Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Patrick Healy
Jake Gyllenhaal made a deal with himself 10 years ago: for every three movies he made,he would perform in a play. It was a deal he didnt keep.
Going off to do plays isnt part of the Hollywood fast track for young actors still proving themselves at the box office. So Gyllenhaal tested for the Spider-Man and Batman franchises and other roles that might transform him into an action hero or leading man.
What happened? The critically derided disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow happened. The much-mocked Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time happened. Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac happened. But Gyllenhaal was uneasy.
I wasnt really listening to myself about the kinds of projects I wanted to do, he said recently,reflecting on the past decade. I had to figure out what kind of an actor I wanted to be.
He has now come to a few conclusions,and they were evident last month at a table reading for his first outing in New York theatre,If There Is I Havent Found It Yet,a dark comedy about an overweight British teenager and her troubled family.
Gyllenhaal studied at Columbia University for two years before dropping out to become a movie star,and directors like Ang Lee of Brokeback Mountain,have described him as a freestyle actor more than a methodical one. Gyllenhaal,who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for Brokeback,said he still revels in experimenting with his take on characters from scene to scene. But acting rigour is increasingly his goal.
Around the time I hit 30,I asked myself if I was respecting acting as a craft, he said,and if I was doing the right projects. So now its like I look at acting more as building little delicate cricket cages,with care and more thought.
He recently spent five months observing and training with Los Angeles police officers for his new movie,the September release End of Watch,in which he plays a hotshot cop.
Hollywood hasnt seemed entirely sure what to do with him,and Gyllenhaal sounds at peace with that,saying he wouldnt want to be pigeonholed. Usually young movie stars come to Broadway and choose renowned works; Scarlett Johansson won a Tony for A View From the Bridge,and Katie Holmes played a featured role in All My Sons.
As with End of Watch,Jake Gyllenhaal aggressively pursued a role in this new play,If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet. His character in the play,Terry,is far from a glamorous character,though he has a bad-boy appeal. He turns on a dime in several pivotal scenes with his niece,Anna,who is being bullied at school because of her weight.
The actress playing Anna,Annie Funke,said that the emotional intensity of rehearsals had been eased for her by Gyllenhaals kindness. Recently,she said,they were working on a scene in which Terry is giving Anna a hard time about her weight and sulkiness. Gyllenhaal touched or poked Funke every time he said something to her,to physicalise the psychological effect of taunting. Funke eventually broke down in tears.
I just reached a breaking point because I hadn’t quite realized before,until Jake was poking me,what it felt like to be picked on and bullied and how all of that must make Anna feel, Funke said.
It was Terrys capacity for cruelty that appealed to Gyllenhaal most of all. The intentions of Terry are very different from anything Ive played before,especially his vicious side, he said. I want to come home at the end of the day and be wiped out and feel I’ve torn my heart out from acting and feel fulfilled.
