It would be hard to find a more serious and articulate observer of his profession than Jake Gyllenhaal. He answers every question with deep consideration and is keenly aware of the elevated status of actors in the context of modern celebrity culture. But he also believes in the importance of film in its ability to reach people and explore the human condition, significant issues and critical events.
A sumptuous stint of commercial successes on the big screen culminating in last year’s Spider-Man: Far from Home, it looks as though it’s set the 39-year-old actor up for something of a hiatus, certainly when you look at the producer duties now coming to the fore. In an industry laid low by the Coronavirus outbreak, Gyllenhaal has movies Relic, The Devil All The Time, Good Joe Bell and Breaking News in Yuba County all in the offing.
And yet his acting commitments carry on too – there is action thriller The Division, mystery Rio and crime thriller Finest Kind, with all three in pre-production.
Gyllenhaal has also switched back to theatre mode in playing the lead role in Sunday in the Park with George at the Savoy Theater, albeit this is another project that looks as if it will be delayed given the proposed June 2020 start. Regardless, Gyllenhaal is open, reflective and honest about the interjections and inspirations that pattern his creative fertility. As a dedicated investor in the spirit of someone fully-fledged in a role, the 39-year-old son of Hollywood director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner – has an unconventional talent, across Zodiac, Prisoners, Nightcrawler and Stronger we should undoubtedly all cherish.
STRIPLV: Is fighting convention something you’ve tried to do during your life and career? GYLLENHAAL: I think we’re all always fighting convention in a way or we’re not, and then we succumb to that. Ultimately all that matters is what you, as an individual believe in regardless of what other people tell you you should believe. I guess in a way, that’s something I’m trying to do as an artist, but all humans beings should be doing that because if we did, we’d have a totally different world. STRIPLV: You have always been willing to push yourself to the limit in films like Nightcrawler, Southpaw and Everest. Is that something that you feel driven to do? GYLLENHAAL: I’ve always been anxious to challenge myself as much as possible. I’ve never wanted to do things that were easy or too comfortable. They feel that that’s the way you grow as an individual because you’re forcing yourself to exit your comfort zone. For me, life is all about discovery and risk and exploring new aspects of yourself as well as the world in general. STRIPLV: Does that sometimes mean you take things too far? GYLLENHAAL: (Smiles) I’m hardest on myself. I’m very passionate about what I do, and I can’t take the easy way out. I just can’t. Acting offers you an opportunity to find catharsis through the way you express the emotions of your characters and by behaving in ways that you wouldn’t dare to in your own life. STRIPLV: Do you have a natural propensity towards characters that are either extreme or as emotionally complex or conflicted as possible? GYLLENHAAL: I like characters who are as messy and complicated because that’s who we are as humans. It’s much more interesting for me to explore those states of being than playing characters who don’t find themselves under stress or need to face up to serious problems. We’re all struggling in our own particular ways, and we all live in different states of joy, hope, fear, and anxiety. That’s what makes us interesting, and those are the kinds of characters I enjoy portraying. STRIPLV: Is this what you feel is the essence of acting for you? GYLLENHAAL: I love performing, and I am constantly fascinated by getting into a story and exploring what I can do with a character and be able to help tell interesting stories that reveal something about us as human beings. Maybe I’m too idealistic, but it means so much to be to get at the truth of ourselves and use acting as a way of examining human nature. STRIPLV: How would you label yourself as an actor? GYLLENHAAL: I’m not at all interested in becoming the kind of actor who needs to worry about his box-office performance with each film. That defeats the purpose of what you want to accomplish as an actor. Of course, you need to have some sort of standing that enables you to get cast in bigger budget films, but the main goal is to find good stories and directors who have a strong vision and interesting sensibility. I love my work, I love being excited and drawn to it, but I felt I had moved away from the work itself, and I was being asked questions that I didn’t know how to answer. About, you know, life, films, everything. The reason why I started acting was because I deeply love acting. You know, I love storytelling, I really do, and I just felt like I was moving farther and farther away from that idea. And I thought, well where can I find projects and work with people that will allow me to be involved in a way that will fulfill my life, and make me feel like when I’m on my deathbed; I’m going to go “Yeah, like that’s the way I want it to be.” STRIPLV: You’re often identified in the media as a kind of heartthrob. How do you feel about that? GYLLENHAAL: It has nothing to do with me. It’s the media image of me, and it’s not really something that defines who I am. I go to very few public events, and I live very quietly and don’t really do anything that attracts attention to me beyond my work in films and promoting them by doing interviews. STRIPLV: Why do you think it is so difficult for couples to stay in love or commit to relationships once the initial buzz of sexual attraction gives way to something else? GYLLENHAAL: I don’t know, really. That’s the great question that everyone finds themselves trying to answer at different points in their lives. What happens is that sexual and physical attraction is gradually overtaken by deeper emotions and also by practical considerations and decisions. That’s when you have to think very seriously about whether your love for another person is so great that you want to spend serious time with them going forward, or not. Or maybe that the intensity of your feelings is so great that you can’t think straight, and you need to see whether you can live together in one place and find those little ways of accommodating each other’s needs and desires. That’s the challenge, isn’t it? It takes a lot of thinking about. STRIPLV: Speaking of which, do you still follow Buddhist teachings? GYLLENHAAL: It’s something which has enlightened me in many ways. When I started reading about Buddhist philosophy (while making the film Donnie Darko), I saw right away that I had an intuitive grasp and conviction about so many of the same ideas and principles. So I naturally gravitated towards it. It’s not something which I think about as much as I try to follow some of the teachings because I believe in them. I feel I am a better person for trying to be open to simple joys and truths about life and appreciating the beauty in other people. I believe there are a spirit and energy that links us all in some way. STRIPLV: How do you feel you’ve evolved? GYLLENHAAL: I’ve learned to trust myself more and worry less about making the right decisions and being too careful and serious sometimes about my work. I think in general, I’m more relaxed, and I have less apprehensiveness and anxiety about myself and other people in general. There was also this dichotomy between my approach to films and my approach to life. STRIPLV: Your career has seen you play a wide variety of characters. You seem to enjoy both the physical and psychological transformation involved? GYLLENHAAL: I have so much fun creating a character, and I love observing people and all the complexities and oddities of human behavior that inform what I do. I enjoy the kind of creative expression that comes with mimicry. I love exploring human psychology, how we interact with each other, and going beneath the surface of human behavior. As an actor, I like the catharsis that comes with pushing the boundaries of what you ordinarily feel comfortable with doing. My parents encouraged me to express myself and test my limits as far as possible and not take the easy way out. STRIPLV: What’s the biggest kick you get out of acting? GYLLENHAAL: When I play a character, the most interesting and exciting thing for me is being able to express myself very differently and more intensely than I could ever dream of in my own life. It’s also interesting to see yourself actually feeling and behaving the way your character behaves without even being aware of it. I also find that as an individual, I learn so much from looking at the world differently when I work on a film, and I’m seeing things from the perspective of my characters.
STRIPLV: Your colleagues have described you as being very intense when it comes to your work?
GYLLENHAAL: (Laughs) I take my work seriously in ways that people outside the business would never appreciate or find particularly interesting. The thing that really drives me as an actor is my curiosity. I’m far less adventurous in my own life, and my work gives me the ability to exceed my normal boundaries and explore things about myself that I wouldn’t do otherwise. STRIPLV: You’re working more and more on intensely personal kinds of stories like Southpaw or Demolition or Stronger. Is that what drives you now in terms of what you want out of acting? GYLLENHAAL: I need to challenge myself. I usually listen to my instincts and pursue projects that appeal to me artistically as well as personally. I like working with people who share the same vision and artistic approach that I have simply because that makes the process so much more enjoyable. I’ve developed some wonderful creative relationships over the last several years, and I want to keep working with people who help me be as creative and expressive as possible. STRIPLV: After playing Jeff Bauman in Stronger and recreating so much of his traumatic experience at the Boston Marathon, do you feel that your outlook has changed or that you feel more inspired? GYLLENHAAL: Every day, I feel much more grateful for everything I have in life. I’ve changed in a lot of ways because of what I’ve learned and experienced from meeting Jeff and understanding what he’s been through. On a very basic level you feel foolish if you complain about little things that are so unimportant and trivial. Also, when I feel tired or annoyed by something, there’s not a moment now where I don’t see how absurd it is to dwell on minor things if I compare any of that to the level of pain, especially physical pain, that Jeff suffered. You see things very differently.