Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the finest actors working today. There’s no question about that. He’s fully capable of doing any sort of role that is thrown his way. While many know him for his award-winning dramatic work, he’s also very capable of doing comedy. (I mean, check out this clip from “The Sack Lunch Bunch,” it’s fucking hilarious.) And apparently, in his younger years, he auditioned for a role that could have made him a premier comedic actor in “Zoolander.”
Speaking to Esquire as part of a 20th-anniversary celebration of the comedy film, “Zoolander,” director and star Ben Stiller talked about how a young Jake Gyllenhaal auditioned for the role of Hansel in the film. For people who have seen “Zoolander,” you know the role eventually went to Owen Wilson, who really delivered a memorable performance in the film as a duncey model guy opposite Stiller’s equally dim title character.
“The only one that I remember clearly was a young Jake Gyllenhaal doing this wide-eyed version of Hansel that was really funny,” said Stiller.
While it’s unclear if we’ll ever get to see this audition clip, you can definitely imagine a 2001-era Gyllenhaal attempting to do the Hansel character, right? This was the same year that the actor starred as the title character in the bonkers comedy film, “Bubble Boy.” Clearly, Gyllenhaal was positioning himself as a go-to funny guy.
Another role that was almost very different is Will Ferrell’s Mugatu, which was almost performed by Andy Dick of all people. The only reason Dick wasn’t involved is because of the actor’s commitment to a TV project he was working on. So the call went out to Ferrell.
“Andy Dick was supposed to play Mugatu,” Still explained. “Now it’s impossible for me to picture anybody but Will doing it.”
While you can’t really find many instances of Gyllenhaal doing comedy in recent years, you can see him act the hell out of the lead role in the upcoming Netflix feature, “The Guilty,” which hits the streaming service on October 1.
Again, to see 2001-era Gyllenhaal, check out the trailer for “Bubble Boy”—it’s something…