Maggie Gyllenhaal feels "very vindicated" by Jessie Buckley's awards season success after campaigning for her to star in her new movie The Bride!
The actress-turned-director was adamant about casting the Irish star in the lead role in her take on the Bride of Frankenstein, and had to convince hesitant studio executives that Buckley was the only person for the job.
And now Buckley is this year's Best Actress Oscar frontrunner for her work in Hamnet, Gyllenhaal feels like her gut instinct has been proven right.
"I've been an actress for many years, and I just was like, 'I'm going to bat for this girl. Who else is going to play her?'" Gyllenhaal told Entertainment Weekly. "When people did that for me, it changed my life, so I'm doing it. And it worked, and now she's going to win the Oscar, so I feel very vindicated."
Buckley, who previously worked with Gyllenhaal on her 2021 directorial debut The Lost Daughter, explained to the publication that one of the main concerns about her casting was the fact she didn't have an Instagram account.
"I also get it on behalf of the studio. It'd be way easier if I had a million Instagram followers for them. But I don't think that actually works. At the end of the day, you want a story to have life, and whatever the director or writer feels is the way to make that come to life, that's their choice," she stated.
"I think people like Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chloé Zhao, Denis Villeneuve, they're just making their s**t, doing it their way. I don't think they can make the movies that they've made if they chose an ingredient based on Instagram followers rather than what colour paint they wanted to use."
Set in 1930s Chicago, The Bride! sees Frankenstein's creature ask a doctor to create a companion for him. They give life to a murdered woman and the couple embarks on a violent crime spree.
The film also stars Penélope Cruz, Gyllenhaal's The Dark Knight co-star Christian Bale, her husband Peter Sarsgaard, and brother Jake Gyllenhaal. It will be released on 6 March, nine days before the Oscars.
