Culture Interviews Cinema & Tv

“I link the character’s body to my own so I can feel their pain”: Emilie Blichfeldt on The Ugly Stepsister

“I link the character’s body to my own so I can feel their pain”: Emilie Blichfeldt on The Ugly Stepsister

Few films manage to elicit the effect of a log line in their title, but because of how familiar we all are with the fairy tale of Cinderella, the immediate connection to her adversary is a given.

The Ugly Stepsister has the guts (in every sense of the word) to flip the age-old narrative and tell the story from the unfavored antagonist’s point of view.

At the Berlin Film Festival, The Upcoming spoke to director Emilie Blichfeldt about the inspiration behind the body horror approach to a childhood classic and the physical transformation of a character willing to cut off her toes in order to fit into a glass slipper.

Selina Sondermann

The Ugly Stepsister is released nationwide on 25th April 2025. Read our review here.

Watch the trailer for The Ugly Stepsister here:

More in Cinema & Tv

Prime Minister

Andrew Murray

Spartacus: House of Ashur

Will Snell

Amadeaus: On the red carpet with the cast and creatives at the London premiere

Ezelle Alblas

Oh. What. Fun.

Constance Ayrton

Dreamers

Andrew Murray

“Liking anime is actually cool, it just took the rest of the world a minute to catch on”: Zach Aguilar on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle

Mae Trumata

Tinsel Town: Robbie Williams, Alice Eve, Ray Fearon, Katherine Ryan, Rebel Wilson, Matilda Firth and Ava Aashna Chopra at the London premiere

Sarah Bradbury

“If the fans are up for it, we have a lot more stories we’d love to tell”: Tenika Davis, Nick E Tarabay and Steven S DeKnight on Spartacus – House of Ashur

Mae Trumata

Stranger Things season five, volume one

Andrew Murray