forgot seven years of my life, that was the horror!”, She said. In the meantime the memories have returned. But what doctors call “transient global amnesia” threw the bestselling author completely off track shortly before the pandemic. “That was awful!” In autumn 2019 she had just started with the book “Freed”, the third part of her second trilogy (from the point of view of Christian Gray), when she first had to take care of her health. When she was feeling better again, in the middle of the pandemic, she finished the novel (published by Goldmann in the summer of 2021) in just six months.
“I wanted to sell 5000 books, that was my dream”
There was that evening, the opening event of the Reading festivals “Lit.Love”, several surprises. Another was that EL James clearly distanced himself from the film adaptation of “Fifty Shades of Gray”, the first of the three films with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. The well-informed presenter Anouk Schollähn seemed amazed by this herself. She translated mildly that the author was “not quite so happy”, which was formulated much more clearly in the original, namely: “I had such a terrible time when we made the first film. For many reasons.” Interesting side effect: Since the experience of the film was so bad, EL James wrote the story from the point of view of her male protagonist in the first place. Also, “to win back the characters for me,” as she now explained. So anger was definitely involved in the creation of her second trilogy.
“I had such a terrible time when we made the first film,” said EL James of the adaptation of the book, starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.
(Photo: Universal Pictures / dpa)
EL James cut a pretty good figure with the mostly harmless questions from the audience (proportion of women: estimated 95 percent). The 58-year-old came all in black: black boots, black pants, black sweater, black hair, black glasses. And black humor. She presented herself in a good mood and open. She liked the white wine (“It’s very good Riesling”), talked about pandemic rituals (“Margarita Friday”) and said several times: “My arm is injured,” allegedly the only German sentence she knows.
The visitors learned a lot of personal information from the bestselling author. As a rule, she doesn’t sit at her desk in London until lunchtime (the morning is therefore a single coffee break), but then she writes all the time. You don’t plot, but let yourself be guided by the characters. Smoking is inspiring, oh yes! But since she stopped, the only thing left is the music to put yourself in creative moods. She loves her new little dog Georgie, would like to see more of Bavaria and is addicted to TikTok.
But what about sex? Is it true that when you have children, your sex life is over? EL James: “Oh, definitely!” Perhaps more beautiful is only her sentence about the early days as a self-publisher: “I wanted to sell 5000 books, that was my dream.”
Black boots, black pants, black sweater, black hair, black glasses. And black humor: EL James (left) and Anouk Schollähn talk about love.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The author also commented on new projects, at least vaguely. Accordingly, a continuation of her novel “The Mister” (published in 2019, but the first book she has ever written) is more likely than another part in the “Shades of Gray” universe (“Never say never”, “but probably not “). They are also attracted by thrillers, paranormal and serial killer stories. Two books, as already mentioned, are already finished.
It got a bit more critical towards the end. When asked whether Christian and Anastasia’s relationship was not unhealthy, EL James replied with a counter-question: “Who has a healthy relationship?” And further: “It’s fiction.” Was Anastasia a feminist because she always worked independently? “Yeah, I think most women are feminists … should be feminists.”
The British woman has been criticized for years for pairing role models from the day before yesterday with the fascination of capitalism. At her appearance in Munich in general and the somewhat awkward sentence about feminism in particular, one clearly noticed: This is not her topic at all. The multimillionaire prefers to talk about cars and her new iPhone.