There have been many versions of Marilyn Monroe recreated using artificial intelligence over the years, and Maggie Gyllenhaal just revealed that she was asked to make another for her short film Flesh Impact. But it flopped compared to the real thing, played by Dakota Johnson.
“The people who commissioned this project from me asked me to use AI. They weren’t using OpenAI; they were using licensable AI, training it off of Marilyn Monroe films that we had licensed. And I went for it. I was like, all right, I’m curious, I don’t know, let’s see,” she said Friday during The Future of… Creativity summit hosted by Finch & Partners and CAA at Scuola Grande della Misericordia during the Venice Film Festival. “The idea was that we trained it on her; we then put her face on Dakota’s face. We worked hard at it, and in the end, I threw it away because what was coming through Dakota playing Marilyn Monroe was so much more moving, human, alive.”
To punctuate the point, she added, “It fundamentally did not work. All the reasons we decided to make this project to begin with were killed off in the AI version.”
The 17-minute short film Flesh Impact stars Johnson and Ellen Burstyn as versions of the iconic Hollywood star. It was done “with the blessings” of Monroe estate holders Authentic Brands Group and described in press materials as “a love letter to one of cinema’s most enduring icons.” Johnson plays Monroe at the height of her fame while Burstyn stars as an imagined version of Monroe later in life. (Monroe was 36 when she died on Aug. 4, 1962.) Peter Sarsgaard and The Pitt star Sepideh Moafi round out the cast.
Johnson as Marilyn Monroe in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Flesh Impact.
Photo credit: Genesis
Though Gyllenhaal didn’t specify exactly who asked for the AI version, the short is presented by automotive brand Genesis and produced by William Green for The Cut, Michelle Ross for Superprime, Nicolette Spencer and Melissa Moore for INNOCEAN. Executive producers include Maddi Carlton, Brandon Boerner, Rebecca Skinner, David Webb and Courtney Kivowitz, the latter of whom is Gyllenhaal’s longtime manager.
During the panel discussion, Gyllenhaal also addressed the pitch that AI can democratize filmmaking and allow auteurs to make big-budget projects at a fraction of the cost. But she questioned why that is a common promotional tactic.
“It concerns me a little bit because they own it. Who’s making the money off it? The people that are pitching that,” she stated, adding that in the near future, a $40 million project could be done for $4 million and “maybe eventually” $40,000. “But the thing is, if you can make a commercial good enough movie for $40,000 or even for $4 million, who’s gonna give you $10 million to do it the old way? Nobody. Maybe there’s a tiny, tiny little market for that. But that concerns me.”
Flesh Impact has its Venice Film Festival world premiere inside Sala Grande on Sept. 7.
Gyllenhaal’s comments about AI went viral — as first reported by Variety and in a video posted by the outlet on social media —and it wasn’t her first trending moment during this year’s Venice Film Festival. During an opening press conference featuring members of the jury, the Bride filmmaker, who won a best screenplay award in Venice for her directorial debut The Lost Daughter, was asked to comment on the lack of female filmmakers in the main competition.
“I really am walking in with a question as to why there are so few women in the main competition,” she told the international press inside Palazzo del Casinò. “It’s much harder for women to get their films financed. Also, could it be possible that the things that women, having had a different experience of being alive in the world, want to make movies about are not always deemed high art?”
This year’s competition selections came under fire for gender imbalance. One of the original films selected as 20 Golden Lion contenders — May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown — is directed by a woman, down from six competition titles last year. The festival later added the Gaza documentary NAZA, co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, bringing the total to two.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera noted the disparity when revealing the lineup, and Gyllenhaal in return acknowledged fest leadership for inviting her to preside over the jury as “a very important thing to consider” amid the scrutiny. Gyllenhaal’s jury includes Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (The Voice of Hind Rajab), Oscar-winning composer Daniel Blumberg, film scholar Francesco Casetti, French director Xavier Giannoli, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, and Hong Kong filmmaking legend Johnnie To.
The 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival concludes with an awards ceremony on Sept. 12.