At Venice, Ellen Burstyn reflects on playing Marilyn Monroe and a lifetime in movies

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Of all the roles Ellen Burstyn might have been offered in her 90s, that of Marilyn Monroe seemed fairly unlikely. But then one day Maggie Gyllenhaal came to her apartment to talk about a wild idea: What if she played Monroe at 100?

“It sounded like a good idea to me,” Burstyn told The Associated Press.

Their 17-minute short film, “Flesh Impact,” had its world premiere Monday at the Venice Film Festival, where Burstyn, 93, also received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Though Burstyn never met Monroe, who died at 36, there was overlap. They shared a massage therapist, who would tell stories about his late friend. He even told Burstyn that she was actually quite like Monroe, and lent her one of Monroe's old books called “The Thinking Body,” which had some treasures like old receipts inside.

“I knew that she was not what she presented as her persona and that actually that’s a persona that she created,” Burstyn said. “She created the whole concept of Marilyn Monroe and played it.”

Once, she saw her in a nightclub and Monroe nodded at her.

“She was so startlingly beautiful and she caught my eye and … I felt that she recognized me,” Burstyn said. “I was very early in my career. And the fact that she recognized me, I just felt so honored and pleased.”

The Monroe short came about in somewhat unconventional fashion, through the luxury car company Genesis, whose chief marketing officer Amy Marentic approached Gyllenhaal about doing something around what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday in June.

Gyllenhaal asked for a weekend to think about it, and landed on Marilyn, at 100, “doing basically the most vulnerable, one of the most vulnerable things I think an actor can do, which is audition, alone on a stage.”

Burstyn was the first actor she thought of.

“I just had this feeling maybe this is an opportunity for her to think about things in a new way,” Gyllenhaal said.

The two found that they shared a similar language and approach to the work.

“We are interested in the depth of what’s being revealed. And we both want to go there,” Burstyn said. “If we’re going to be doing anything, we’re gonna be doing it from there.”

Though nothing has really changed very much in how Burstyn chooses roles over the years — she just wants to be moved or challenged — having a set populated largely by women was a far cry from how things were when she was starting out.

“When I first started working, which was 150 years ago, there were no women on the set. There were no women crew. There was no woman behind the camera. If a woman was on set, that meant that she was an actress,” Burstyn said in a news conference Monday. “Then, slowly, thanks to blessed Gloria Steinem who just died, the consciousness started to change.”

Burstyn is also in a feature film, Kornél Mundruczó’s “Place to Be” alongside Taika Waititi, that’s playing at the festival. She’s feeling “slightly overwhelmed” by the whole thing.

“I have been asking myself, why do I deserve this? What have I done? It’s a long career,” she said. “And I finally came to it today that I wouldn’t have had this career without my training.”

Perhaps that is a bit modest for someone who has won an Oscar, for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” a Tony and two Emmys for her acting. In her over 50 years in the business, she’s appeared in around 150 films and is a co-president of The Actors Studio. Burstyn even teaches acting classes occasionally, continuing the legacy of her mentor and acting coach Lee Strasberg.

“Her artistry, which could illuminate pain and everyday resilience with dignity, irony and courage, remains an absolute model of authenticity in performance and civic engagement within the craft of acting,” festival director Alberto Barbera said in a statement.

Sitting alongside Gyllenhaal the day before the big award, she described her outfit, a gown, and wondered if it was too much. Her director assured her it wasn’t: This was her day.

“I’m just really very happy to be here and very grateful to receive this award and grateful to this lady who put me in this interesting and deep and funny and wonderful movie,” Burstyn said.

For ongoing coverage of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival

Ellen Burstyn wipes a tear from her eye after receiving the golden lion for lifetime achievement during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Maggie Gyllenhaal speaks to the audience prior to Ellen Burstyn receiving the golden lion for lifetime achievement during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Ellen Burstyn speaks to the audience after receiving the golden lion for lifetime achievement during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Ellen Burstyn receives the golden lion for lifetime achievement during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival inl in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Ellen Burstyn wipes a tear from her eye after receiving the golden lion for lifetime achievement during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Ellen Burstyn receives the golden lion for lifetime achievement during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal poses for photographers at the opening ceremony and the red carpet for the film 'Ink' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/Invision/AP)

Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal poses for photographers at the red carpet for the film 'A Place to Heal' during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/Invision/AP)

FILE - Ellen Burstyn attends the "Law & Order" 25th anniversary celebration in New York on Jan. 6, 2026. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Ellen Burstyn arrives at the AFI Awards on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024, at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers plan to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, ending their more than 150-year run as an iconic, old-timey tourist attraction, following decades of opposition from animal welfare activists and the death of a teenage tourist last spring.

The City Council is expected to approve a bill next week that would end the rides by 2028. Three consecutive mayors had called for an end to the carriage rides because of safety concerns, only to have lawmakers yank back the reins.

A spokesperson for Julie Menin, the council speaker, confirmed the incoming vote and said the proposal had enough support to pass. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said he had reached a deal with the speaker on the legislation.

“The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City,” Mamdani said in a social media post.

The latest push for a ban started in June, when 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, visiting the city from India, died after jumping from a runaway horse carriage during a ride with family members. His death, which appeared to be the first fatality in a horse carriage accident since they were introduced in Central Park, reignited the debate over whether carriages, a romantic throwback to the city's past, have a place in a modern metropolis.

Mahajan's family has appeared at City Hall, in person and through videoconference calls from India, begging the city to finally end the rides.

“We are shattered, our whole family shattered. The pain does not go away,” his father, Deepak Mahajan, told city council members via a videocall during a hearing for the bill last summer, saying his son leapt from the carriage to try and help his mother, who was flung from her seat, after the horse bolted. “Every morning we wake up and think of nothing but the loss of our son.”

For decades, animal welfare activists and other critics have decried the carriage industry, arguing horses shouldn't be hauling tourists around busy streets and Central Park while having to navigate bustling traffic and gawking passersby. In the past, horses have collapsed, gotten startled and run off, hitting cars or other objects, with each accident resulting in fresh calls for a ban.

“The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City’s history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability,” Menin said in a statement.

The industry and its supporters have long cast the rides as a way for visitors to experience the New York they know from classic movies and television.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse danced into one of the carriages in “The Band Wagon.” Robert Redford and Jane Fonda rode one in “Barefoot in the Park.” Macaulay Culkin escaped bandits in a carriage in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

“Taking a horse and carriage ride in New York City is one of the most iconic things to do in New York City and people from all over the world know about us and travel to New York to go to a carriage ride in New York,” Conor McHugh, a longtime carriage driver, told the Council earlier this year.

Efforts to close down the industry have been met with pushback from unions and influential supporters, often resulting in tiresome political fights that have seen mayors throw up their hands over nagging worries about putting carriage drivers out of work and what to do with the horses if they can no longer work.

Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said the Council's bill has “no meaningful economic relief for workers” and that Menin “used the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis.”

“This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families’ livelihoods are being destroyed. This entire situation is reprehensible,” he said in a statement.

The proposal as written would require the mayor's office to develop a workforce transition plan for drivers, and includes a measure that would allow the city to consider some kind of compensation for industry workers. Carriage owners could not sell their horses off for slaughter, according to the bill's language, which requires that horses be disposed of in a “humane manner.”

“I think we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry,” Mamdani told reporters Wednesday.

The mayor's predecessor, Eric Adams, called for ending the industry during the waning days of his administration, but the proposal went nowhere. The mayor before that, Bill de Blasio, had pledged to eliminate the rides on day one of his administration but abandoned the crusade after heavy opposition from unions and a media blitz involving actor Liam Neeson.

Over the years, the city has placed various safety regulations around the industry, including a requirement that the horses get at least five weeks of vacation a year outside of city limits with daily access to a pasture. The horses are inspected by a veterinarian twice a year, and the maximum age they can work at is 26, according to city regulations. And they don't work when it is hotter than 89 degrees.

A horse-drawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park as joggers run, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Horse-drawn carriages offer trips through through Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

An ice cream vendor peers from his food truck where horse drawn carriages wait for passengers at the entrance to Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A horse-drawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A carriage horse that takes people on rides through Central Park drinks water at an entrance to the park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

FILE - Horse dawn carriages gather at an entrance to Central Park in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - A carriage horse is covered with a blanket, waiting for customers on Central Park South in New York on Jan. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - A horse dawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - A horse and carriage are seen in the snow in Central Park on Jan. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)