Sam Taylor-Johnson with her husband, actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Photo: Olivia Harris/ Reuters

Film-maker Sam Taylor-Johnson has admitted that making the new Fifty Shades of Grey film has taken its toll.

The raunchy movie, starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as lovers and based on the erotic novels by E.L. James, is due out next month.

Artist-turned-director Taylor-Johnson, 47, who previously won acclaim for the 2009 film Nowhere Boy, told Red magazine that: “I’m literally going out of my mind. I have seen this film over a thousand times and I’m now in a blancmange. But the nuances within – the tiniest shift, look, blink of an eye – can make all the difference and flip it into the wrong territory. It’s like walking a knife edge.”

She said of working on the film: “The moment I stepped out of the meeting, I stepped on to one of those bullet trains. The doors closed and I couldn’t get off. The speed, the velocity, was unbelievable. I need to get off and breathe and think about something else.”

Taylor-Johnson, whose artworks over the years have included a video of David Beckham sleeping and photographs of celebrities crying, reassured fans of the novels that she had stayed true to the bestselling books, but said that retaining creative control had been tough: “I’ve practically eaten it. I have read it over and over... Jamie and I had to sit and meet various dominants and dominatrix, just to make sure we understood that world, so that we in no way portrayed it incorrectly.”

Jamie [Dornan] and I had to sit and meet various dominants and dominatrix, just to make sure we understood that world

But she said: “I want to protect my vision and that’s the hardest thing.”

The director, who is married to Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 24, said that she needed a break after working on the film.

“I don’t want to do anything. I feel wrung dry and I need to find some building bricks again,” she said.

The mother-of-four added: “My creative brain has to shut down for a second. I need to be at home, put my feet up, feel calmer, eat well and hang out with the kids.”