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

Secret rooftop cinema brings cosy Christmas film nights and seasonal dining to Holmes Hotel in Marylebone

Food & Travel Desk

Steve Buscemi, Twiggy and the filmmakers shaping Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival 2025

Ambra Vernuccio

Wild Cherry: On the red carpet with Nicôle Lecky, Imogen Faires and Amelia May

Ezelle Alblas

In Your Dreams

Andrew Murray

The Running Man

Christopher Connor

Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth

Antonia Georgiou

Trespasses

Antonia Georgiou

“It’s got a beautiful tone to it”: Gillian Anderson, Lola Petticrew, Tom Cullen, Louise Kennedy and Ailbhe Keogan on Trespasses

Antonia Georgiou

The Choral

Sunny Morgan