For Jessie Buckley, embodying the bride was just the start.

Set in 1930s Chicago, The Bride! sees a lonely Frankenstein (Christian Bale) enlist Dr. Euphronious to create him a companion, resulting in the rebirth of a young woman, a.k.a. “The Bride,” played by Buckley. But that’s not the only role she takes on in the Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed film. Buckley first appears as Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, who frames the story and connects it to the original novel. Then, Ida, a young woman who is murdered and whose body is later used in an experiment. And finally, Buckley portrays the titular Bride, the reanimated version of Ida who is brought back to life as a love interest for Frankenstein’s monster.

A response to the classic Bride of Frankenstein, which was itself inspired by a minor subplot in the original Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley, Gyllenhaal’s version sees Buckley’s Bride not only reanimated but with a real backstory.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan, Buckley shared what it was like to take on three different characters in the film, likening the experience to “playing jazz:”

Jessie Buckley: All of those characters are really swimming around inside you all the time. You’re kind of playing jazz — in a way — and in the best way. It’s exciting to have an unconscious voice like Mary Shelley come off and interrupt. Maybe a habit, or a fear, and actually really provoke you to something that is the truth or going to crack the ceiling a little bit.

It’s a feeling Gyllenhaal could relate to as well, with the director telling ScreenRant that the provocation comes as a result of the dueling voices we all have in our minds, pushing us to do that scary thing and be “more alive:”

Maggie Gyllenhaal: Don’t you have that? Like actually thinking about what’s actually on your mind. Maybe not nagging. I mean, I have a nagging voice too, but then I have one that’s like, “Say it. Do it. It’s okay.” That’s like pushing you to be more alive.

For Gyllenhaal, This Frankenstein Adaptation Was One Part Creativity & One Part Movie Magic

ScreenRant: There’s such a legacy around the reinvigoration scene. She’s coming alive. What did you want to accomplish there? How did you think about how to tackle something that is iconic and then making it your own?

Maggie Gyllenhaal: I have a lot of thoughts about this. I mean, I guess I wanted it to feel magic because, of course, we can’t bring people back to life. So there is an aspect of magic in it. If you watch that scene in IMAX in full 143 IMAX, it actually creates magic. I hope it does it even if you watch it in its native aspect ratio too. I wanted it to be scientific. I’m not a scientist, but almost a combination of something, you know, quantum. Unthinkable. You can only express it in math kind of thing mixed with something very, very rational.

So, I loved those two lights — they’re like arc lights that are waiting to arc that kind of centers the whole thing. And I find them very erotic that you’re sort of like—it’s getting closer, it’s getting hotter. It’s starting to smoke. It starts smoking more. It’s getting hotter. It’s getting hotter. It’s getting hotter. And at that moment, which is very Newtonian — like basic science — something magical and beyond our rational minds happens and she’s born.

Maggie Gyllenhaal Debunks John Mulaney’s Self-Tape Joke Claim

ScreenRant: Did John Mulaney actually self-tape as young cop?

Maggie Gyllenhaal: Young cop is a great part. Louis Cancelmi plays that cop. He just didn’t have a name. And he should have had a name. I gave him a name after I watched that incredible, f–king super funny thing that John Mulaney did. I named him Officer Goodman. But Louis Cancelmi plays that part. It’s the guy who — I mean I won’t give anything away–stops them on the side of the road. It’s a great part.

Jessie Buckley:

And also, he’s brilliant.

Maggie Gyllenhaal: Louis Cancelmi is brilliant. But no, he didn’t. And I would love to see his tape. If you’d like to send it to me now, bring it on. I thought that was so funny and I’m waiting for the tape. I never received it.

Check out more of our Bride! coverage here: