Jake Gyllenhaal On ‘Letting Go Of The Cynic In Me’ For ‘Stronger’ [Interview]

TORONTO – There is a theory I have about interviewing famous people which I probably tell too much. It tends to come up in conversation when someone asks about such and such a well known actress or actor.  As a journalist for some time and having interviewed literally hundreds of  industry talent (perhaps over 1,000 different subjects) I’ve recognized there are three different types of people you tend to meet.

The first is someone who doesn’t forget that you’ve interviewed them five or six times before.  That likely means you’ve sat with them for over 30 minutes on a hotel rooftop deck or a interview suite on numerous occasions talking about different projects. Or maybe you spent an hour or so shooting the shit in between takes on set in the middle of a forest or desert.  These tend to be pretty genuine people who don’t pretend they don’t know you no matter how famous they’ve become because, well, I mean, they are actually regular human beings.

The second is someone who absolutely knows who you are, but pretends it’s the first time they’ve met you.  Sure, they’re friendly and polite, but they clearly want a professional line of demarcation to note any potential familiarity.  Honestly, considering some of the crazy stalking fans and celebrity journalists who make the lives of some stars hell this doesn’t really bother me that much. It’s only annoying when the subject you’re interviewing has a reputation for being “incredibly down to earth” and clearly isn’t what he or she seems in the public eye.

The third, sadly, are just actors who are so dumb they simply don’t remember that you’ve chatted with them once a year for the past five or six years. You’re lost in the shuffle of too many different faces and places. Not much more I can say about that.

It goes without saying that Jake Gyllenhaal is of the first variety.*  He never pretends you haven’t spoken to him just three months before for another film. When he enters the room to talk about his role in David Gordon Green’s “Stronger” its with the same familiarity as our conversation last November about “Nocturnal Animals” and “Okja.”  And it should be apparent in the context of our Q&A below.

*For those curious, other actors in this category include Amy Adams, Tilda Swinton, Ben Affleck and Octavia Spencer, just to name a few. Oh, and directors, screenwriters and producers?  Please, they almost always remember.

“Stronger” tells the story of Jeff Bauman, a survivor of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing that killed three people and left 16 amputees. Bauman had been waiting at the finish line for his on again, off again girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany) to finish when the explosion ended up eviscerating his legs.  The film follows his struggle to recover which is hindered by a mother (Miranda Richardson) and family who seem more interested than taking advantage of the PR opportunities than he is.  Bauman’s story has a number of unexpected twists and Gyllenhaal an awards-worthy performance as a man who simply can’t decide if he can be the “hero” everyone thinks he is.

For those who have an aversion to any potential spoilers of any kind it should be noted our conversation covers a number of specific scenes in the film.
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Gregory Ellwood:  Hey man. How you doing?

Jake Gyllenhaal:  Nice to see you.

You surviving?

Yeah, I’m surviving. I’m doing more than that. I just feel like … I don’t know what it is.

Whirlwind?

I don’t know. You know, it’s always that feeling. It’s the press junket [malaise]. It’s like the scariest thing ever, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It’s like it’s sort of inexplicable. It’s just this sort of thing, you know? It’s like people are like “Are you tired?” I’m like “That’s not the feeling.” You know? Like “How are you feeling about the excitement for the movie?” That’s not the feeling either. I don’t know what it is. Somehow life intervenes and just drains everything from you at the same exact time, so you’re left in a state of …I don’t even know what it is. It’s a very special feeling that only we all know about, right?

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Only writers who, like journalists who are at a film festival and see a 100 in a week or …

Exactly.  I’m on fumes myself but I’ve got to talk to you about “Stronger”! (Laughs.) I was blown away by your performance. It was not what I was expecting at all. I was talking to another critic when we came out of the movie and they said”What surprised me, it was the most un-schmaltzy movie for a movie that you think going into it would be.” So when someone pitches you this what told you this what told you it was going to be different from most biopics?

Nobody told me it wasn’t going to be that. We just were determined to get as close to the truth as we could in the context of a story that particularly even the media has made into that kind of inspirational story, which it is, but I think we knew. I always thought it’s a fine line. It’s just a very fine line because some of the things that happened in reality are hard to believe even, to put in a movie and they really happened. I mean Carlos [the man who dragged Jeff to safety] and his whole story can be a movie on its own. But, I think, for me, I’m trying to move to a place more where I let go of the cynic in me. You know? And Jeff has really helped me in that journey because he’s the kind of guy who really does believe in something pretty deep and really does inspire people, but has been through such an unfathomable experience and through such pain, both physically and mentally, and yet, still holds on to that idea. That, I feel like, in art films or in certain type of film that I also move towards, I gravitate towards, there’s a sort of cynicism that I believe in, but I’m starting to explore something else too. So, merging those two ideas was what this movie was for me and what was interesting was: “Can you believe in the idea of a hero? Do you think that that idea can really exist in this space?” ‘Cause movies have always told you it’s like this or it’s like that.  Also, I knew my what would make me cringe.  And so did David. We watched movies that we were inspired by. We watched, like “Milk”…

That’s a good example, yeah.

Right? And particularly the way that movie was shot where Harris Savides, the absolute brilliant Harris Savides, and obviously Gus Van Sant, but Harris just because he’s no longer with us. You know? The way he shot that film was these moments that could’ve been shot at a very obvious way, were shot from afar. He stayed in one shot in these moments. So, we talked a lot about and then we tried to translate that into performance as well.