Dakota Johnson Stuns as Marilyn Monroe in New First Look
Dakota Johnson is stepping into the most enduring spotlight in Hollywood history, transforming into Marilyn Monroe for Flesh Impact, a new short film created to celebrate what would have been the screen legend’s 100th birthday.
The first-look images, unveiled by Vanity Fair on July 27, show Johnson, 36, remade with Monroe’s platinum waves, a painted red lip, and that famous beauty mark, and the result is as luminous as the woman who inspired it. Presented by the automotive brand Genesis and made with the blessing of Monroe’s estate holders, the project reframes the icon rather than simply reenacting her. “With Flesh Impact, we showcase the timeless icon we know and love through a modern lens that reclaims her story,” Gyllenhaal stated in the announcement.s 100th birthday.
What the Film Is About
The 17-minute film offers two Marilyns at once. Johnson plays Monroe at the dazzling height of her fame, while 93-year-old Ellen Burstyn portrays a version of the star the world never had the chance to see, an older Marilyn imagined across the decades she was never given. The title itself is a piece of old-Hollywood lore, drawn from a phrase once used to describe Monroe’s screen presence, the sense that she appeared so real and radiant that audiences felt they could reach out and touch her. Gyllenhaal, who previously directed Johnson in The Lost Daughter, wrote the part with her in mind from the very start. “This film is very much a mixture of Marilyn and my fantasy of her,” she told Vanity Fair, framing a project that plays less like a biopic than a reverie.
Why Dakota Johnson Was Cast as Marilyn Monroe
Gyllenhaal has been candid that Johnson was an unexpected choice, admitting she initially hesitated over the fact that the two women do not obviously resemble one another, before deciding that likeness was entirely beside the point. What drew her was something deeper than mimicry, a chance to explore the tender, unanswerable question the whole film is built around. She has spoken of wondering what might be different about the work that Monroe would do now, had she been handed the sixty years she never got. It is a premise that treats Monroe not as a tragic myth to be picked over but as an artist whose story is still worth reimagining with real care.
The Venice Premiere
Flesh Impact will hold its world premiere at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival in September, where Burstyn is also set to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Rounding out the cast are Peter Sarsgaard and The Pitt breakout Sepideh Moafi. Monroe, who died in 1962 at just 36, dominated her era with films like Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and a century after her birth she is being honored not for how her story ended but for everything she made and everything she might still have made. A hundred years on, Marilyn Monroe is being handed back her own story, and in Dakota Johnson’s hands, she has never looked more alive.
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