It starts with the exclamation point, right there in the title. โThe Bride!โ is a wild, willfully over-the-top double-barreled reinvigoration of 1935โs โBride of Frankensteinโ that is always doing something a little extra in telling its unpredictable story of identity and the reclamation of the self.
โI probably canโt definitively explain it,โ says writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal about that punctuation. โI think I first just put it there and wondered when someone was going to tell me to take it away. And nobody ever did.โ
Set in a dreamscape 1930s โ imagine a steampunk-meets-art-deco version of โBonnie and Clydeโ โ the film features a title performance by Jessie Buckley in three roles, sometimes in conversation with each other. First, thereโs Ida, a Chicago party girl who is killed when she becomes an inconvenience to powerful men. Then thereโs โFrankensteinโ author Mary Shelley, taking possession of another personโs body and voice.
Finally, thereโs the Bride herself, the rebellious, reanimated corpse of Ida brought back to life as a companion to a creature here known as Frank (Christian Bale). The duo sets off on a lovers-on-the-run-style crime spree that captures national attention.
On a February Los Angeles morning, Gyllenhaal moves briskly across the lobby of a low-key-chic hotel, barely breaking stride to ask that, instead of a discreet celeb-friendly indoor corner table, perhaps our interview could take place on an outdoor patio. She would like to take in a bit more California sunshine before returning home to wintry Brooklyn.
Dressed in a baggy suit that is both sharp and casual, Gyllenhaal doesnโt come across as particularly fussy but, rather, as someone certain of what she wants, even if what she wants is to explore the messiness of uncertainty, pushing the edges for herself and her collaborators.
Jessie Buckley in the movie โThe Bride!โ
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Take, for example, that exclamation point. What might at first seem a bit of preciousness, and which even Gyllenhaal initially makes seem a bit of a throwaway, reveals itself to have a much deeper meaning.
โIt wasnโt that it was careless,โ Gyllenhaal says with a calm focus. โIf you are Ida or Mary Shelley or many women in the world and youโve been sort of tamped down and silenced and not able to express everything it is that you wanted or needed to express, itโs like if youโve had your hand on a geyser. When the geyser finally breaks, itโs going to break with a whole lot of extra energy. And maybe thatโs where the exclamation point comes from.โ
โThe Bride!โ is the second feature film as writer and director for Gyllenhaal, 48, following 2021โs โThe Lost Daughter.โ That movie, a bracing examination of the psychological toll of motherhood, would go on to wide acclaim and awards recognition, including Oscar nominations for actors Buckley and Olivia Colman, as well as for Gyllenhaalโs screenplay (an adaptation of the 2006 novel by Elena Ferrante). Prior to that, Gyllenhaal had been known for emotionally fearless performances in films such as โSecretary,โ โThe Dark Knightโ and โCrazy Heart,โ for which she received a supporting actress Oscar nomination.
Deciding how to follow up โThe Lost Daughterโ wasnโt easy. Gyllenhaal says she went to a party and saw someone with a tattoo on their forearm of Elsa Lancasterโs intense gaze from โBride of Frankenstein.โ Taken with the image, Gyllenhaal checked out the movie and was surprised to discover Lancasterโs iconic character was only in it for a few minutes. After reading the original novel of โFrankenstein,โ she started to wonder whether Mary Shelley had other things on her mind at the time of her debut novel.
โI just had this fantasy,โ she says with a slightly conspiratorial air. โIโm not speaking for Mary Shelley, but there must have been some other, naughtier, wilder, more dangerous things that Mary Shelley wanted to say that werenโt said in โFrankenstein.โ What else might she have wanted to express?โ
Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in the movie โThe Bride!โ
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
And so Gyllenhaal set about writing, with her โLost Daughterโ star in mind for the lead, though she initially didnโt tell Buckley. One of Gyllenhaalโs biggest learning curves in directing โThe Lost Daughterโ was figuring out how to speak to each actor individually to get the most out of them.
โWith Jessie, I just spoke to her like I speak to myself,โ Gyllenhaal said. โNo translation needed.โ
Reached via email, the โHamnetโ star evokes a Frida Kahlo painting to convey their closeness.
โWe share two beating hearts,โ Buckley says. โMaggie has absolutely been instrumental to waking me up to a part of myself I needed to know โ and I think vice versa. We share a similar language and curiosity.โ
Moving from the intimate scale of โThe Lost Daughterโ to the expanded scope of โThe Bride!โ was exciting for them both.
โI loved seeing her in a bigger sandpit,โ Buckley says. โFrom โThe Lost Daughterโ it was clear that Maggie had something to say as an artist. But where do we grow? Whatโs the scarier place? What are the questions we might whisper to ourselves? And what happens if we put those whispers into the ether?โ
Gyllenhaalโs new film is unafraid to risk being too much. One extravagant party turns into a musical sequence that finds Baleโs creature singing and dancing to โPuttinโ on the Ritzโ โ a wink to a whole other self-aware frame of reference and Mel Brooksโ satirical 1974 โYoung Frankenstein.โ
โSometimes it was too much too much โ thatโs the line I was trying to walk,โ Gyllenhaal says. โI think so many women are told that weโre too much, over and over again, from the moment we get here. And so Iโm used to that.
โBut I think that scene is sort of about that. Itโs about a kind of explosion of life and humanity. So much of the movie is about these people who cannot fit into their box. This is where they celebrate their bigness, their too-muchness, their monstrousness. Thatโs the monster mash: โI am who I am.โโ
โSometimes it was too much too much โ thatโs the line I was trying to walk,โ Gyllenhaal says. โI think so many women are told that weโre too much, over and over again, from the moment we get here. And so Iโm used to that.โ
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
Making a purposefully idiosyncratic retelling of a classic tale came with its own challenges. โThe Bride!โ was originally scheduled to be released by Warner Bros. last fall, on the date that would eventually go to โOne Battle After Another.โ When a rescheduled March 2026 opening was announced, there were reports โ โBeware โreports,โ โ Gyllenhaal tells me, wryly โ of behind-the-scenes clashes between the director and the studio.
Gyllenhaal doesnโt deny that, to find the final version of the movie, she worked closely with Pam Abdy, who, along with Mike De Luca, is co-chair and co-chief executive of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group. This time the stakes were higher, the filmmaker says, and being left to her own devices, as she had been on โThe Lost Daughter,โ wasnโt always the best solution.
โIf I make a big, hot roller coaster of a movie and remain totally honest in what Iโm trying to explore and think about inside it, will people respond? That was my question,โ she says. โAnd then I cut it in a way that was entirely my expression. And I have to say in particular, Pam, who was my point person on this and also has become a friend, she really took me to task on that and said, โYou want many people to respond and understand this. You have to clarify here and here.โ โ
Though Gyllenhaal admits there were moments of โfrictionโ and that Abdy โhas a slightly different agenda than I do,โ she now sees the merit in the process. โSomething really alive was born, and I think the movie is better for the work that she and I did together,โ Gyllenhaal says. โI know thatโs an unusual thing to say. I know that you have lots of people saying like, โAh, the studio fโ my movie up.โ That is not my experience. Itโs really not.โ
In a phone interview, Abdy says, โListen, she tasks me with challenging her, and I task her with challenging us. Weโre all in the service of making the best movie we can possibly make for the audience. And we, privately, all of us โ studios, directors, filmmakers โ we go through a process. Itโs unfortunate that certain people choose to assume they know whatโs happening in those rooms. But they donโt.โ
Abdy describes their collaboration as a healthy and normal one. โYou test the movie, you get information, you make adjustments,โ she says. โAnd we needed the time and space to do that.โ
Maggie Gyllenhaal, right, on set with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale while making โThe Bride!โ
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
The courage Gyllenhaal once exhibited as a performer now seems to be serving her as a filmmaker. The last feature Gyllenhaal appeared in as an actor was 2018โs โThe Kindergarten Teacher,โ playing an overzealous mentor to a young poetry prodigy. She also appeared in three seasons of the HBO series โThe Deuceโ from 2017 to 2019, in which she played an adult film performer struggling to move behind the camera into directing.
As to whether she will return to acting, Gyllenhaal says, โI donโt know. I really prefer directing. This is a better job for me.โ
Better how? โI felt as an actress, to be honest, like I always would hit up against a wall of how much I was able to participate or express,โ she says. โAnd I thought for a long time, OK, this is the gig, and what I have to do is learn how to protect self-expression, even if that means I just need a tiny bit of space around me where I have the real estate to do what I need to do as an actress.
โAnd then when I moved into writing and directing, I didnโt have to play that game anymore,โ she says. โAnd also I could create an environment where nobody had to play that game. Anyone could explore and express the things that were interesting to them. It was ultimately up to me to decide if I wanted to use them or not. So why not let people explore and surprise me?โ
Gyllenhaalโs โThe Bride!โ may catch the same current wave of pop-inflected Gothic-style romances as Emerald Fennellโs โWuthering Heightsโ and Guillermo del Toroโs โFrankenstein.โ A catchphrase that emerges in the film is โbrain attack,โ the Bride becoming a folk hero to women around the country who emulate her distinctive look: Jean Harlow by way of Courtney Love with an inky smear of makeup across the face.
There is something intuitively catchy about brain attack, even if itโs also a little bewildering.
Gyllenhaal remembers an โaspect of terrorโ about stepping into a bigger studio release. โSo do most things that require that you really grow and learn in order to do them. But Iโm interested in terror and so I guess I was playing around with the idea of heart attack, panic attack. And I think in order to really do that, some brain attacks are required.โ
Gyllenhaal tells me how a few days earlier she had been wearing a hat with the phrase on it while reading by the hotel pool and three 20-something women, maybe a little day drunk, began asking her about it. Two of them seemed puzzled by the phrase, struggling to parse out its meaning, while the third instinctively got it. She just knew. So Gyllenhaal gave her the hat.
โI guess โbrain attackโ is a phrase you might have to feel,โ Gyllenhaal offers, her mouth widening into a smile.
So too, perhaps, with Gyllenhaalโs telling of โThe Bride!โ with its visions of reckless abandon and personal reclamation โ exclamation point and all. It will become a movie waiting for those who need it.