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Maggie Gyllenhaal REVEALS Dakota Johnson 'reached out' to her for The Lost Daughter: Glad that she found me
Director Maggie Gyllenhaal praises Dakota Johnson's performance in The Lost Daughter.
Looks like Dakota Johnson stepped into her challenging new position. Maggie Gyllenhaal discusses her award-winning directorial debut The Lost Daughter and how Johnson, 32, came to join the film, which also stars Olivia Colman, in a behind-the-scenes video shared exclusively with PEOPLE.
"Dakota reached out to me first, and I was like, 'Huh, that's actually kind of the most brilliant idea. And I love her in the movie," says Gyllenhaal, 44, in the clip as per PEOPLE. The Lost Daughter, based on Elena Ferrante's 2006 novel, follows Colman's vacationing professor Leda as she observes Johnson's Nina, a young mother struggling to make ends meet who becomes the "object of Olivia Colman's character's obsession and curiosity," as Johnson describes it. Further speaking on her character, Johnson says, "It's rare that you allow women characters to get there because there's this antiquated belief or mindset that women must just make it work."
However, Gyllenhaal recalls a lunch meeting with Johnson during which the actress told her, "I want to go to the bottom of the ocean - will you take me?" "We just immediately went down to the deepest way of talking to each other after like five minutes," Gyllenhaal says, later praising Johnson, "I just have never seen her do anything like this, and I'm so glad that she found me."
Meanwhile, The film won best feature, outstanding lead performance for Colman, and two awards for Gyllenhaal: best script and the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Filmmaker award, which is presented to a director for their debut feature film, at the 31st Annual Gotham Awards. The Lost Daughter is now streaming on Netflix.
