Maggie Gyllenhaal said at the Busan International Film Festival press conference on Wednesday that the best directors she worked with as an actress, who were usually also the most successful, understood the value of influencing the minds of those around them.
Gyllenhaal said, “These were people who were too scared… or not smart enough, who tried to drown out other people’s voices.”
Gyllenhaal is in Busan with “Flesh Impact,” a short film he wrote and directed starring Ellen Burstyn as Marilyn Monroe at age 100 and Dakota Johnson playing the star in her youth. When he made his feature directorial debut with “The Lost Daughter,” his main concern was that everyone on set, from the actors to the cinematographer, production designer and gaffer, felt free to contribute.
He said, “The truth is… it ultimately depends on me as the director. I have the power, so there is no reason to crush anyone else’s voice.” “I mean, it’s pretty obvious that the movie I make that involves the minds of all the people on my crew, at least in terms of things I can draw from, is going to be exponentially better than a movie I can try to imagine alone in my room.”
“Flash Impact” began as a commission from luxury car brand and longtime Busan sponsor Genesis to mark Monroe’s 100th birthday in June. Gyllenhaal said she knew the star mostly because of his screen icon image and it took her a week to decide whether she had anything to say about him. She spent it reading about Monroe and watching her films.
Gyllenhaal said, “I don’t think that when Genesis came to me and asked me to make a movie about Marilyn Monroe to celebrate her 100th birthday, they thought that she would actually be 100 in the movie.” “I thought, ‘Okay, I have this idea. They’ll never go for it.'”
Genesis approved the pitch, and Gyllenhaal completed the script within a weekend. The film, which also stars Peter Sarsgaard and Sepideh Moffi, had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. Gyllenhaal said that as much as the film celebrates Monroe, “it’s also 100% a celebration and honor of Ellen Burstyn and her incredible career, and Dakota Johnson and her incredible career.”
Gyllenhaal said that the move from acting to producing and then writing and directing felt natural. When she was younger, there were so few women directing that acting seemed the obvious outlet for a woman who loved movies and wanted to tell stories.
She said, “It felt satisfying and exciting for a long time, and then I think I reached the pinnacle of what I was capable of doing as an actress.”
Her move into writing and directing began eight years ago with “The Lost Daughter” and she said she feels more comfortable and more inspired behind the camera since then.
Film runs in the family. Gyllenhaal’s father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, is a director and her mother, Naomi Foner, is a screenwriter. Growing up, Gyllenhaal said, the family went to the movies almost every Friday night.
“My mom directed her first movie as a grandmother. I think she might be the only person to direct her first movie as a grandmother,” Gyllenhaal said, calling her mother “probably the best note-taker I have.” Her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, who appeared in “The Bride,” is a close friend whose distinct taste she called a gift.
Gyllenhaal said he had begun writing the two “kind of budding ideas” and “are in that very exciting place where I’m kind of like, ‘What is this ultimately going to be about, you know?'” Diversity It was reported in June that she would direct and produce an adaptation of Rachel Kushner’s novel “Creation Lake” for Warner Bros., which also backed “The Bride.”
On the subject of female filmmakers, Gyllenhaal pointed to her comments at Venice, where she served as jury president and there was only one woman’s film in competition.