Lulu Garcia Navarro

And in the series The Deuce, she starred as a sex worker who becomes a director of pornographic films.

That last role made her want to be a director in real life, too.

And so in 2021, she won acclaim with her feature directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, about the taboo feelings some women feel over motherhood.

For me, the through line in all her work is a desire to tell the stories of women who live outside conventional boundaries.

Enter her newest film, The Bride, an imaginative retelling of the story of the Bride of Frankenstein, starring Jesse Buckley, which Gyllenhaal both wrote and directed.

The film is part love story, part crime caper, with some surreal musical numbers thrown in.

But Gyllenhaal's signature themes of sexual violence, female power, and transgression undergird it all.

Here's my conversation with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Thank you so much for being here.

I really appreciate you coming to the interview.

It really is my pleasure.

You know, it's interesting to me because I interviewed you in 2019 for The Deuce.

And in that interview, you said to me, playing that role where she, your character, becomes a director of pornography, but a director nonetheless.

It's like a real journey.

You said that that had made you realize that you would also be a director.

Mm-hmm.

And I was wondering, now sitting here with this big budget movie, you know, where you're at in that kind of evolution.

Well, let's talk about The Bride because I think it's an incredible film.

And it tells the story of the Bride of Frankenstein's monster.

And you have said that you were inspired by the 1930s movie original.