Maggie Gyllenhaal on Directing The Lost Daughter & Elena Ferrante’s Writing

She also talks about why she changed the opening twenty minutes of the film in the editing room.

With The Lost Daughter now playing in selected theaters and streaming on Netflix starting December 31, I recently spoke to writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal about making her fantastic feature debut. Based on the novel The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante, the film is about a woman on holiday (Olivia Colman) that becomes obsessed with another woman (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter, who are staying at the same resort with their extended family. Unnerved by their relationship, Colman’s character becomes overwhelmed by her own memories of early motherhood and the choices she made, as well as their consequences. The film also stars Jessie Buckley, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Dominczyk, Alba Rohrwacher, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Panos Koronis, Robyn Elwell, Ellie Blake, and Athena Martin. The Lost Daughter was produced by Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler, and Charles Dorfman.

During the interview, Gyllenhaal talked about why she wanted to tell this story, how Ferrante’s books inspired her and moved her to want to share what she was feeling, what it was like working with editor Affonso Gonçalves and finally having control over the finished product, why she removed certain sequences like the opening twenty minutes, the challenge of editing the scene between Olivia Colman and Ed Harris where they are cooking and eating octopus and why they decided to cut it like the sex scene in Don’t Look Now, and more.

RELATED: ‘The Lost Daughter’ Trailer Reveals Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Directorial Debut and its Netflix Release Date

Watch what Maggie Gyllenhaal had to say in the player above and below is a list of everything we talked about.

Maggie Gyllenhaal

• If someone has never seen anything she’s done, what should they watch and why?
• What was it about The Lost Daughter that said I have to make this?
• How Elena Ferrante’s books inspired her and moved her to want to share what she was feeling.
• What was it like for her in the editing room and putting the film together?
• Why she loved working with her editor Affonso Gonçalves and having final control on the movie.
• How she cut out an entire section at the beginning of the film.
• Why she cut out a scene between Olivia Colman and Dagmara Dominczyk.
• The challenge of editing the scene between Olivia Colman and Ed Harris where they are cooking and eating octopus and how they decided to cut it like the sex scene in Don’t Look Now.

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