Of all the roles Ellen Burstyn might have been offered in her 90s, that of Marilyn Monroe, who died at 36, seemed fairly unlikely. But then one day Maggie Gyllenhaal came to her apartment to talk about a wild idea: What if she played Monroe at 100? Their 17-minute short film, “Flesh Impact,” is having its world premiere Monday at the Venice Film Festival, where Burstyn, 93, is receiving a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Though Burstyn never met Monroe, there was overlap. They shared a massage therapist, who would tell stories about his late friend. He even told Burstyn that she was actually quite like Monroe, and lent her one of Monroe's old books called “The Thinking Body,” which had some treasures like old receipts, inside.
And the fact that she recognized me, I just felt so honored and pleased.” The Monroe short came about in somewhat unconventional fashion, through the luxury car company Genesis, whose chief marketing officer Amy Marentic approached Gyllenhaal about doing something around what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday in June. Gyllenhaal asked for a weekend to think about it, and landed on Marilyn, at 100, “doing basically the most vulnerable, one of the most vulnerable things I think an actor can do, which is audition, alone on a stage.” Burstyn was the first actor she thought of. The two found that they shared a similar language and approach to the work.
And we both want to go there,” Burstyn said. There were no women crew. There was no woman behind the camera. ...
If a woman was on set, that meant that she was an actress,” Burstyn said in a news conference Monday. And, she said, she’s feeling “slightly overwhelmed” by the whole thing. It’s a long career,” she said.
In her over 50 years in the business, she’s appeared in around 150 films, and is currently serving as a co-president of The Actors Studio. Burstyn even teaches acting classes occasionally, continuing the legacy of her mentor and acting coach Lee Strasberg. Sitting alongside Gyllenhaal the day before the big award, she described her outfit, a gown, and wondered if it was too much.
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