Maggie Gyllenhaal in the director's chair

At New York City's Film Forum, Maggie Gyllenhaal and "CBS Mornings" co-host Tony Dokoupil perused the scheduled of upcoming features.

"What do you like over here?" he asked.

"I think I'm actually gonna come and see 'Wild at Heart.' I haven't seen it in a long time," she replied.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is more than your typical movie-buff. "We watched 24 movies in less than two weeks," she said.

And not only because you probably know her as an actress, in blockbusters like "The Dark Knight," bingeable TV shows like "The Deuce," and a long list of bold, even gritty roles, including an Academy Award-nominated performance in "Crazy Heart." She also happens to be part of a mini-Hollywood dynasty – the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, not to mention big sister to Jake.

But what really sets Gyllenhaal apart as a cinephile is that after all these years in and around the movies, her love for them is still growing.

"I wanna see movies more now than I ever wanted to see movies before," she said. "I've seen, like, almost every movie that's out this year."

That now includes her own movie: "The Lost Daughter," Gyllenhaal's first as a screenwriter and as a director. It's out in theaters and streaming on Netflix later this month, after what Gyllenhaal says was an exciting – if also excruciating – premiere overseas.

"I felt like I was giving birth or something, really," she said.

Dokoupil said, "So, you've been there as an actor seeing a film for the first time."

"At the Venice Film Festival, yes."

"Or at any place. For an actor it's a moment to see what the director has cut together."

"It is, like, way more intense as a director. Like, I mean, 100,000 times more intense!" she laughed.

Why? "I don't know. Maybe because, I mean, this movie is everything I meant for it to be. It's all my offering. Like, I have to stand behind all of it."

And what a lot of it there is. The film is a psychological thriller and drama, the story of a woman who does something almost unimaginable, amid all-too-real flashbacks to her life as a young parent.

Gyllenhaal said, "I can't tell you how many people have been like, 'I shouldn't say this, but I have fallen asleep on the floor while I was taking care of my kids.' So many people have said that to me! And like that – like it's a dirty, terrible secret."

Secrets, or at least things left unsaid, are a big part of what drew Gyllenhaal to the project, which is based on a novel by Elena Ferrante, the mega-bestselling Italian writer known only by her pen name.

"People have spent a lotta time and energy trying to figure out who she is; not me," Gyllenhaal said. "I'm, like, she asked to be anonymous? Let her be anonymous, you know? I've never spoken to her. I've never met her. All of my interaction with her has been through email. And there's something amazing about her being anonymous, because she's been so supportive."

In fact, after Gyllenhaal wrote a long letter to Ferrante requesting rights to the story, Ferrante agreed … on one condition: "She wrote me back, and she said, 'Yes, you can have the rights. But the contract is void unless you direct it.'"

She also offered Gyllenhaal an unexpected gift: "She said she thinks it's really important that the movie be good. And she knows it will only be good if I make it mine. And so, she wanted to offer me freedom.

Ferrante has since said of the finished movie, "I liked the whole film," calling it "true cinema."

One of the book's big truths now brought to the screen by Gyllenhaal is that motherhood – even when it's a choice, and a joy – is not always a pleasure.

Dokoupil laughed, "How to say it delicately?"

"Yeah, yeah. But it's funny, like, you have to say it delicately," said Gyllenhaal. "It's very complicated. And what I think is that it's just that the spectrum of feelings about it are huge. And somehow our culture says, 'If you feel, ambivalent, or terrified, or all these dark things, included in all the light ones, that somehow there's something wrong with you, or that it's abnormal.'"

Gyllenhaal grew up in southern California, but she was born in New York, and she's raising two daughters of her own there (ages 15 and 9) with husband Peter Sarsgaard.

Dokoupil said, "So, you're kind of out of the worst of it in terms of the most intensive, they need you all the time – "

"I think so. I think so. I don't think I could have made this movie with toddlers, but I was certainly thinking about it with toddlers."

After nearly three decades on screen, Gyllenhaal is also realizing she has a whole new kind of career ahead of her: "There are a lot of people that don't like actors with ideas," she laughed. "I think that I just got tired of that. It takes a lot of energy. And I think probably looking back on it now that I have directed this film, which I love, I think probably I was always a director, and I just didn't feel entitled to even know that I wanted that."

"The Lost Daughter" is already an award-winner, taking (among other honors) best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. And the 44-year-old Gyllenhaal says, beyond the movie's ensemble of stars, which includes her husband, she sees a simple reason for the film's success.

"Sometimes when you tell the truth about something that nobody's been talking about, I think it can feel really invigorating, and exciting, and good, you know," she said, "almost like an electric shock through you to hear the truth spoken out loud. You're like, [gasp] 'Oh, I agree!' You know?"

And just in case you're wondering, there's a lot more to the movie than motherhood, just like there's a lot more to being a woman that rarely makes it into movies – and that, above all else, is what Maggie Gyllenhaal the director is most excited to change.

"I'm just trying to be honest, that's really all I'm doing," she said. "Because for so much of my life, I saw my experience portrayed in ways that weren't totally honest. And I wondered, 'Is there, like, something wrong with me?' Because this whole other – like, the edges of my experience, the nooks and crannies of my experience, I rarely see. And I think we can get confused if we don't see reflections of our experience portrayed back at us."

"So, here's the world's most obvious question: Are you gonna do it again?" asked Dokoupil.

"Yes!" Gyllenhaal laughed. "Yes, yes, yes. Yes, totally. Yes."

To watch a trailer for "The Lost Daughter" click on the video player below.

     
For more info:

• "The Lost Daughter" opens in theaters December 17, and begins streaming on Netflix December 31.

     
Story produced by Aria Shavelson. Editor: Mike Levine.

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