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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.

-Jake Gyllenhaal

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Being The Youngest, I

Jake Gyllenhaal

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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.

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I Don't Have A "i Want To Play This Or That," I Just Don't Have That. I've Never Been Like That.

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I Think That I Have Done Work Where I Feel Like I've Challenged Myself, And Then What's Even More Confusing Is I've Done Work Where I Think I've Challenged Myself And No One's Responded To It, And No One's Interested In It.

Everybody Is An Actor In One Way Or Another. We Are All Performing Certain Things.

It's Daunting Trying To Do Any Service As An American To Such A Beautiful, Fluid Speech Pattern That You [british] All Have. We Are Just Barbarians In Comparison.

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In That Way, As An Actor In Particular, You're Powerless. And So In That Way As An Actor In Particular You Can't Make Mistakes.

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.

Working With Jim Sheridan For Instance, We Did This Movie Brothers. Jim Will Ask Anybody - We'll Get A Delivery On Set, And Like The Poor Delivery Guy Will Be Like, "here's Your Pizza," And He'll Be Like, "come Over Here. Come Here. I Want To Ask You A Question. Do You Think This Is Real? What Do You Think? Should We Do Another Take?" And They're Like, "i, Uh, You Want Your Pizza?" There's No Shame In Everybody's Ideas. There's No Shame In Somebody Not Knowing.

I Was Trying To Figure Out Where My Intellect, If I Really Have One, Where It Fit. And So I Was Searching. I Really Didn't Know Who I Was Or What I Really Wanted To Be, And In That Search, Like I Think You Do As An Actor, You End Up Trying To Define Whatever That Is, And I Sort Of Said, "oh Well, Searching Spiritually In A Way Is Interesting, And Eastern Religion Seems To Be About A Search."

I Started To Realize I Love Study, I Love The Study Of Human Behavior.

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.

As An Actor, No Matter What, You're At The Whim Of So Many Other People All The Time.

I Have Always Had A Deep Belief That Every Movie, Every Artistic Expression, Is Political. Don't Be Fooled. Even Ones That We Wouldn't Consider Overtly Political Are Political. When We Spend Time Doing Anything, Whether It's Distraction Or Whether It's Something That We Have To Face, It Is Always Political. That's My Belief.

It's Amazing How The World Has Changed Because, At That Time [2005], A Lot Of Actors Didn't Want To Play A Gay Role.

There Are Standards. I Like To Be Prepared, I Guess I Should Say - That Type Of Pressure Of, "all Right, Now You Go With Abandon," You Know. Now When You're In It, You Let Go Of All The Things - That's What Happens When You're Onstage.

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I've Become Obsessed With Learning Other Languages In Movies, Because I Was Like, Since I Was Like, But I Learned How To Box So Why Don't I Just Learn Another Language For A Movie?

I'm Always Nervous About It. You Know, Somehow, Without Even Knowing It, I Try And Recreate The Idea Of What It Feels Like To Go In Front Of An Audience Every Night When I'm Making A Film. And That Similar Type Of Pressure And Excitement Before A Scene, Or Preparing For A Movie, So...

I Understand The Opposite Side Of The Camera. I Have A Profound Respect For That. I Have Worked With People Who, When You Hit That Mark, Are Doing 50 Percent Of Your Work For You. So, You Know, It's A Balance. When You Walk Into A Mark And You're Lit A Certain Way Or Something's Happening So Often You Don't Know What's Behind You... And That's What's So Strange About Being A Movie Actor.

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I Remember Chris Cooper Saying To Me - I Was Doing October Sky With Him - And He Said, "you Know, You're Just Yelling At Me." He's Like, "you're Just Yelling. You Need To Listen." We Were In A Fight, And You Know, Oh You'd Get So Excited As An Actor, You're Like, "we Have A Fight, Oh, I Get To Get Mad." And He Just Said, "you Need To Listen." And I Started Listening - And Then All Of A Sudden Where I Was Listening Was Where, I Don't Know, Anger Became Something Else.

It's Funny To Me That People Find Other People Getting Coffee Really Interesting, Or Walking Their Dog In The Dog Park.

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I Remember Watching Meryl Streep In, The River Wild. There's This Scene Where She's Has A Gun Pointed At Her, It's Absurd In A Lot Of Ways. Someone Pulls A Gun On Her I Think, I'm Not Really Fully Aware Of The Scene And She Just, She Starts, You See Her Terrified. And Then All Of A Sudden She Starts To Burst Out Laughing. She Starts Laughing. Like She Can't Stop Laughing. Because She's Terrified And She's Emotional And There Are No Rules To What You're Supposed To Feel. That To Me Is Like A Number One, That's The Thing I Have To Remind Myself All The Time.

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I Try And Find And Access The Parts Of Myself That Still Blindly Believe And Have Faith In A Lot Of Things. I Don't Mean To Be Cynical, But I've Also Discovered That I Still Have A Lot Of Those. And They May Not Be Where I Expected Them To Be. Maybe I've Been In Relationships, And This Is A Movie About Relationships, Like Romance Relationships - So Maybe I've Been In Some That Have Sort Of Made Me Lose My Faith. But Deep Down Inside, I Still Have Blind Faith.

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Brokeback Mountain

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 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.

I Hope That When The World Comes To An End, I Can Breathe A Sigh Of Relief, Because There Will Be So Much To Look Forward To

I Don't Think I've Made A Mistake. I Think I Have Behaved In Ways That I Am Proud Of; I Think I've Behaved In Ways I'm Not.

Romance Is Important, But To Have A Friend You Can Use As A Mirror, Who Can Give You An Objective Response, That's What's Really Important.

I Think I Find Tactile Things, You Know. Just The Feeling Of Blood Itself Is Enough For Me. If You, Even If It's Not Real Blood. I Mean That's Enough, Like Sometimes There Are Very Simple Things That Are Enough.

Every Journey Starts With Fear.

My Mom Would Always Say This Thing About Writing - And I've Taken It Into Account In A Lot Of Things In My Life - Which Is Just, "make It Shorter." Figure Out What You Are Truly Saying, Whittle It Down To The Essence, Then Say That.

I Fooled Around With Heath Ledger And Michelle Williams Got Pregnant.

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I Like The Idea Of The Adventurer's Spirit. I Think That Is Very Much What A Man Searches For, In A Certain Way.

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I Walk Around Thinking Job To Job, Trying To Not Have Regrets.

Really, Contrary To Popular Belief, I Like To Have A Good Time And Not Take Myself Too Seriously.

Having A Good Time

I Don't Think I'm Sharp Enough To Not Prepare And Come On Set And Kill It.

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I Always Find You Go Back To An Animal; It Will Always Show You The Sort Of Primal Aspects Of Behavior. You Always Know How To Respond If You Choose That.

Peter Sarsgaard, He's An Extraordinary Actor, And I Would Say That Peter Has Really Brought Into My Life And My Sister's Life A Sense Of Presence As An Actor That I Never Really Understood Or Knew About Until I Met Him. They've Been Together For A Very Long Time, And He Introduced Me To The Idea Of The Presentation.

I Think, Now, Younger Generations Do Take That For Granted In A Lot Of Ways. I Don't Think That Takes Away From The Struggle Of Identity And What That Is. But The Struggle For Identity Is Everybody's Struggle. No Matter What It Is.

On A Spiritual Level, On A Place Where You Want To Be A Better Human Being And Listen More, I Try. I Joke, But It Has. I Mean, I Don't Consider Myself A Card-carrying Buddhist, You Know. But I Do Believe Deeply In The Ideas, And I Think Anytime You Have Interest In Anything, It Somehow Humbles You.

What World Am I Living In?' Aren't Movies Made To Have Something To Say? Why Make A Movie If You Don't Have Something To Say? What Are You Doing It For? Are You Doing It Because You Want To Make A Lot Of Money?

I Wasn't Really Quite Sure Where Heath Ledger Came From, And I Think That's The Feeling Most People Got When They Were Around Him And Why He Was So Extraordinary.

In Work, Never Have Any Regrets And Always Leave Everything On The Field.

I Like That When You Create You Really Do Create With A Very Small Group Of People, And In That Space, Before It Goes Out To All These People, That's What I Love.

There Are A Lot Of Different Things That Are Spinning And Connecting When Your Family Sees What You Do.

There Are Lines That Just Stick With Me, Like I Mean I Still Can Remember It's Like Every Line That I Say From Nightcrawler, I Mean It's Just Always There.

We Are All From Different Cultures. Heath's [ledger] Australian, Really. I'm From Here. Ang's [lee] From China. But I Think Ang Gets Very Close In Preproduction And Rehearsals. And Then He Allows His Actors - I Don't Think Scared Of Actors, But I Think He's Scared Of Getting In On The Scenes He's Watching. The Space He's Watching. So He Just Totally Disconnects From You While You're Shooting.

I'm A Harsh Critic, You Know? I Am.

I'm Open To Whatever People Want To Call Me.

You Can’t Just Lump Things Into Two Categories. Things Aren’t That Simple.

I Admire Actors And Artists Who Devote Just As Much Time To Their Life As They Do To Their Work.

What Made Me Most Courageous Was That I Realized I Had To Try To Let Go Of That Stereotype I Had In My Mind, That Bit Of Homophobia, And Try For A Second To Be Vulnerable And Sensitive. It Was F**kin' Hard, Man. I Succeeded Only For Milliseconds.

I Think Also What's Interesting Is That Maggie [gyllenhaal] Knows How Much The Choices That I Make Reflect What's Going On In My Life. Admittedly, Probably, As My Sister, And As Someone Who Loves Me - Like, She Can't Wait To See Become A Father.

I Get Off On The Interaction With People, And I Love The Chess Of A Movie And Particularly - Not Only In Preproduction Or In Production Or Postproduction - The Behavioral Chess. That Is, Learning And Being Humbled By And Also Teaching Certain People Certain Things. I Love That. As A Producer, You Have An Opportunity To See The Whole And Bring People Together.

You Know, It's Flattering When There's A Rumor That Says I'm Bisexual. It Means I Can Play More Kinds Of Roles. I'm Open To Whatever People Want To Call Me. I've Never Really Been Attracted To Men Sexually, But I Don't Think I Would Be Afraid Of It If It Happened.

But You Need To Strive To Try And Communicate And Try And Change Things In A Similar Way. And Then People Can Think That's Pretentious Or Whatever, But It's Your Life's Work, And You've Decided That. That's What They Made Us Believe. So We Have A Pretty High Standard, Which Is At Times Great And At Times Not.

A Separation Is Another Film That I Think Is Extraordinary, And One Of Those Things That Feels Like It's From Another Planet, Much Like Terrence Malick's Movies Did: At A Certain Point, You Feel Like He's An Alien From Another Planet Telling Us And Looking At Us And Showing Us How We Are. I Also Really, Really Love Jerry Mcguire.

I Also Think Within The Scene, A Specific Scene - If I Were To Play A Part That I Played 10 Years Ago Now, My Interpretation Of That Scene Would Be Totally Different. I Would Be Making Different Choices. Because I Can't Somehow Subtract All Of The Experiences That I've Had In My Life. And It's Fascinating To See, Because Somewhere I'm Very Reflective In That. You Know, I've Been Playing Basically Actually Close To 40 Years Old, So I'm Somewhere Lost In Age In This Movie. But It's Been Fascinating To See That I Can't Subtract That Time.

Theater Has Given Me A Different Perspective On The Way I Approach Films.

I'm A Very Political Person, And I Make Political Choices In My Movies.

To Me Donnie Darko Was About Adolescence. And About How, As Soon As You Start To Grow Up And You Sort Of Move Out Into The World, You Realize Everything Is So Trippy. That Anything Can Be Anything.

The Truth Is Most Of The Films That Make A Lot Of Money No One Remembers, And I'm Not Interested In Making Films That No One Remembers.

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.

Heath [ledger] Would Walk Up To A Horse And Could Like Silence The Horse. Just Literally He'd Be Like, 'shh. Shh.' And Then He'd Get On The Horse. I'd Be Like, 'i'm Going To Get On You.' They'd Be Like, 'f - Off!' I Didn't Really Have That Style.

I Love 'training Day' - That's A Great Movie.

At Columbia There's No Performing Arts Department, So I Was Searching For It Everywhere I Could, And I Took Some Photography Classes And I Ended Up Becoming Fascinated With Eastern Religion, And Ultimately It Seemed To Encompass The More Abstract Mind That I Have.

I Want, Overall, To Trust What I Know Is Right. There Have Been Many Times When I Haven't.

I Like The Conscious Manipulation That A Great Director Can Have. When You're Both Complicit In The Manipulation Of An Emotion.

I Think My Strength Is To Do A Take All The Way Through. I Am Definitely Not Someone Who Can Do A Sprint. Maybe I Am Not That Smart, But It Takes Me A While To Find The Moment, And I Like To Be Pushed Toward It.

I'm More Baskin-robbins Style Myself.

Do I Take Care Of My Body And Take Conditioning Seriously? Yes.

Ang Lee Just Allowed Me To Make What We Would Call Mistakes And Had No Judgment Of Them. He Also Empowered Me. You Know, He's Like, "you're My Actor. I Chose You. Whatever You Do Is Right." Right? "i Made The Decision, I'm Complicit In Choosing You. And I Went Through Everything I Could To Choose You, So I Feel Good And Whatever You're Going To Do I'm Going To Give You This Space." And So It Was Very Empowering.

I Don't Think I Had Any Idea At The Time How To Work With Someone As Masterful As He Is. And I Don't Think At The Time I Really Understood What Was Happening. I Think I Was In A Space Where I Was Like: There Are All These Things. I Was Shooting All These Takes With David, And I Was Just Confused, As A Person, And As An Actor Feeling A Little Too Big For My Britches And That This Thing Was Happening And Then Also Not Having Enough Skill Yet, And Technique To Know Exactly Where I Was, And Know About The Character.

I Have A Mentor. I Have... Guides. I Have A Lot Of Guides. Not A Lot, But People Whose Opinions I Really Respect And Who I Will Turn To.

I Think You Hear A Lot Of People Say 'i Support The Troops' And All Of That, But I Really Feel Deeply That I Do.

When I Walk Into A Screening, I'm Nervous In A Different Way Than I Am As An Actor. But The Response Is Ultimately I Know How I Feel About It And That's What Matters To Me The Most.

By Cool, I Don't Mean Cool. I Mean Vulnerable And A Mess.

I Was Brought Up, And My Sister Too, With Two People Who Were Always Saying, "what You Do Is Really Nowhere Near As Important As The Things That Are Going On In The World, And If Your Work Needs To Reflect That, Or You Want It To, Then You Need To Strive For A Certain Type Of Excellence."

People Say To Me, Well "what's The Character You Really Want To Play?" And I Go, I Don't Know.

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