Dakota Johnson Is Playing Marilyn Monroe In Maggie Gyllenhaal’s New Movie, And The First Look Reads Like
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Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images / Bettmann / Bettmann via Getty Images
By 
Nadia Santiago
Maggie Gyllenhaal wrote the script in one weekend and had Dakota Johnson play a young Marilyn Monroe at the height of her fame. Ellen Burstyn, 93, plays an elderly Monroe who lived the real life she never got. Early photos of Johnson in a blonde wig and 1950s makeup didn’t read like her.
Gyllenhaal’s “Flesh Impact” is a 17-minute song he wrote in one weekend, and imagines what Monroe’s life would have been like if she hadn’t died at age 36.
Johnson plays the young, popular Monroe. Ellen Burstyn plays the older version, the one who should go on. It premiered at the 2026 Venice Film Festival in September, where Gyllenhaal served as jury president and Burstyn received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The timing coincides with what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday.
Peter Sarsgaard and Sepideh Moafi play the characters. The project was launched with Genesis and has the blessing of Monroe’s estate.
Gyllenhaal told Vanity Fair that Johnson was “always on my mind” while writing. He briefly worried about the resemblance, then let it go. “That’s ridiculous. Who cares?” he said, adding that Monroe is such a legend that “I don’t know that anyone really knows what Marilyn looks like.”
He called the film a love letter. The title comes from a catchphrase Billy Wilder once used to describe what Monroe did on screen.
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