From Maggie Gyllenhaal (Academy Award-nominated writer/director of The Lost Daughter) and starring Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley and Academy Award winner Christian Bale comes THE BRIDE! A bold, iconoclastic take on one of the world’s most compelling stories.
Spark of an Idea
Maggie Gyllenhaal: I was on the lookout for a new story. I saw this tattoo of the Bride of Frankenstein at a party and I thought, “Something about this character has captured our culture.” And I then went back and watched the movie for the first time, because I had never seen it, and I found it really interesting that she’s not really in it. I will say Elsa Lanchester makes a real impact. I mean, she’s in it for three minutes, but she has somehow taken the culture by storm. But to be honest, she doesn’t talk. She doesn’t speak. She doesn’t get an opportunity to express herself. And I thought it was an interesting puzzle. This guy understandably is so lonely looking for a mate. But then, just anyone will do, and bringing someone back who doesn’t have any agency herself. So, what happens if you take that same format, that same story, but you give her a huge amount of agency, and give her a huge amount of need, and intelligence, and soulfulness, and vulnerability, and power? Then what happens? That seemed like a puzzle worth getting into.
The Lure Of Frankenstein
Maggie Gyllenhaal: This is the story of the Bride of Frankenstein and ultimately, as is clear from the title, it’s the story of the Bride. But this is a different story. What I want to say about Frankenstein and the reason why Frankenstein and Mary Shelley and the idea were so interesting to me is that I am interested in monstrousness. I’m interested in the monstrousness I see outside of myself that I think is really kind of alive and everywhere right now. I’m also interested in the monstrousness I see inside myself. And at the time, I was particularly interested in that. I was like, “What is this terrifying stuff that I personally believe is in all of us?” And Frankenstein is a way to think about and understand that. Because Frankenstein in the book is, I think, a monster that you can empathize with, and allows you to maybe take a look at the monster inside you. But this is not that. That’s the starting-off point, but then my movie is really a different story.
The Power Of Saying No
Maggie Gyllenhaal: It absolutely is a fundamental part of The Bride, that line—I would prefer not to. It comes back all the way through the movie. I can only speak for myself and what I see in the world, but to say no—even “I would prefer not to,” even in that extremely gentle, generous, thoughtful way—is very hard. And I think it might be, again—I don’t want to be reductive, I don’t want to speak for everyone—maybe particularly difficult for women, and unusual. But let’s forget that even. How difficult is it to swim upstream and say, “No”? I’m not going to do things in the same way, in the same language, as if they’ve always been done before. I’m actually going to gently, thoughtfully say, “I would prefer not to.” I’ve actually tried it, just to say those words in my life, and it’s intense. It is. Try it. It’s intense. And people respond to that intensity in all different ways. And for The Bride, without anyone asking her, she’s brought back to life to be Frank’s lover. Lied to. Pushed into this situation without any bearings, without any context, and certainly without any agency. And that’s her first act of rebellion. And it’s not like she’s saying, “No.” She’s not. She’s saying, “That doesn’t work for me. I would prefer not to.” And then, it works for her all the way throughout the movie and ultimately works for other people, too. I love it. I mean, really, try it. Try saying it in the world—it’s intense.
Tropes As Anchors
Maggie Gyllenhaal: I know that there are a lot of things in this movie that are new. And I know that there are a lot of things in this movie that beat to a different drum in an unusual rhythm, mixed with real classic Hollywood tropes. So, our monster, our hero-monster, being messed with by some real baddies and doing everything he can to be good, but then beating the shit out of them—is a trope. That’s a classic thing. We’re skirting the line of something you’ve never seen before, or maybe you have but in a more unusual expression. And right next to that is something you know exactly how to watch. “This is where our hero takes down the bad guys. And I’m both with him and I’m not with him.” We know that and we know what to do with that. I’m hoping that all the way through the movie, that’s what I’m offering. Something new. Something in a different language. Something you’ve never seen before, but also something you have seen. So, hold on where you can hold on, and hopefully that can make you comfortable enough to go with me where it’s unusual and different.
Later, A Love Story
Maggie Gyllenhaal: I think when Frank and Dr. Euphronious bring The Bride back to life, there is an immediate connection between Frank and The Bride. But almost immediately, he’s lying to her. He says, “You were my fiancée. We were meant to get married.” He lies to her and makes up a name. He makes up a history. And that’s a pretty difficult way to start a relationship. At the same time, it’s something that I think many, many people can relate to. I think Frank is lying to her because he doesn’t believe that she’ll be with him if he tells her the truth. I think that’s often why people lie to each other. And often why people lie to people that they love. But it really messes her up. Lying to someone obliterates them, and if you’re lying about one thing, you could be lying about anything. So that’s the basis for their relationship. But despite that, there are these buzzes of connection between these two people all the way through. And they’re real and they’re deep. And I think The Bride has nothing else. She doesn’t know her name. She doesn’t know where she lives. She has no memory. She basically has no choice for a lot of the movie than to go with this fiction. And then—like in all relationships that are going to work, and I think in all good stories—there comes a point where the lie won’t work anymore and the truth has to come out. Either the truth is going to come out or it’s going to fall apart. I think their relationship is both totally classic tragedy and then, ultimately, maybe not. But I love something he says. He says, “It’s your mind that I love.” That’s hot.
Surprises
Maggie Gyllenhaal: Because I am an actress and I have a lot of experience being on the other side of this situation, I don’t want a director to have imagined my performance before I get there and then try and fit me into it, which is an experience any actor has had and it just kills the life of things. So, when we began, we had to make sure we were all on the same page, that we were all walking this very difficult tightrope of what the performance ultimately needed to be. That said, they surprised me every moment. They surprised me a hundred times a day. And then it’s my job, inside of that electric live-wire of performing that they’re doing, to just nudge them. “Oh, that tipped off the tightrope a little bit—let’s get you right back on. I got you.” In order to work that way, there are absolutely going to be tons of things that surprise you. Jessie and I knew each other so well that sometimes I would call things out to her. Mostly, I love to whisper into an actor’s ear and say a little something and not let anyone else know about it. But Jessie and I sometimes felt like we were in a fever dream and I would just yell things out to her and she’d take them in and keep going. And Christian asked me at one point, he was like, “Will you yell at me, too?” And so, I did sometimes.
Envisioning Monsters
Maggie Gyllenhaal: With Frank, I always had in my mind that yes, he’s a monster, and yes, he’s scary. I mean, if you saw somebody with those staples across their head and neck, a big broken nose and all the scars on his face, it would be painful to think about how that happened. It would probably be very alienating for that person living in the world. But I did not see him as a cartoon monster. I did not see him as wearing a mask. I saw him as real. And it didn’t early when we were developing it, and I kept pushing. “Why does he have this scar? Why does he have that scar?” We started building the tattoos. “Where did they come from?” Dr. Frankenstein was marking things in Roman numerals. A piece of his ear has a bite taken out of it. “Why? He got in a fight.” All of the real specifics of how his look happened were not initially thought about. It took a while to break that down until we found something real. And I think we did. I really don’t feel the makeup at all. I love it. The Bride was much easier. I was really interested in what would happen with the spitting up of this black stuff from the reinvigoration and how that would mark her face and lips. It was in the script, but I didn’t have a picture of it until [make-up and prosthetic designer] Nadia Stacey and Jessie and I started working together. I love that her eyelashes, eyebrows and hair turn white. I love the nod to the Bride of Frankenstein from the ‘30s, the wave. It did take work, but it was always flowing in the same direction we ended up in.
The Moviegoing Experience
Maggie Gyllenhaal: I do think it’s a trip and I do think it’s a movie that needs to be seen in a movie theater. I think the whole experience—getting to the movie theater, walking in the door, getting your popcorn, sitting down, the lights going down—it’s true. You put your seatbelt on, or not, whatever you want. It’s funny because we keep talking about the movie as offering and saying something new, but there’s something kind of classic about that. It’s two hours. You got two hours? Sit down. Turn everything off and go on the trip. It’s actually a trip to another place, and there’s no opportunity to get off once you get on. That’s just the truth. It’s like a roller coaster in that way. Once you get on, you’re on. And then you go back to your life afterward. But I hope that if you do get on and take the ride, that going back to your life afterward feels a little bit different.
© 2026 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL (Writer / Director / Producer) is an Academy Award-nominated actress, director, producer and screenwriter whose career is full of thought-provoking and groundbreaking work.
This year Gyllenhaal will release her film THE BRIDE! which she wrote, produced and directed. The film is an imaginative continuation of the classic Frankenstein story, influenced by both the 1935 film “Bride of Frankenstein” and Mary Shelley’s original masterpiece. With Warner Bros. at the helm, the film stars Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal and is set to release on March 6, 2026.
Previously, Gyllenhaal made her feature directorial debut with her adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel THE LOST DAUGHTER, starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley, for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actress (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Buckley), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gyllenhaal). The film also won Gyllenhaal three Independent Spirit Awards (Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay); four Gotham Awards (Best Feature, Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award, Best Screenplay, Outstanding Lead Performance for Colman); The Venice Film Festival’s “Golden Osella” Award for Best Screenplay; a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film; and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Film among many other wins and nominations. She was also named one of 2022’s Directors to Watch by both VARIETY and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Gyllenhaal won acclaim in 2002 for SECRETARY, starring opposite James Spader, for which she won a National Board of Review award and both Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations. She followed with Laurie Collyer’s SHERRYBABY (2006), a painful look at a young woman getting out of prison and hoping to reclaim her child, which earned her a second Golden Globe nomination. In 2009, she starred opposite Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART, earning her an Oscar nomination. Other notable film performances include DONNIE DARKO (2001), MONA LISA SMILE (2003), STRANGER THAN FICTION (2006), THE DARK KNIGHT (2008), NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS (2010), FRANK (2014) and THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (2018) among many others.
Gyllenhaal moved into television with BBC/Sundance’s THE HONOURABLE WOMAN (2014), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received SAG and Emmy nominations. And in 2019, Gyllenhaal concluded her three-season run as the sex worker Candy who becomes a film director in the HBO drama THE DEUCE, which she also produced. Her performance earned her rave reviews, and both Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations.
She’s equally at home on stage. She played Priscilla in Tony Kushner’s HOMEBODY/KABUL (2004) in both Los Angeles and at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). She also starred as Yelena in UNCLE VANYA (2009) and Masha in THE THREE SISTERS (2011), both alongside her husband Peter Sarsgaard at the Classic Stage Company in New York City. She debuted on Broadway in Sam Gold’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s THE REAL THING opposite Ewan McGregor in 2014.
She also collaborated with artist Matthew Barney on the experimental film RIVER OF FUNDAMENT in 2014, and her readings of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar can be heard on Audible.
