Maggie Gyllenhaal

And there was this job then

I had been learning about for something else, of a spiritualist, which was almost always a woman.

And it was like as ubiquitous as a therapist was someone who spoke to the dead for you.

And so I started out setting it then because I thought that was kind of an interesting time to just –

to be dealing with people brought back from the dead.

And then I realized that Frankenstein, my Frank, I don't call him Frankenstein's monster because he would never call himself that, you know?

So Frank was so lonely that maybe his only, like his primary relationship was with

A movie star who didn't know about him, of course, but that he could go sit in a theater and watch this movie star.

And also in a dark movie theater, his ugly face, you know, his scarred up face wouldn't be so, you know, scary to people.

So then I thought, okay, I have to set it in a time when there are movies.

And it shifted to 1936, right?

Also because the movies then are so much about fantasy.

And my movie is actually a lot about kind of breaking down the fantasy.

And what does a real love affair look like?

And what does a real man look like?

Woman look like?

What is the reality versus the fantasy?

But still, 1936, which I think is beautiful.

But it was never really 1936.

It was always 1936 sort of by way of 1981 downtown New York.