"Who's Going To Let Me Do This": The Ugly Stepsister Director & Star Recall 10-Year Journey To Make Cinderella Body-Horror Movie

The Ugly Stepsister brings the Cinderella story closer to the Brothers Grimm interpretation of the classic tale, putting its focus on Elvira, the elder daughter of Rebekka, and largely referred to as the titular insult, particularly in comparison to her beautiful stepsister, Agnes, also known as Cinderella. When their family patriarch dies, and the family finds itself in financial trouble, the only solution is to try and have Elvira, played by Lea Myren, marry a wealthy local prince, though she must undergo a disturbing transformation involving 19th century plastic surgery and tapeworms to try and become beautiful enough to win his affections.

In honor of the movie's Sundance Film Festival premiere, ScreenRant interviewed writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt and star Lea Myren to discuss The Ugly Stepsister. The filmmaker reflected on her journey to bring her take on Cinderella to the screen, including her initial concerns over having too much "hubris" with her vision and finding collaborators who trusted her with the film. The star, meanwhile, praised Blichfeldt for her deeply thematic story and the responsibility she felt in playing the character, as well as the physicality that was required of it.

Blichfeldt Didn't Want To Move Forward Until She Found The Right Angle On The Story

"...it's a great concept, but where's the story?"

With a movie that explores everything from a woman willing to physically modify herself in dangerous ways to a Cinderella whose virtues may not be as clean as the Disney interpretation of her, The Ugly Stepsister certainly proves to be one of the most original takes on the characters involved in the film. When it came to developing the story for the movie, Blichfeldt acknowledges that she was quite taken by the concept she came up with "in a creative nap", though spent eight years putting it together in order to find a meaningful approach to it:

Emilie Blichfeldt: My main characters in my shorts have been mainly women struggling with body issues and body image. And in a creative nap, working on one of those films, I suddenly had this vision where my character dreamed that she was Cinderella and fit the shoe and was very happy because the prince was her dream boy or whatever. But then, to her horror and despair, she realized that she had cut off her toes to fit the shoe, because there was blood coming out of the shoe, a little bit later on the horse on the way to the castle.

She was looking at it and going, "Oh s--t." And the prince also saw it, of course, and rejected her because of it. And when I woke up from that nap, I was like, "Oh my God, this is a character that I have not seen before." The way that I've read and the way I've seen the fairy tale in so many versions on screen, but I've never seen this character. She's overlooked, she's ridiculed, mocked for her wanting to fit the shoe and her grotesque efforts to do so. But I totally related to her. Not only do I have shoe size 11, but I've struggled with body image myself in my youth, and struggling to fit within femininity, and I was single for a very long time, because I didn't feel like I was feminine enough or beautiful enough to attract the guys that I was interested in. And I felt very lonely.

We all long to be loved, and I saw all of this in this character. On top of that, there was the potential of a body horror movie, which got me so excited, because I had gotten into body horror just a few years prior to the idea coming to me. And it just felt like something that could have commercial potential, international potential, but with my DNA, my story, my outlook on it, and then with body horror. I just felt that this is something I have to take seriously, and I did. It took me eight years — five years to realize the script, because it's a great concept, but where's the story? What's the real grit? What's the real character here? And not just the stepsister, but all of them. And now we're here at Sundance, and it's a dream come true.

In further reflecting on the journey to making the movie, Blichfeldt acknowledged her fears that no one would let her make The Ugly Stepsister as her first feature-length project, as well as her own insecurities of whether she had too much hubris and "tried to do too much". She remained determined, however, by working in positions akin to assistants for her costume designer and Special Makeup & Prosthetics Makeup Effects Artist, Thomas Foldberg, and expressed her feeling that this dedication is what inspired others to work with her on it:

Emilie Blichfeldt: Yeah, thank you for that question. I knew when I was writing and developing this script, I was like, "Who's going to let me do this as my first feature?" Because the level of ambition is just through the roof, but also paralleled with writing the script. I also started doing a lot of research in costumes, which I love, within references for the body horror, both in film history, but also in doing research in real cosmetics procedures from our history and time.

So, I was quite well-prepared, and I had a producer, Maria Ekerhovd, who believed in me from very early on, and she's a heavy hitter in Norway. She's a big deal, so her believing in me, and also understanding this is not a movie that we do on a small scale budget, this is a big thing, but she believed I could do it. And we got some of the best talent in Scandinavia on board. As a first-time filmmaker, I love the collaborative part of moviemaking, and I love being able to learn and express myself through costumes or through practical effects. So, I was thinking of myself a bit as an intern. I went with my costume designer, Manon Rasmussen, who did all of Lars von Trier's movies. She's 72, she's an icon, she's amazing.

I went with her to London to pull costumes at the Cosprop as her assistant, almost, but also just to understand what was the physical boundaries of her work. What are the practical things she has to deal with? When I say, "I don't like this," what implications does that have? What does she have to choose from? And with Thomas Felberg, who did all of the practical effects and prosthetic design and the design of the tapeworm and stuff, I spent a lot of time at his studio just to understand how he works and discussing colors of blood and all of this. And so I just really dived into it, and I knew the ambition level was very high. For a while, I was a bit insecure.

Just after shooting, I had this backlash, because I just went for it, and then I was like, "S--t, do I have hubris? Have I tried to do too much?" But I'm very proud that I've made peace with my ambitions in the sense that it's that ambition that brought all the talent on board, that inspired all these people to come on board. It's that ambition that made it possible to be what it is today. And of course, there's some of my own private filmmaker ambitions that I did not hit, but come on, it's my first feature. And I think it's amazing how it turned out, but it's really thanks to a lot of amazing talent that we have in Scandinavia that I was so fortunate to work with.

Myren Had A Sympathetic Connection To Her Role That Also Imbued Her With A Sense Of Responsibility

"I don't have her insecurities, but I know about them..."

For Myren, one of the immediate draws for starring in The Ugly Stepsister was her own upbringing by her "feminist mother", immediately recognizing the potential to tell a thematically relevant story. She did, however, go on to note her own recent love of the body horror genre and how that tapped into part of her acting training that she was excited to explore on screen:

Lea Myren: I mean, so many things. First of all, I've grown up with a feminist mother, so I've grown up being the sort of annoying girl in class being like, "Why do you say manly about this and blah, blah, blah," and commenting on all these social concepts that are just there existing. And so for me, doing a feminist movie for my first feature was just a big, big privilege and a reason itself, because I want to tell those stories. That's why I act. It's because I want to tell important stories. I want to play characters that people can relate to. And so that was one of the biggest reasons, basically, because I thought the story was compelling and important. And also the body horror part.

I also love body horror, I also got into it a few years prior to my audition, and I just love everything grotesque. I'm a very physical actor. I studied in Paris at Lecoq, which is a physical acting school and everything. So I'm very in touch with my body and I really think that makes me interested in how to change the body and how to tear it down to show what's inside of a person, both physically, but also just emotionally. I think body horror is just a perfect way to examine the human experience.

When it came to whether she found herself connecting to her character, Myren admitted that there were "some ways" in which she didn't relate to Elvira, particularly as she's "way more secure in my own body". That said, she did acknowledge that there are many people in her life who have encountered the same insecurities as Elvira and felt "such a responsibility" to be true to the character and her struggles:

Lea Myren: Absolutely. I mean, in some ways, no, because I'm way more secure in my own body than Elvira is, and I have been fortunate enough to grow up accepting myself and loving myself, which is kudos to my parents and also just the environments I've grown up in. But this was also just an important fact why I wanted to do Elvira, because I wanted to give her that confidence from an actor's perspective. Do you know what I mean? So I don't have her insecurities, but I know about them and I see them in all my friends and in people I love. So, I thought it was such a responsibility to bring her story to life, even though I can't relate to her biggest insecurities, I can have the strength to portray them in a respectful manner.

Blichfeldt went on to chime in with her own initial concerns of being able to find a star who could authentically depict Elvira's struggles, namely as it would require being "brave, crazy, emotional, physically strong, physically vulnerable" and "humorous". She concluded by celebrating getting to meet and cast Myren, as she found the young star had "such an integrity and such a freedom of expression" that made her perfect for the part:

Emilie Blichfeldt: That's so true though. I had no idea how I was going to find this actress that was young, brave, crazy, emotional, physically strong, physically vulnerable, humorous, all of them. And then Lea comes along, and I think one of the biggest reasons why Lea can do this role, just as she says, is because she has such an integrity and such a freedom of expression within herself. She's so brave and free in what she can do or how she can look. She doesn't care. The more crazy faces she makes, the more she values herself, and the more I value her. [Laughs] And I think that's just an extra gift to the project because Lea is also just such a good example of what you can achieve if you are free of body pressure, what you can dare to do and what you can dare to be and how fun and exciting that can be.

Myren also further reflected on the fact she was not as worried about the physical side of the role because that's what she trained in, and she loves "working with my body". Instead, she found the emotional nature of the role to be what concerned her the most, pointing out one specific moment during filming in which she "had a little breakdown" after a specific moment in which she deeply connected to Elvira:

Lea Myren: To be honest, for me, physical acting is much easier than emotional acting, because I work with my body. I love working with my body. But the emotional aspect on top of that, to reach a depth where she is so extremely depressed — for example, when I just fall down the stairs, I remember, and we talked about this at the Q&A last night, how I had a little breakdown after we shot that, because I'd already done all this physical acting, but then I see myself just purely laying still, just falling down some stairs, and having broken all this s--t. But the realization of losing my dream in that moment, to see Cinderella walk out with the prince, and everything she's worked for throughout the whole movie and also what I've worked for —

Emilie Blichfeldt: All that pain and all the sweat.

Lea Myren: All the pain and all the sweat and tears, it was just so emotionally demanding for myself, not because of my own trauma or whatever comes up, but just my love for Elvira was so strong that I got so sad realizing that she'd lost. But I mean, in the bigger picture, she won, because she maybe has a brighter future than being with the prince that doesn't really love her for who she is. So, yeah, that was maybe the most challenging part, the emotional aspect of it. She's so cute. I love her so much, and I see her in myself, but also just everyone around me, girls, my sister, her friends, and my cousin, she's six. Yeah, Elvira is everyone.

Blichfeldt & Myren Feel Honored By Comparisons To The Substance

"I certainly hope it doesn't stop with us."

While the movie may have only just premiered, The Ugly Stepsister is already doing very well with critics, currently sitting at a 97% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. In many of the reviews, critics are directly comparing it to Demi Moore's The Substance, which Blichfeldt and Myren note they had no knowledge of while they were making their film, but do express an admiration of being compared to already, and think it's time for more thought-provoking body horror films:

Emilie Blichfeldt: I think, although we're battling the same theme as The Substance, and with some of the same, let's say, formalistic tools of cinema-making, and the genre of body horror, they are two very different movies, but I think it's amazing that The Substance is trailblazing for us. There's such a buzz for The Substance, which makes people so interested in our movie, because they're like, "Oh my God, we understand the thing with feminism and body horror," or beauty horror as I like to call it. I think it is just so exciting, andI would say The Substance is quite obscure, it's quite out there, and it's a very obscure, but beautifully thought-out body horror, through and through, and now suddenly it's up for Oscars.

Lea Myren: The taste of it is also something you don't really see in the bigger Hollywood movies, and to shovel our way through, yeah, it's great.

Emilie Blichfeldt: And I think the time's ripe. It gives me hope for the future, because it seems like the audience is hungry for these stories, and not just women, but also men. Of course, we're seeing it from a female perspective, but what's happening in the world right now is that more and more men are also subjected to the same kind of pressure for a certain kind of an appearance. I think it's deeply problematic, because it can really freeze us.

It makes us very vulnerable and lonely when you're under body pressure, and we need to come together as a society and say that we have to stop this. This is not healthy, and it's not good for us. And that's both for women and for men and for all of those in between. Yeah, it's very interesting, because we had a similar idea at the same time. I didn't know of The Substance before it came out at Cannes, and I got this idea eight years ago. So who knows? Is there a Japanese feminist body horror popping up, or German? Who knows? I certainly hope it doesn't stop with us.

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