'Fifty Shades' author James 'fought hard' for her fans.

• Author: Noveck, Jocelyn
• Position: Living - Movie review

Byline: Jocelyn Noveck

NEW YORK -- ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' devotees, know this: Whether you end up loving or hating the new movie, author EL James had your back.

''I was thinking about the readers,'' James says about the sometimes fraught process of adapting her steamy book to the screen -- a process that reportedly involved creative differences, to put it gently, with director Sam Taylor-Johnson. Out this Friday for Valentine's weekend, the R-rated film stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.

''I understand what it's like to be in fandom,'' she says. ''I had to fight for a lot of things really hard. And I did.'' (As a producer on the film as well as the trilogy's author, James had an unusual amount of creative clout.)

James, 51, who wrote the erotic trilogy for her own enjoyment and ended up launching a global phenomenon, sat down over the weekend with The Associated Press to chat about the new film and the fans whose devotion has brought her such stunning commercial success. (Editor's note: Director Taylor-Johnson was not made available for this article.)

AP: What was the hardest thing about adapting your book?

JAMES: My biggest concern was making sure that the sex was really classy and tasteful. It's very coyly written in the books. Women don't like salacious slang. So that was really important to me, to keep it tasteful.

AP: Making the film, were you thinking about your readers, or about a new audience that perhaps hasn't read the book?

JAMES: I was thinking about the readers. There are enough of them! (Laughter.) I mean hopefully we'll bring other people to it as well, of course; there are people who don't read at all. But my readers are the people I've always had in my mind. I understand the disappointment when key scenes are forgotten, or missing, so I was an advocate for them.

AP: Did you have to fight hard for anything?

JAMES: Oh, I had to fight for a lot of things really hard. And I did. (laughs).

AP: Like what?

JAMES: Well, the Red Room (of Pain), for example, wasn't red at first. But it's things like this, within any creative process, when you're the auteur of a whole universe, and then, you're spreading it out ... it's not always going to be aligned with how you saw it. But beneath it all, I was just hoping that we'd have something that the fans would be happy with.

AP: Who's your typical fan?

JAMES: Female. That's it. All ages -- from too young, and into their 90s.

AP: Does that mean that men aren't really the right audience?

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