Maggie Gyllenhaal Says AI Experiment Failed to Capture Dakota Johnson’s Humanity as Marilyn Monroe

Venice Film Festival jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal said she abandoned an artificial intelligence experiment that digitally transformed Dakota Johnson into Marilyn Monroe for her short film Flesh Impact.

Speaking at a festival symposium, Gyllenhaal said the film depicts a 100-year-old Monroe through flashbacks to her 30s, with Johnson playing the younger version. The project’s commissioners asked her to use licensed AI trained on footage of Monroe.

Gyllenhaal said the team placed Monroe’s face over Johnson’s and worked extensively on the technology. However, she ultimately discarded the AI version because Johnson’s own performance was more “moving, human, alive.”

“It fundamentally did not work,” Gyllenhaal said, adding that the AI version undermined the reasons she wanted to make the project.

She also raised concerns about the environmental impact of AI, pointing to the growing debate over data centers in South Memphis. She cited AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton’s warnings about the technology and questioned what it would mean to give AI a “maternal instinct,” an idea Hinton has discussed.

Gyllenhaal also challenged claims that AI will democratize filmmaking by making production cheaper. She said the argument is often made by companies that own AI technology and therefore stand to profit from its wider use.

She warned that falling production costs could eventually hurt filmmakers. If a commercial-quality film could be made for $4 million instead of $40 million, she argued, studios might become less willing to finance traditionally produced films at higher budgets.