Maggie Gyllenhaal says consent is the central theme of new movie The Bride!
Maggie Gyllenhaal: Consent is the ‘major issue’ of The Bride
Gyllenhaal’s upcoming horror/science-fiction crime film is a reimagined take on the iconic Frankenstein bride character and Maggie insisted consent was the “major issue” of the movie.
Speaking to Deadline, she explained: “In the mythology of the Bride of Frankenstein, that’s the major issue. I can’t make a movie about the bride of Frankenstein without consent being really on the table because she fundamentally has no say in it. You could say, on some level, we don’t have much say in being born either, but we’re not born as grown women. And we’re not told that we were made for someone else to marry.
“I understand Frankenstein’s ask; he’s this very lonely, vulnerable man who is literally at a life-and-death degree of loneliness, saying, ‘Please, help me find someone to be with,’ but what about her? I mean, what about her? And that’s what this movie takes on.”
Meanwhile, Maggie, 48, previously revealed she was inspired to direct The Bride! after she saw a man with a tattoo of the Bride of Frankenstein on his arm at a party and decided to watch the original 1935 picture that starred Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester.
Maggie, who made her directorial debut on the 2021 movie The Lost Daughter, told SFX magazine: “I was at a party, and I saw a man with a tattoo on his whole forearm of the Bride of Frankenstein. And I was like… huh! It just hooked me. I saw this tattoo, and I was like, ‘Have I ever seen that movie? I know the image.’
“I was doing press in LA, and I went back to my hotel room and looked her up online. Then I watched the movie.”
Maggie felt that the fact that she hadn’t seen Bride of Frankenstein gave her a fresh sense of perspective as she embarked on making the movie.
The Dark Knight star said: “Throughout this process, the feeling of coming to something new and fresh has been a part of my experience. I came to her very open and curious, without much history attached, aside from the general way that she exists in our cultural mythology.”
Gyllenhaal was particularly struck by the fact that Lanchester’s Bride has only minimal screen time in the film.
She explained: “Well, Elsa Lanchester doesn’t speak, which I found really interesting, especially when she’s the titular character.
“You’re kind of expecting that the movie is going to be about her, and it just isn’t. But then when she does come on screen, she’s undeniable. She has very few actual minutes of screen time as the Bride, and yet somehow she makes this lasting impact.
“I think it has to do with her so clearly being disobedient and not willing to fit in a box. Like, she’s just saying ‘No!’ from the moment she wakes up to this pretty f*****-up situation that she finds herself in.”