The Bride!: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessie Buckley Commit to Something Revolutionary.

      “I believe that each of us has some truly monstrous elements within ourselves that frighten us,” says Maggie Gyllenhaal, the writer and director of The Bride!.

      “I’m sure some readers might say, ‘Not me,’ but I think you might,” she adds.

      She takes a moment before laughing: “I certainly do.”

      The Bride!, released today, features Jessie Buckley with a face tattoo and a hardly recognizable Christian Bale as two monsters navigating a society that despises and fears them, echoing a Bonnie and Clyde-style dynamic, reminiscent of Sid and Nancy.

      This film is the second major project in recent months inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein, following Guillermo del Toro’s celebrated adaptation on Netflix.

      Among the two films, Gyllenhaal’s is a significantly more dramatic interpretation of Shelley’s work.

      Bale plays Frank, the creature from Frankenstein, while Buckley portrays The Bride.

      “He is profoundly lonely,” Gyllenhaal observes. “In the Mary Shelley novel, all he longs for is companionship, whether it be a friend or a lover. He acknowledges his monstrous nature but cannot bear solitude. He simply can’t endure it. I deeply relate to his loneliness; it’s a struggle for survival.”

      “He’s determined to resurrect someone. But the critical question remains: what about her? What if the woman he revives has her own desires and thoughts?”

      Gyllenhaal found inspiration for The Bride! after a friend mentioned her husband’s Bride of Frankenstein tattoo. She envisioned the character from James Whale’s 1935 sequel, portrayed by Elsa Lanchester, complete with a beehive hairstyle and silver streaks. Her memories of Lanchester merged with those of Madeline Kahn, who offered a comedic take on the character in Mel Brooks’ 1974 Young Frankenstein.

      “She captivated me immediately. I’d never actually watched Bride of Frankenstein, only understood its mythology,” Gyllenhaal says.

      While conducting press interviews for her 2021 directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, she finally found time to view The Bride of Frankenstein, only to discover that the title character is not the film's primary focus.

      “I thought, ‘Wow — she doesn’t say a word,’” Gyllenhaal remarks. “She appears for merely three minutes and doesn’t utter a single line.”

      This prompted her to ponder what the Bride might express.

      The end result is a vibrant, punk-infused narrative set in the 1930s, brimming with creative ideas and even featuring a clever nod to Young Frankenstein. Gyllenhaal enlisted several of her favorite performers, including Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz, her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, and her husband Peter Sarsgaard.

      The film kicks off with a jolt of excitement and maintains a swift pace, avoiding long exposition since, as Gyllenhaal puts it, “I consider exposition as a cheat.”

      “I aimed to create something distinctive,” she explains. “The movie speaks to an unconscious yearning for something transformative — for radical change.”

      It began with a fresh vision for the Bride. Buckley describes the ink splatter on her character's cheek as representing “a vibrant life — which the Bride certainly embodies.”

      “The monstrous quality of her stems from this overwhelming aliveness that emanates within her,” Buckley elaborates. “She’s releasing it — akin to the ink flowing from her. The fact that it’s ink connects to Mary Shelley, writing, and the act of creation — it’s about language, and in a way, the very essence we use to compose originates from her body.”

      Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessie Buckley reflect on working together for The Bride!

      Gyllenhaal and Buckley first connected over Zoom when Gyllenhaal was considering Buckley for the role of the younger Leda in The Lost Daughter. Buckley was eager to land the part but tried to conceal her enthusiasm.

      “The fear during those initial meetings is palpable, especially when you feel a strong connection to a script,” Buckley shares. “You hope they’ll call and offer you the role, but you don’t want to invest too much hope, as that can lead to disappointment.”

      At one point, Buckley contemplated texting Gyllenhaal to convey her deep connection to the story, but she didn’t need to.

      “On the same night, she texted me asking, ‘Will you be my Leda?’” Buckley remembers. “And I was ecstatic!”

      The Lost Daughter emerged as a standout during a period when theaters were closed due to the pandemic, resulting in many films slipping by unnoticed. Gyllenhaal earned an Oscar nomination for her adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel, while Olivia Colman and Buckley received nominations for best actress and best supporting actress, respectively.

      It was an impressive achievement for a debut filmmaker. Gyllenhaal began her career as a young actress in films by her father, Stephen Gyll