PORN GAVE MAGGIE A BRAND-NEW CAREER
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL’s always made nude news, taking it all off for sexy roles — like starring in 2002’s erotic dark comedy The Secretary, where she gets spanked by her boss for a spelling error! But playing a 1970s sex worker in 2018’s HBO series The Deuce resulted in her becoming a director! “I was always backing up against something as an actress. I was never really satisfied,” says Maggie, 44. “On The Deuce, I played a prostitute who gets involved in porn.
She was originally supposed to be a porn producer, sort of excellently money-minded. She’s got to be a director, because someone who’s willing to die for money is very different than someone who’s willing to put their life on the line for their work.” The choice led to a whole new career for both the character and the star. Maggie explains, “She became a director, and two things happened. One: I was not just pretending to be a director, but really deeply imagining, ‘How would I shoot this scene?’ And then I was seeing early cuts and had hundreds of ideas. Before that, I hadn’t let myself even consider the possibility that I was a writer and a director.” Now a few years later, Maggie’s first stab at directing, The Lost Daughter — starring OLIVIA COLMAN and DAKOTA JOHNSON — is being touted as an Oscar shoo-in!