Peter Sarsgaard on Lost Daughter & Working With His Wife Maggie Gyllenhaal

He also talks about why he prepares more for dialogue scenes than emotional ones.

With writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter now playing in selected theaters and streaming on Netflix starting December 31, I recently spoke to Peter Sarsgaard about making Gyllenhaal’s fantastic feature debut. During the interview, Sarsgaard talked about how The Lost Daughter deals with issues that are rarely seen in movies, how the film is about someone not living their best life and has sacrificed too much of her own desires and ambitions, what it was like playing the object of desire for Jessie Buckley’s character, what it’s like filming a love scene that’s being directed by your wife, and more. In addition, he talks about why he prepares more for dialogue scenes than emotional ones and the challenges of filming during COVID.

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 Ed Harris, 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.

RELATED: Maggie Gyllenhaal on Writing and Directing ‘The Lost Daughter’ and the Way Elena Ferrante’s Writing Inspired Her to Tell This Story

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

Peter Sarsgaard

• If someone has never seen anything he’s done, what should they watch and why?
• How the film talks about issues that people that are rarely seen in movies.
• How the film is about someone not living their best life and has sacrificed too much of her own desires and ambitions.
• What is it like playing the catalyst for change for Jessie Buckley’s character and also her object of desire?
• What is it like being directed by your wife when you’re filming a love scene?
• How filming a love scene is like filming a dance scene.
• How does he prepare for a big scene?
• Why he doesn’t prepare as much for an emotional scene as he does for a heavy dialogue scene.
• What was it like filming during COVID?

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