Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaalis an American actor. A member of the Gyllenhaal family and the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting as a child with a screen debut in City Slickers, followed by roles in A Dangerous Womanand Homegrown. His breakthrough performance was as Homer Hickam in October Skyand he garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead for playing the title character in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko, in which...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth19 December 1980
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I thought Heath had broken my nose while we were filming that scene. Both Michelle and Ang kept insisting the kiss had to be more fierce, more intense, more passionate, so Heath pushed me against the wall and came in really hard for the kiss.
I think that more and more there's a sense that the best performances I can give are the ones that are the truest to who I am. The further I move away from who I am, the worse they are.
I think something more formulaic was expected. But this movie is not just about the experience of a soldier, but also of a human being. We live in a world that is not always full of action.
We made out, and they had a baby.
I thought I was a long shot, but this was a role I was going to fight for.
Usually, the action's moving so fast, you don't get the opportunity to see the psychology, really,
My character's the one that kind of initiates these sexual encounters, which to me was, like, totally foreign.
That was so scary, the last scene Heath and I shot together. We finally get to say to each other what we want to say, and I was really nervous because there were so many emotions, and both men have been holding so much back. Luckily, the dialogue is so great that it worked out.
For some reason, ... I just got so angry that I had chipped my tooth ... and just started hitting him and we didn't talk for a month after that.
There's always an intellectual side to the films Ang Lee's doing and to the characters, and there's such a deep knowledge when you've worked with the actors that he's worked with, on stage in particular, but also in film.
I think, in the initial process of discovering a character and the analytical process - and this is what I did take from Buddhism - initially I think there has to be an analytical, intellectual approach. And that has to be abandoned by the time you're playing the game.
You run your plays, you know your plays, you study your plays, you study the other team, you do as much as you can, you go to practice, you get in shape, you do what you need to do, and then by the time you get to the game, you know your plays, but they have to feel like they're in your bones. That has to be an unconscious thing, it cannot be conscious. That is everything to me.
I don't want to be lofty when I say this, but I don't know what a success is any more. I know how we define it, but that was a moment where I went, "Wait, who am I?" You could feel the business, in particular, kind of go "He's all right, let's go over here." I started to go, "Wait, I know why I love to do this." I think I got off track in why I love to do it.
I've decided as an actor the only, the power I have really is in the performance. It's the only real place I get to sort of communicate.