Hundreds of variations of Cinderella exist all through the world, however it’s protected to say that just one variant of the traditional fairy story options rotting flesh and maggots rather than a pumpkin carriage and mice, tapeworm diets and sewn-on eyelashes as an alternative of magical makeovers, and a pivotal shift in perspective from the pure-hearted princess-to-be to her often-ignored stepsister, who’d do something to win the prince’s affections.
In “The Ugly Stepsister,” an impressively grotesque characteristic debut from Norwegian writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt (now in theaters), the titular character is Elvira (Lea Myren), the eldest youngster of a widowed schemer (Ane Dahl Torp) who’s decided to safe her social standing within the 18th-century kingdom of Swedlandia by marrying off her daughters—additionally together with the extra virtually minded Alma (Flo Fagerli)—to rich suitors. Socially awkward however however dreaming of her happily-ever-after, Elvira harbors a crush on Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth), who will choose his virginal bride at an upcoming ball.
With this event weeks away, Elvira can’t assist however examine herself to new stepsister Agnes (Thea-Sofie Loch Næss), whom she sees as ethereally stunning; what comes naturally to Agnes feels practically not possible for Elvira. And so, at her mom’s behest, Elvira undergoes agonizing procedures by sadistic plastic surgeon Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren)—for her tooth, nostril, and eyes—earlier than insecurities about her weight lead her to knowingly ingest a tapeworm. “You’re altering your exterior to suit what you recognize is on the within,” one tutor instructs her, although Elvira’s descent into delusion, hunger, and self-denial units her unambiguously on a path to annihilation, not ascendance.
Blichfeldt cites not solely the Brothers Grimm model of Cinderella, during which the stepsisters mutilate their ft to suit into the slipper, but additionally the movies of David Cronenberg—notably “Crash,” his flesh-and-metal psychodrama about car-crash fetishists—as inspirations on her satirical “magnificence horror” retelling of the fairy story. And though the movie’s gross-out gore and stunning moments of bodily metamorphosis linger palpably within the creativeness, “The Ugly Stepsister” grounds these brutally humorous sequences within the tortured headspace of its protagonist, portrayed by Myren in a wild efficiency of contortive power, daring, and poignancy.
Following its worldwide premiere at Sundance and bow in Berlin, Blichfeldt’s movie has been selecting up steam on the genre-festival circuit, profitable the characteristic movie viewers award on the Overlook Movie Pageant and director’s selection for finest characteristic on the Boston Underground Movie Pageant final month. Forward of the movie’s U.S. theatrical launch on April 18, through IFC Movies and Shudder, Blichfeldt spoke with RogerEbert.com in regards to the uncanny enchanted realism of ’70s fairy-tale cinema, the hazards of internalizing a harmful gaze,
This interview has been edited and condensed.
What model of the Cinderella story did you develop up on?
Nicely, to begin with, [in Norway] it’s a convention to look at this Czech movie model, “Three Needs for Cinderella” [also translated as “Three Chestnuts for Cinderella”], so all households there see it each Christmas Eve. And this isn’t like several film you can see at Christmas, as a result of it’s dubbed—and we don’t actually dub films in Norway, however it’s additionally not simply usually dubbed, as a result of it’s dubbed by this one man who does all of the voices, which makes it much more camp. And it’s already fairly camp, however that offers it this further camp layer. My mother and father didn’t imagine in films; they believed in books, so I grew up with out a VHS or DVD participant till I used to be 13. I didn’t have a relationship with the Disney model—solely the Brothers Grimm after which this Czech model.
The visible aesthetic of Jap European fairytale cinema from the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s, like “Three Needs for Cinderella,” is throughout “The Ugly Stepsister.” I’ve seen you describe it as this environment of “uncanny enchanted realism,” which is completely put. Personally, I affiliate that feeling with Shelley Duvall’s “Faerie Story Theatre,” and what struck me in “The Ugly Stepsister” was the way in which this interaction between actual and unreal—in music in addition to visible model—displays a steadiness between historic accuracy and one thing extra fashionable and surprising.
I needed to guarantee that it didn’t grow to be a dressing up drama. I wished to obscure the sensation that the movie was made in, the sensation of 2025, so we despatched it by the lens of the ’70s. It was our gaze, by the lens of the ’70s, upon the late 1800s, to create a timeless, once-upon-a-time feeling. And, for a very long time, that additionally guided the soundtrack. I really like Goblin and all the things Argento, so I knew I wished synthesizer realness, all loopy. Nonetheless, I used to be additionally them much less for the giallo horror of all of it than for the dreaminess of their sound, and I discovered very nice ambient stuff from Harold Budd within the ’70s, and a few Alice Coltrane from the ’70s that makes use of harp so superbly. And that, for me, was this dream factor; it was very linked to Elvira’s dream. There are these two layers within the film: the fairy story after which the dream. I wished to tell apart these two and to really feel the dream inside the fairy story. That’s the place these two sounds got here from, they usually got here up very early.
However, then, in modifying, we had a screening, and I noticed this primary dream [play out] with cool, romantic, synthesizer music, and I used to be trying across the viewers, and I used to be like, “That was so camp!” It was so ’70s that it went pastiche; it’s not the music in there now, which has a extra fashionable contact. I used to be leaning to date into the ’70s that I felt like, “Do they perceive that I do know that is camp, too, and that I’m not simply ’70s-obsessed?” The ’70s lens had obscured me a little bit too totally; you couldn’t really feel that there was a girl from 2025 behind all of this, who was conscious of what she was doing. That had form of disappeared, and we wished to present it a little bit bit extra of a contemporary feeling.
That’s after we discovered this nice soundtrack from Vilde Tuv, a Norwegian composer and singer-songwriter, referred to as “Melting Songs.” We used lots of tracks from that EP; she’s extra into the ’90s digital sound, which is a bit tougher and virtually techno. Once we put that on, all of the sudden, the humor discovered its place, as a result of individuals may really feel each that it’s very honest in craving, that music, however it’s additionally ironic, as a result of it’s an excessive amount of. That was the place, when that music got here on, the viewers may very well be like, “Okay, I get how she feels, however I’m additionally on board that that is overboard. [laughs] That is an excessive amount of, and it’s satire.”
To circle again to your gaze on the late 1800s, this was an exceptionally punishing time to be a girl in society. And also you illustrate by “The Ugly Stepsister” the violence and self-hatred that stems from Elvira’s perception that she needs to be this idealized model of herself to exist on the planet. Are you able to speak a little bit about deciding that Elvira would internalize the violence of that gaze in such a visceral approach?
It’s an important query. For me, it’s partially a private story, as a result of I’ve been self-objectifying and had internalized a assured gaze on myself that was very harmful for a few years of my life. Fortunately, I may get out of that, and the concept of what I wished to make was easy. I wished to make a narrative the place individuals would sympathize, or at the very least empathize, and perceive why somebody would chop off her toes to suit the shoe. I wished individuals to know what they’re doing, what they’re doing, and perceive that emotion, the place that comes from, as a result of I may relate to being able to do virtually something to attempt to match inside this look of an excellent.
Once I created this character, it was all about, “However how do you get there?” Are you born with such a gaze on your self that you just assume that it’s a must to do that? Are you born with the concept that your physique or look is the place your worth lies most? How does that occur? I believe that’s one thing placed on you, so how have been you earlier than that? I’ve been involved in this sort of transition, attempting to make individuals perceive how that occurs. One factor is when individuals begin telling you that you’re not ok, however then the opposite factor is the shift, if you begin believing in that and doing it to your self, as she does towards the tip.
For me, the strongest picture is the tapeworm, as a result of when she takes the tapeworm and swallows it, that’s the primary time she’s the perpetrator herself. It’s a “purple tablet, blue tablet” second for her. What actuality do you select? She chooses to internalize this gaze on herself and, in that, begins self-objectifying. This self-objectification then eats her up from the within out, each bodily and mentally. That’s such a robust picture, as a result of that’s what self-objectifying does to you. It erodes you from the within, and it makes you a bit loopy. [laughs]
You begin your reflection in different individuals’s eyes. That’s what I wished for Elvira, when she turns into the stepsister: she’s simply Cinderella. It’s not that Cinderella is doing one thing to her, or that she’s doing one thing to Cinderella; it’s simply that she’s evaluating herself continuously. It means she can not empathize with Agnes as a result of she’s self-obsessed.
Her getting assist on the finish to get [the tapeworm] out was very true. I wished her to get it out, however she wouldn’t have the power to try this herself. She wouldn’t be like, “Oh, I didn’t get the prince; let’s get the worm out.” That’s not the way it occurs. For me, there’s a deeper reality there that I didn’t know or see earlier than I understood Alma wanted to assist her. Afterward, I used to be like, “Shit, that makes me emotional. If it hadn’t been for the individuals who had advised me, “What you’re doing to your self shouldn’t be wholesome; please, I’ll lend you my gaze to see the world in another way, as a result of the way you’re seeing it’s hurtful to you…” That’s so essential. And this isn’t one thing we are able to overcome by ourselves, though it seems like a private, personal factor to cope with. It’s a a lot larger theme that we as a society should sort out collectively.
The tapeworm is grotesque and interesting, Elvira deliberately ingesting this parasite that eats away at her from the within. When it’s expelled, you additionally discover this phallic resonance inside the tapeworm, amplified by the final scene with the stepmother. Of all of the medical procedures and wonder requirements to invoke from the 1800s, when did the tapeworm come into this story?
It got here in early. When developing the define, I researched completely different sorts of strategies that had been tried within the historical past of time to see which of them I might put in. I’m a giant body-horror fan, and what I really like about physique horror is that it at all times carries which means or imagery, someway, that’s larger than simply the gore itself.
I wished to incorporate [the tapeworm] as a result of, for a lot of girls, attempting to suit into this very best is lots about weight, however for some time, I couldn’t discover the place it match. And I used to be like, “She takes it, she will get skinny, and he or she’s possibly sick,” however it wasn’t sufficient. It wasn’t satisfying sufficient that she had this factor in her; all of the sudden, I used to be like, “Oh my God. What is available in should come out.” [sinister laugh]
I noticed the potential for that on the finish of the story, and I hoped that it could be essentially the most emotional second, as a result of there may be some catharsis in her getting it out. There’s hope. It’s fairly a bleak film, however it was essential for me that there’s some form of hope towards the tip. It’s bittersweet. She didn’t get what she wished, and that was possibly okay. [laughs]
What have been your largest concerns when it got here to casting Lea Myren within the lead position? Even with out all the things we’ve mentioned, it’s a very susceptible, demanding half to play.
It was a really nerve-wracking course of. What would this film have been with out a efficiency like Lea’s, to be sincere?
It’s a really complicated position for a younger actress going by all these feelings, that physicality, and that change, each in seems and in method. When it got here to casting the stepsister, I had this concept, so long as she wasn’t a mannequin or thought-about an important magnificence or an excellent, that she may appear like no matter. The casting was color-blind, for instance. The one factor that she couldn’t be is of course chubby, as a result of I wouldn’t ask an actress to drop some pounds. I simply wouldn’t try this, particularly to a younger one. And that was a sorrow, however that’s what I wanted to do to inform the story.
We began casting, and I believe we noticed 500 women, largely fairly younger women who didn’t have any expertise. I hoped to hit gold, however it didn’t occur. After which we began taking in older women with extra expertise and someday, Lea got here in. I used to be floored from the primary audition. I used to be like, “Is that this actual?” I’d seen her in a extremely cool TV present referred to as “Children in Crime,” however I believed she’d been typecast for that position; within the audition, I bought to see her as this full-fledged actor, doing all of the issues she will do. She was so humorous, so endearing, so charming, so free to specific herself together with her marvelous face that may achieve this a lot.
And I believe that’s essentially the most stunning paradox I’ve encountered with this filming, is how I wanted to search out somebody who was the other of Elvira to play her. Lea grew up with a feminist mom, and he or she’s not self-objectifying; she’s not doing that. She’s so free to specific herself by style, by her physique, and that’s additionally what permits her to do that position—and to do it so magnificently, as a result of she’s by no means herself by the gaze of others and considering, “Will they like me if I do that? What is going to individuals assume if I appear like that?” She’s simply within the second and doing it, which makes her such an unimaginable actor. She’s only a present that retains giving.
I simply knew from the primary audition: “Okay, that’s her.” She was on the ground for minutes within the second audition, crawling round like a lizard. Bodily, it seems actually good, and he or she’s telling me, “I did this for an entire day on the Lecoq college of bodily theatre in Paris, okay? I’m so prepared for all of this.” [laughs] I believed that was so cool.
On set, she wouldn’t cease screaming till I stated reduce. Generally, I believed she’d go down, and then I’d say reduce, however she would simply proceed doing it. I discovered it fascinating how she was so totally in it, and even experimenting on that journey of, “How does this evolve?” I needed to maintain again, to not make the most of that, although I did generally, as a result of it was so cool, and it ended up within the film each time.
There have been laborious, lengthy days, and I put her by lots. All of the sudden, someday, after she had completed the primary and second a part of the stunt of Elvira falling down the steps, I discovered her crying exterior, and I believed, “Oh, no. Now, she’s damaged—my sturdy lady, I pushed her to the restrict.” However then I went over to her and requested if she was okay, and he or she stated, crying, “Yeah, it’s not me. It’s Elvira. It’s simply so laborious for Elvira.” I used to be like, “Oh, that is insane. She’s so cool.”
She’s extremely dedicated. It’s these reactions that give the movie its most blood-curdling moments. I’m curious the way you construct a efficiency like that, to supply that sense of an emotional and psychological trajectory, in a fairy-tale environment.
We simply determined to let Elvira go, someway. Lea is an actress who can go large. And I advised her, “You must really feel no disgrace in that, as a result of meaning you will have vary. And so, at any time when I let you know to rein it in, it’s by no means as a result of going large is dangerous. It’s simply that, for this second, we have to.”
She’s advised me that that made her really feel very protected, that she may by no means do unsuitable. A whole lot of actors who’ve that in them can really feel they’re overacting; some administrators, I do know, may be laborious on them for that, however I simply wished to present her love for that, particularly for this film. It was all about discovering individuals who wished to play.
It’s a fairy story, and I didn’t need it to finish up like a psychological drama or a interval piece. It was not my thought when [Adam Lundgren, who played Dr. Esthétique,] got here to audition and spoke on this pretentious, almost-French Swedish. I used to be a bit like, “Is that taking it too far?” After which, in costume rehearsal, he did it once more, and I used to be simply so endeared by it. And I used to be like, “Let’s go. Let’s not maintain again. Let’s go large or go house and have enjoyable doing it.”
Lea and I name Elvira our “love youngster.” We have been very pressured for time on set, however it took only a few days earlier than Lea and I wanted solely to have a look at one another, and we knew. I virtually didn’t give her course. On the wrap social gathering. I used to be like, “Are you fantastic? Have I given you sufficient consideration?” I used to be giving a lot consideration to so many different issues, as a result of I knew I may belief her. And he or she stated, “Sure, I understood that. I felt you have been there for me once I wanted you, however it was additionally an important expertise to be let loose in that approach and never over-directed.” Complete love youngster, sure.
This can be a movie of grotesque photographs and robust concepts. What was the trickiest stunt to drag off in “The Ugly Stepsister,” whether or not conceptualizing it inside the story or executing it on set?
By way of the stunts, that second on the steps was undoubtedly the largest stunt for the stuntwoman who doubled for Lea, and it was horrible for me. They have been like, “Would you like us to do it once more?” And I used to be like, “Is she protected? Can she do it? I don’t know if I wish to ask for one more one; what if she will get harm?” However she was so cool doing it, you recognize? And the final shot we bought there, the place she’s falling down the steps, so cool, was written like that; it was written that she would break her nostril on the backside.
I needed to be fairly particular about it. I really like that, although, if you get the professionals on set and are confronted together with your thought, it’s a must to be particular about it, as a result of that’s if you begin making the story. [Marcel Zyskind,] my cinematographer, bought within the combine as a result of, within the script, she cracks her nostril when she hits the wall, then she tumbles down. And he was like, “She ought to break it on the finish of the staircase.” And I used to be like, “No, she ought to do it there, on the wall.” And he was like, “Does she must?” I stated it needed to do with rhythm. However on the finish, after he’d agreed with that, we bought the shot with Lea, and he requested, “Can we do only one take the place she breaks it there?” In modifying, we came upon I used to be proper about rhythm, and he was proper about the place she ought to break it. [laughs]
Final query. You’ve cited David Cronenberg’s “Crash,” which you noticed whereas finding out in movie college, as a movie that opened your thoughts to horror as a style that would can help you discover the physique and the thoughts within the methods you do in “The Ugly Stepsister.” Your movie is in theaters this Friday, and so is “The Shrouds,” his newest…
I’ll let you know a secret story: I used to be invited, to my shock, to the Criterion Closet, to select some films once I was in New York, and have my {photograph} taken. I felt honored. Very random, however so cool. I got here again two days later—additionally to my shock, as a result of I grew to become mates with Sean Worth Williams, who sees movies there generally, so he invited me to go—and somebody advised me that David Cronenberg can be there two days later. I believed, “How cool would it not be to make use of the Criterion Closet as a post-box between filmmakers?” So, I wrote a little bit Submit-It word, just a bit greeting for him, and caught it to my image, in case he sees it.
In the event you go to a cabin within the woods, there’s a e book to signal, normally, proper? The Criterion Closet ought to have a cabin e book in order that filmmakers can write greetings to one another. And the workers may be like, “Mr. Cronenberg, you’ve obtained 15 greetings because the final time you have been right here.” Wouldn’t that be nice?
They need to sincerely take you up on this.
Filmmakers speaking to one another. That’s what we do with the movies, however it could really feel a lot cooler, truly, to do it with that intention.
“The Ugly Stepsister” opens in theaters April 18, through IFC Movies and Shudder.
