Dakota Johnson comes out in exclusive trailer for Am I Ok? — with special link to her infamous Ellen Degeneres exchange

For pop culture fans who live life on the internet, a delightfully awkward exchange between Dakota Johnson and Ellen Degeneres will forever be burned into our brains. Back in 2019, the Ellen DeGeneres Show host claimed she hadn’t been invited to the Fifty Shades of Grey star's birthday party, but Johnson hilariously corrected her ( "Actually, no, that's not the truth, Ellen") before noting that one person who did attend was Tig Notaro, who the actress called her "favorite comedian" as DeGeneres looked away, comically dejected.

Turns out, a legendary talk show moment is not the only thing the now-notorious party resulted in. That night, Johnson and her favorite comedian became fast friends, and Notaro later asked the actress to star in her directorial debut, Am I Ok?, which just so happens to be the coming out story of the film’s scribe, Lauren Pomerantz, an Emmy-winning writer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, who was also on set for the infamous exchange.

After making its debut at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Am I Ok?, which Notaro co-directed with her wife and fellow comedian Stephanie Allynne (The L Word: Generation Q), is coming to Max on Thursday, June 6, and EW can exclusively reveal the long-awaited trailer (below), full of queer anxiety, powerful female friendship, and plenty of tears — oh, and the introduction of your new favorite euphemistic treat: sampling the "vag-ice cream."

The movie sees Johnson as Lucy, a 32-year-old whose world is rocked by both the realization that she is a lesbian and news that her lifelong bestie Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) is also embarking on a huge change in her own life: moving from Los Angeles to London for a great work opportunity. Am I Ok? is equally about Lucy's journey entering the queer dating pool for the first time while feeling practically ancient in terms of coming out, as it is an exploration of Lucy and Jane's platonic friendship, which is thrown into chaos by the changes in the women's lives.

"I'm 32 years old; I should have figured this out by now," Johnson's Lucy says in the trailer, crying in bed (Note: This is far from the only crying Johnson does in the movie, but more on that ahead). In moments that may be relatable to plenty of viewers, Lucy is shown taking a "How to know if you're a lesbian quiz" online and awkwardly rejecting a hot woman who asks her to dance, admitting to Jane, "I'm nervous all the time, and I'm scared of everything."

"It can be really scary to try new things," she tells the outgoing Jane, who counters that Lucy will "try 20 different flavors of ice cream" before settling on a scoop. "Ice cream is different than... vagina," Lucy declares. "How do you know? You don't know," Jane encourages her as only a true best friend can.

"I took my whole coming out late story, and I used that, and I really based it on a real-life friendship with my best friend Jessica [Elbaum], who is also a producer on this movie," Pomerantz tells Entertainment Weekly. "I started writing it as a friendship movie based on our friendship. We had sort of a big fight, and then we're friends again, but then simultaneously, I was struggling to come out. And so I realized that was the story that I really wanted to tell."

Although she didn’t have an actress in mind to play her/Lucy, Pomerantz says she was "pretty excited" when Johnson came aboard and notes that, as Notaro has told her, she and the actress share a bit of "awkwardness" in their mannerisms. "She was fantastic, and I'm just incredibly grateful that she did it. She captured everything I could ever have hoped for in that character — the confusion, the insecurity, all of the inner turmoil I think really came out."

Pomerantz notes the ease of making the movie with other queer women at the helm. "We got to talk about it and talk about the characters and really explore the relationship and those feelings," she says of Notaro and Allynne. "It was very easy to talk to them about everything because Stephanie had the experience [of coming out later]. And Tig is just very smart and hilarious and creative. So it was great. I loved working with them. ...There was definitely a shorthand in being like, oh, remember these feelings? Yes, I had those too."

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The writer says coming out in her early 30s "definitely felt like it was late, and now it still feels delayed," although she notes plenty of people also come out much later. "The whole point is that it's never too late," Pomerantz says. "I think that's part of it, though. You put so much pressure on yourself, and you make your own constraints whether or not they need to exist."

Pomerantz wants the film to reach anyone facing a similar self-realization, no matter the age. "My whole hope is that people out there who see it and who are struggling see it and just take the first step forward," she says. "It's so internal, and you're putting your own pressure on yourself. And I think if someone out there is struggling and is afraid, I just want them to know that it truly will be okay and it will be better. It's cliche, but it's so true."

As for all the crying hinted at in the trailer and the film's key art (above)? The movie features "a lot of crying because that was so real," Pomerantz explains. "It makes me laugh, and it made the people making it laugh because it is real. I didn't want to sort of gloss over the fact that it wasn't upsetting and challenging. And so I put a lot of crying in there so that you feel that."

Tears aside, she hopes seeing Johnson portray her coming out story in Am I Ok? helps anyone on the fence about their own journey.

"If one person just kind of sees it and makes the choice to step forward and take that leap, I'll be so happy."

Am I OK?, also starring Jermaine Fowler, Kiersey Clemons, Molly Gordon, Sean Hayes, and Notaro, streams on Max beginning June 6. Watch the trailer above.