--- title: 'Maggie Gyllenhaal Scrapped AI From Dakota Johnson’s Monroe Film' type: 'blog post' section: 'The Argument' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'For Flesh Impact, Gyllenhaal tested licensed AI trained on Marilyn Monroe’s films, then discarded the result when Dakota Johnson’s own performance proved more moving. Her decision also raises a harder question about who gets to keep making movies when software makes them cheaper.' author: 'Marcus Reid' published: '2026-09-05' updated: '2026-09-05' about_people: - 'Maggie Gyllenhaal' - 'Dakota Johnson' - 'Marilyn Monroe' tags: - 'Maggie Gyllenhaal AI Marilyn Monroe film' - 'Dakota Johnson Flesh Impact short film' - 'Flesh Impact Venice Film Festival 2026' - 'licensed AI actor likenesses Hollywood' - 'Genesis Motor America film AI experiment' - 'AI costs and film production jobs' sources: - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/director-maggie-gyllenhaal-ditched-ai-for-marilyn-monroe-film/ar-AA2bzZfF' - 'https://www.tag24.com/en/entertainment/celebrities/the-human-reason-maggie-gyllenhaal-ditched-ai-for-marilyn-monroe-film-3529886' - 'https://www.avclub.com/maggie-gyllenhaal-flesh-impact-abandoned-ai-use' - 'https://www.aol.com/articles/maggie-gyllenhaal-tried-using-ai-144904000.html' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/maggie-gyllenhaal-scrapped-ai-from-dakota-johnsons-monroe-film' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Maggie Gyllenhaal Scrapped AI From Dakota Johnson’s Monroe Film *For Flesh Impact, Gyllenhaal tested licensed AI trained on Marilyn Monroe’s films, then discarded the result when Dakota Johnson’s own performance proved more moving. Her decision also raises a harder question about who gets to keep making movies when software makes them cheaper.* By Marcus Reid, 2026-09-05 · The Argument Maggie Gyllenhaal said on September 4 that she abandoned an AI experiment on her short film Flesh Impact after the technology failed to match what Dakota Johnson was doing as Marilyn Monroe. The director told a Venice symposium that the licensed system, trained on footage from Monroe’s films, produced something less moving than Johnson’s live performance. For film readers, the decision matters because it turns a familiar AI argument into a face-to-face choice: preserve the actor’s work, or replace part of it with a digital copy. ## Dakota Johnson’s Monroe stayed human Flesh Impact imagines Monroe at 100, with Ellen Burstyn playing the older woman and Johnson appearing in flashbacks as Monroe at 30. Gyllenhaal is premiering the 17-minute film while serving as president of the jury at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The project’s commissioners asked Gyllenhaal to try AI. She said the system was not OpenAI’s product. It was licensed technology trained on Monroe films that the production had licensed. Gyllenhaal agreed out of curiosity. “All right, I’m curious. I don’t know. Let’s see,” she recalled saying. The plan was direct: train the software on Monroe’s likeness, then place that face over Johnson’s. Gyllenhaal said the team worked hard on it before she threw the result away. What came through Johnson’s performance, she said, was “so much more moving, human, alive.” That choice tells us something about the job Johnson had been given. She was not hired to provide a blank surface for Monroe’s face. She had to find a way into Monroe’s younger self, then carry the scene with her own timing, expression and physical presence. The AI version did not add a secret ingredient. In Gyllenhaal’s view, it took away the reason to make the film. ![Dakota Johnson on the Green Carpet at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/ca341970-f486-4edf-a4d2-8e6f2aa34fb8.webp) *Photo: Quejaytee · [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dakota_Johnson_on_the_Green_Carpet_at_the_2025_Zurich_Film_Festival_03.jpg)* ## The money people wanted a test A.V. Club reported that Genesis Motor America backed Flesh Impact. The outlet described the company as the film’s financial force and said its interest in AI reflected a wider push to spend less while keeping a commercial result. Gyllenhaal said she was also approached about asking actors who trusted her to license their likenesses. The proposal, as she described it, was that those performers could give permission for software to reproduce their images in future films. She rejected that idea as a completely different way of thinking and working from her own. The distinction matters to the person on set. An actor’s face is not a prop that can be swapped without changing the work around it. If a performer grants an image license, the deal may shape how that face appears long after the original shoot. Gyllenhaal did not describe a specific contract or payment, so this piece cannot say what actors would earn or what protections they would receive. It can say that she sees the proposal as a break from the trust between director and actor. ![Marilyn Monroe-Мэрилин Монро](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/eb9236f0-b88a-4843-b32d-faa0fa133b02.webp) ![Maggie Gyllenhaal (51629287201)](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/f076e63f-cb69-4ca3-b801-b377571c694c.webp) *Photos: Bright estrellas · [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Marilyn_Monroe%22.jpg); Montclair Film · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maggie_Gyllenhaal_(51629287201).jpg)* ## Gyllenhaal fears the bargain behind cheap movies At the same discussion, Gyllenhaal questioned the promise that AI will open filmmaking to more people by cutting production costs. She said she had heard a $40 million movie might one day cost $4 million with AI, and perhaps $40,000 later. Then she asked who would provide $10 million for a traditional production if a studio could make a good-enough commercial film for less. Her worry is about the worker whose job disappears before the audience notices. A cheaper picture may mean fewer actors, fewer technicians and fewer chances for a director to build a crew. The savings do not land in one place. They can change who gets hired, who gets paid and which kinds of stories receive a budget. That does not prove every AI production will hollow out a film. Gyllenhaal was describing a possible future, and the reports do not establish how studios will respond. Her concern is still concrete: once a lower-cost method becomes acceptable, the old price may look wasteful even when the old method is what gives a movie its texture. ![Dakota Johnson on the Green Carpet at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/77193dc1-cea9-4e29-a278-b1ba259aa7f4.webp) ![Marilyn Monroe (15386582090)](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/09/7c125080-9270-4766-980a-f7810c07d3d1.webp) *Photos: Quejaytee · [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dakota_Johnson_on_the_Green_Carpet_at_the_2025_Zurich_Film_Festival_02.jpg); Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marilyn_Monroe_(15386582090).jpg)* ## One short film, one clear refusal Gyllenhaal also cited environmental concerns, including the growth of data centers, and referred to questions raised by AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton. She asked what it would mean to program a machine with something like maternal instinct. The reports do not say that these concerns alone ended the Flesh Impact experiment. Her stated reason was simpler: the result did not work. For now, the film keeps Johnson’s performance and drops the digital Monroe face. That leaves a 17-minute movie in which the living actor remains visible beneath the role, carrying the part the way actors have always carried parts: with a face that can change because a person is changing behind it. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Maggie Gyllenhaal](https://cinepixo.com/people/maggie-gyllenhaal) - [Dakota Johnson](https://cinepixo.com/people/dakota-johnson) - [Marilyn Monroe](https://cinepixo.com/people/marilyn-monroe) ## Sources - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/director-maggie-gyllenhaal-ditched-ai-for-marilyn-monroe-film/ar-AA2bzZfF - https://www.tag24.com/en/entertainment/celebrities/the-human-reason-maggie-gyllenhaal-ditched-ai-for-marilyn-monroe-film-3529886 - https://www.avclub.com/maggie-gyllenhaal-flesh-impact-abandoned-ai-use - https://www.aol.com/articles/maggie-gyllenhaal-tried-using-ai-144904000.html Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/maggie-gyllenhaal-scrapped-ai-from-dakota-johnsons-monroe-film Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.