Dakota Johnson looked completely unrecognisable as she transformed into iconic Hollywood bombshell Marilyn Monroe for her latest film role. 

The 36-year-old actress, who is the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, portrays the Some Like It Hot star in a new short film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The project, titled Flesh Impact, is set to debut at the Venice Film Festival in September in honour of Marilyn’s 100th birthday. 

Dakota will share the role with 93-year-old actress Ellen Burstyn, who will play an older version of the Hollywood star, who died aged 36. 

Ellen is an Oscar-winning actress known for her roles in The Exorcist, Requiem For A Dream, Interstellar and The Age of Adaline.

Filmmaker Maggie, who shared the first look photos with Vanity Fair, said of the project: “I find her acting so fascinating, weird and wild and very joyful, mixed with terribly upsetting all at once.

“I kind of wondered what would’ve happened if she’d had 60 years to herself. What might be different about the work that she would do now?”

What is Flesh Impact about? 

According to Maggie, the 17-minute film is “very much a mixture of Marilyn and my fantasy of her.” “In a lot of ways, this movie is about Marilyn and also about actresses in general and what it’s like to have that strange, very vulnerable, and, at the same time, very powerful job,” she said

A logline for the film, via Venice Film Festival, reads: “A mysterious old woman auditions for a play at a small blackbox theater in New York City. As she describes her qualifications and her acting experience, secrets about her identity and the misconceptions about her life bubble to the surface.”

Casting Dakota Johnson

Maggie said Dakota was “always on my mind,” during the writing process. “When I’m writing, sometimes I’ll find an actor just keeps coming up and I almost have to actively push them out of my head so that I don’t limit what I’m doing at all,” she said.

Dakota’s Hollywood career

Dakota shot to fame after playing Anastasia Steele in the billion dollar Fifty Shades trilogy. The breakout film led to several leading lady roles, including in Materialists, Persuasion and Madame Web.

The actress previously collaborated with Maggie Gyllenhaal on the 2021 psychological drama The Lost Daughter.