Gyllenhaal Scraps AI for Monroe Film Project

Filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal revealed that she attempted to use artificial intelligence to transform actress Dakota Johnson into Marilyn Monroe for her short film "Flesh Impact," but ultimately abandoned the technology, finding it stripped the performance of essential humanity. Gyllenhaal shared her experience on Friday during The Future of Creativity summit, held as part of the Venice Film Festival. The project's commissioners had asked Gyllenhaal to employ licensable AI, trained on licensed Marilyn Monroe films, with the aim of superimposing Monroe's likeness onto Johnson. "We worked hard at it, and in the end, I threw it away," Gyllenhaal stated. She explained that the AI-generated version was "so much more moving, human, alive" when portrayed by Johnson herself. "It fundamentally did not work," she added, noting that the AI approach "killed off" the core reasons for making the project. "Flesh Impact," which stars Johnson as Monroe at the height of her fame and Ellen Burstyn as an imagined older version of the star, is described as a tribute to the iconic actress.