Maggie Gyllenhaal Discusses Failed AI Experiment to Transform Dakota Johnson Into Marilyn Monroe

Artificial intelligence is a hotly debated topic in Hollywood, with filmmakers divided on whether to embrace its potential or reject it for ethical and creative reasons. One director’s recent admission about her brief foray into AI highlights this tension.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is serving as jury president at this year’s Venice Film Festival, is also debuting her own project on the Lido: ‘Flesh Impact,’ a 17-minute short film that explores Marilyn Monroe’s legacy on what would have been her 100th birthday. The film features Dakota Johnson as a younger Monroe and Ellen Burstyn as an imagined older version, created with the approval of Monroe’s estate as part of the centennial celebrations honoring the actress.

However, behind the completed film lies a creative detour that Gyllenhaal has openly discussed abandoning. During a symposium with composer Alexandre Desplat, filmmakers Lee Daniels and Shannon Murphy, producer Lorenzo Mieli, and artist Marc Quinn, Gyllenhaal revealed that she experimented with AI early in production but ultimately decided to discard the technology.

Gyllenhaal explained that the project’s commissioners initially encouraged her to incorporate AI into the filmmaking process. “The people who commissioned this project from me asked me to use AI. And I thought, I mean, they weren’t using OpenAI, they were using licensable AI, training it off of Marilyn Monroe films that we had licensed,” Gyllenhaal said during the symposium, presented by Finch & Partners and CAA.

According to Gyllenhaal, the technical process involved training the AI on licensed Monroe footage and overlaying the resulting model onto Johnson’s face during filming. Despite her efforts to make this approach work, she ultimately found that it detracted from the qualities that made Johnson’s performance compelling. “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,” she explained.

Gyllenhaal did not hold back in her assessment of the AI-generated version. “It fundamentally did not work. All the reasons we decided to make this project to begin with were, were, were, were killed off in the AI version,” she stated, noting that the technology stripped away the emotional authenticity that was central to the film’s purpose.

In addition to the artistic shortcomings, Gyllenhaal raised concerns about AI’s broader implications, particularly the “huge environmental issues” it presents. This criticism aligns with a growing conversation in the film industry about the energy and resource costs associated with training and running AI models, which are increasingly influencing creative decisions beyond just artistic merit.

Gyllenhaal’s comments come at a time when AI’s role in filmmaking is a contentious issue in Hollywood, with some productions experimenting with the technology while others, including major guilds and unions, have pushed back against its unregulated use. Gyllenhaal’s choice to abandon the AI version, despite having invested significant effort into it, serves as a notable example of a filmmaker prioritizing performance authenticity over technological novelty.

With the AI experiment ultimately discarded, ‘Flesh Impact’ relies solely on the live-action performances of Johnson and Burstyn to bring their interpretations of Monroe to life. The film imagines what Monroe’s career and legacy might have looked like had she lived for decades longer, framing itself as a love letter to one of cinema’s most enduring icons.

As ‘Flesh Impact’ continues its run at the Venice Film Festival, Gyllenhaal’s candid account of testing and rejecting AI provides a rare, detailed glimpse into how filmmakers are grappling with the technology’s creative limitations in real time.

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