‘100 Nights of Hero’ Director Julia Jackman Talks The Power of Storytelling, Casting Charli XCX, And More

In 100 Nights of Hero, director Julia Jackman turns Isabel Greenberg's beloved graphic novel (itself a clever, feminist twist on One Thousand and One Nights) into a charming film full of whimsy, dark humor, and subtle magic, lifted by a pitch-perfect ensemble cast.

The movie first premiered at the Venice International Film Festival's Critics’ Week in September 2025 and later closed the BFI London Film Festival to enthusiastic crowds. We spoke with Jackman about how she made deeply human characters shine in a story full of hardship, and what she saw in each actor that made their casting feel like the only possible choice.

Congratulations on 100 Nights of Hero. Let me ask you, what drew you to the novel?

I think it was at a time where I was wanting to be transported to another world. I was looking for some escapism, and a friend recommended ‘100 Nights’ to me, and I really loved the sort of the fairy tale, timeless fable quality, and the fact that it was rooted in so many familiar stories, but also felt like it had its own very like fresh, witty spin on them. And I was, sort of drawn to the love story, and drawn to the dark sense of humor, and in a way that was surprising to me, drawn to the whimsy as well. I think I liked it so much more than I ever expected to.

Are you a fan of One Thousand and One Nights?

Hugely, hugely. They're sort of reworkings or retellings of stories throughout history. And I really loved that Isabel's novel was an homage to One Thousand and One Nights, and then sort of the film became an homage to both of those tales, a sort of continuation in a completely different medium.

What I love about the movie this narrative and that storytelling can be used as a weapon. So do you recall a time in your life when you used storytelling as a weapon?

A weapon? That's such an interesting word. I guess it can be very powerful. I'm part Ukrainian and oral storytelling is really important in Ukrainian culture, as well as it is with many cultures. And I think hearing my grandmother when I would go and visit her, and you know, there was this sort of quilting shed, where all the women would hang out and make quilts. Sounds really like old school, and I guess it was, and I was just hanging out there as like a kid, and it would be my job to sort of put my finger on, like a stitch that needed holding.

And I was listening to them all telling stories, exchanging information and having a safe place to talk about the things that were happening to them. And I think that's a quite powerful thing, that stories are the way we connect with each other, but also can enlighten us. They can make us realize our experiences are more common than we thought, you know. And I think that can be powerful, especially when I think we see all over the world that so many bad things can happen when people can disrupt the flow of information, when they can control who knows what. That's how misinformation spreads. That's how people are kept in the dark and therefore powerless. You know knowledge is it might be painful and exhausting, but it's also power. Knowledge is power.

Absolutely. I also like the story being a queer feminist fairytale, like it's a queer reimagining of One Thousand and One nights. Would you say that Jerome's character is also part of the queer element in question?

Yes. I mean, I think it's very open to interpretation in Isabel's graphic novel. Obviously, it's a silly film. And so in some ways it's not that deep, it's not that serious, and in other ways, it's quite an angry film, and quite serious. And one of the things that is kind of serious about underneath it all is that everyone is suffering in that world, including Jerome, and I think it's quite up in the air.

We know that he ignores Cherry and isn't interested in her. And I think I did lean into the camp, because I'm a silly guy but I think whether your sexuality is just that you're not that interested in sex, or that you want to have sex with men, or you don't fit into this, like very rigid whatever. Whatever's going on with Jerome, he doesn't fit into what the expectations of him are.

I couldn't tell whether this is a matter of sexual incompetence, or if he is actually one of the queers in question. I thought maybe him and Cherry were going to bond over that.

Well, I think people can react so many different ways to suffering, right? I wanted to humanize him as well. He's not interested in his wife, and he's desperate. Everyone in the film is desperate. Actually, that's what that world creates. And desperation can be like, funny and silly, but also kind of, tragic as well. And yeah, we've all felt desperation at some point, maybe not literally all of us, but I kind of think all of us, yeah.

So let's talk about the casting. I think you got a brilliant ensemble cast, and I got to talk about how they're just all so unexpected casting choices for the most part. Let's start with Maika Monroe, because everything I've seen her in before that were horror projects. And so what is it about her that made you think she should be Cherry?

When I met with Maika, I was really drawn to her. The way she, as well as being an amazing actor, I was also just really drawn to her as a person and the dry sense of humor she had, which maybe she hadn't yet flexed as much in in her films, even though I think horror can sometimes sit beside comedy.

You know that desperation we were talking about, but I think that someone with a horror background was so great for Cherry because she's kind of living what's going on like a thriller. You know, the stakes are so high for her, even receiving attention feels dangerous, and wanting things feels dangerous. You know, not wanting things feels dangerous.

It's a world where the parameters are so narrow. She’s in this castle with this mysterious suitor, her husband has just gone away saying he's going to take care of her, and when it becomes clear he's interested in her, there’s the feeling that I think a lot of women can relate to: If I turn him down, I might be in trouble. And if I do anything, I'm screwed. There's really no way for me to do, do anything, right, in this scenario. And you know, sort of like, don't be a tease, don't be easy.

And that sort of eternal millions of ways that you can make a suitor angry with you, make your husband angry with you. And so, for me, she's living in her own kind of horror, you know, and Maika’s ability to communicate that tension in her body language and her facial expressions, I thought, would make for a really compelling Cherry, because it's not an easy role. You basically have to have a warm heart and all this potential, but you have to kind of be terrified all the time. You know, it's not, it's not easy.

Let's talk about Amir El-Masry. Our very own. I feel so happy for him that he's part of this movie, because, I'm also Egyptian.

I know he's, like, so famous in Egypt that he can barely walk down the street. I didn't hear this from Amir. He is very modest, but I've heard from other people.

I love that for him. I don't think I've ever seen him in some in a character like play a character like Jerome, this absolute a-hole. So tell me why you chose to cast him in that one.

Um, well, I guess because I didn't want Jerome to just be this caricature. Casting someone who was such a brilliant actor and also so likable and lovable. You know, I do feel that Amir is the type of person you would be drawn to. And so it was quite interesting to watch him bury that under villainous behavior. He's so funny, and he's such a likable person that I do think he infused Jerome with that little bit of humanity that that kept him from being just an irredeemable pantomime villain.

Another casting choice that is so interesting to me is Charli XCX. I mean, that is basically her first role ever. Whenever you talked about Charli XCX, you would talk about all her upcoming projects, and they were like, 10 movies on the way, and that was the first one that premiered at a festival. So why did you cast her?

The polish one that she did premiered first.

Actually, they premiered on the same day. So interesting.

Yes, I always wanted to do right by Erupcja. I think Charli was very thoughtful in her approach to acting. She's a huge cinephile, and she'd spoken about the fact that she'd been thinking about this for a while. It was something that she was truly interested in and passionate about.

Her first movies could have been sort of big studio films and cameos and instead, she sort of turned her attention to strange little indies. Now that I know her a bit better, this isn't surprising. I'm really grateful nonetheless. And yeah, she was wonderful to work with.

Did it help that she has Asian origins? Given that One Thousand and One Nights is originally a set of Asian and North African and Middle Eastern stories…

Yes, I mean I definitely wanted to honor Charli's heritage, and also the storytelling tradition, because Isabel created something new with 100 Nights of Hero, and that's what I was working off of, rather than One Thousand and One Nights. But how can you not think of it?

I did want to be very thoughtful about that. If I was doing an homage to, an homage of something, I wanted to include different cultures and different traditions into it, so it has some of my inspiration from Ukrainian oral storytelling.

What's your favorite Charli XCX song?

What's my favorite Charli song? Oh, that's a tricky one. Of her new work, I really love Sympathy Is a Knife. It just gives me a lot of dopamine.

So Nicholas Galitzine, I also want to know about his casting. He doesn't always play such mischievous and evil roles.

I wanted to cast someone who, who was appealing enough that we might actually be concerned that he would win this bet, and when I met Nicholas, and when I saw his projects, I saw him in everything from ‘The Craft’ to ‘Bottoms’ to ‘Marry and George’ and it became clear to me that he has chemistry with everyone. He has this dark, weird sense of humor. He's just really fun. He wants to do this. He wants to do more weird things, and he was just really game. And I had absolutely no doubt that he would be the perfect Manfred.

I think he was in his He-Man physique at the same time, right? Did that help?

He was training. We’re actually quite early in his metamorphosis. But it was definitely happening. And I know this because they get worried. They're like “he's gonna keep changing... the measurements!”. He would end most of our conversations really apologetically, being like, "Well, I have to go and work out now”, so that became a kind of inspiration for Manfred, seeing how easily Nick could do tons of push-ups, maybe once. That was just directly from his seizing the moment with his He-Man training.

Which man do you think is worse? Manfred or Jerome?

Oh, that's hard. I mean, I feel sorry for everybody in this. Even when I think that these people are wrong.

Weirdly, I think that they're kind of as bad as each other. Everybody has a story that could make you cry, like a villain origin story where you're like, “I'm so sorry that happened to you, and it's no excuse for the damage that you inflicted”.

I think they're both as bad as each other, because they both have reasons, right? So, like, Jerome's in this pressure cooker, and there's this idea that he's going to be ruined. Nobody thinks they're the bad guy right in his head. Oh, like, “I'll disgrace my family”. And I feel like Manfred has that thing by the end where he is changed.

He's altered. Not enough. I guess it's only been 100 nights. Who knows what would have happened if he'd had years? Like, he feels bad about it, right? He feels guilty. But the result is the same. You know, he's still going to choose his own comfort. And so, you know, there's that feeling of “but I'm better because I'm doing the same thing but I feel terrible about it”.

If you were a single shot in a movie, what would it be? What would the shot look like? I want you to make something up.

Oh, my god, is this a question that you guys ask?

We do because we're A Shot.

Oh, God, I should have prepared for this. I am so sorry. I think that if I were a single shot in a film, it would probably be someone tripping over and grabbing on to something just in time. Like an action shot where I strip over my own foot but grab onto something just in time. That's how I feel right now.

Your next projects. Can you tell me about them?

Um, there's a couple of things that I like. It's a bit too early to talk about. But some genre, it looks like some character led genre. Um, I'm hoping to to do something set now. never done the film set in the present. I would quite like to do that.

Is that the short or the next feature? Because I know you like taking a “short” break.

Yes, yes. I think this one's going to be a feature, but I'm always, always open to a good short. I think I love the freedom that they give you.

Julia Jackman’s ‘100 NIGHTS OF HERO’ is now available on VOD.