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've had a lot of people say to me after the film, to my surprise, 'Thank you for making it. It's made a social impression, and that social impression to me is the aftermath of an artistic impression, and so much more important.
I could draw ideas. I remember writing a paper for a seminar class. I remember writing a paper about - and this is going to sound really sort of pretentious, but that's where my mind was at the time - how acting and the performing artist can really be like a Bodhisattva, how they can communicate ultimately an idea in a way that can move and shift things. And that was wonderful. I didn't know many classes where I could try and relate the thing that I really loved and wanted to do into an intellectual idea, and that happened to be one of them.
Being the youngest, I constantly have that insecurity of being the youngest, which ultimately is probably my drive. in a lot of ways. In terms of as an artist, the way we could communicate as a family very clearly was through movies and through acting, and when things became complicated with all of our own personalities, that's where we are most clear. I think that's also where we are most brutal with each other as well.
I admire actors and artists who devote just as much time to their life as they do to their work.
I love artists. I love watching other people work.
The sheep were interesting. They were the easiest thing. They just naturally herd, and they are naturally stupid.
Ang was great ... because he would set up situations and then let me and Heath decide what to do within the space Ang created.
Ang Lee is fierce in his timidity, his humbleness and his respect for everyone around him. He's frustrating and so damn wise.
There's inevitably a lot of talk about things like that,
You get to see the actors put through the wringer.
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.
My character's the one that kind of initiates these sexual encounters, which to me was, like, totally foreign.
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,