Ellen Burstyn breaks down the 'genius' of Marilyn Monroe’s Hollywood persona

In Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new short Flesh Impact, Ellen Burstyn steps into an audacious what-if: Marilyn Monroe at 100, alone on a stage, auditioning. The film, screening at the Venice Film Festival, pairs Burstyn’s centenarian Monroe with Dakota Johnson as the star in her heyday, switching between the woman and the persona the world thought it knew.

Gyllenhaal keeps the setup stark and theatrical —just an empty stage and an audition —to press on the vulnerability of performing and the gulf between who Monroe was and the image she engineered. The short runs about 17 minutes and was commissioned to mark what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday.

• Ellen Burstyn — Marilyn Monroe at 100
• Dakota Johnson — Monroe during her years of fame
• Peter Sarsgaard
• Sepideh Moafi

Burstyn on Monroe

Burstyn told People she sees Monroe’s public allure as a carefully constructed performance, not an accident—and she speaks from unusually close proximity. Her longtime masseur, Ralph Roberts, had also been Monroe’s confidant and masseur, and, according to Burstyn, he described the clear divide between Norma Jeane the person and “Marilyn Monroe” the phenomenon.

“She did some deep thinking about what qualities make a movie star. She combined innocence and s********. What a brilliant concept,” she said.

That understanding threads through Flesh Impact. Gyllenhaal—who, like Burstyn, trained in the Actors Studio tradition—has said the film evolved into a conversation among Monroe and the women making it: Burstyn, Johnson and herself.

Why Venice matters

The short lands as Burstyn, now 93, receives Venice’s lifetime honor, the Golden Lion, a capstone recognizing a six-decade career that includes The Exorcist and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. She’s already among the industry’s “Triple Crown” performers with an Oscar , a Tony and two Emmys.

Flesh Impact is screening at the Venice Film Festival and runs approximately 17 minutes.