I really wanted to do the part from the beginning so I was into it. And I, along the way, thought at times I wasn’t going to get it. So for me, he put me through a long process and by the time he cast me, I think he was pretty sure he wanted me to play the part. And in wanting me to play the part, I think he accepted that he wanted me for me and for the things I had inside of me. He saw that there were things that probably other people, other directors, hadn’t seen before and he wanted to push. Just the idea of wanting me for everything that I could give, that I could just do whatever I want and not be wrong, gave me the opportunity to go to a place where I think - in knowing that you’re a stable enough human being - that whatever choice you make is going to be okay. I feel that’s part of what being or becoming a man is, in knowing that the choices that you make, you have a good enough conscious time to do that, whatever you do will be alright. And that’s what Sam sort of like ushered me into.
I think he kind of ushered me into not pretending to be something that I wasn’t or putting on something that I thought I should be. It was just purely like, ‘Oh, you’re doing that? That’s fine, but I see maybe there’s more there.’ You know in many, many scenes he would say to me, ‘How do you want to this? We could shoot your coverage first or we could shoot something else. We could do their coverage first, we can come back, how are you feeling? What do you feel? What are you actually feeling?’ You know, not ‘I’m going to force you into my agenda.’
And in doing that, it kind of forced me to see me for who I was. I wasn’t putting on anything for him or anyone else and that made me grow up immediately. And on top of all that, there was the physical stuff of just pushing my body to a limit where it had never been pushed before.
Then there was also just being around a lot of people who I really respected and looked up to. People like Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, who are in my opinion, really admirable men. And also our military advisors who are, to me, people who have been and seen some really incredible and awful things and are still kind, caring, really cool people and particular grown ups. So I just looked up to all them, and the things they did I tried to emulate at times. Then it was just a process of growing up. Sam opened me up to that. It’s weird because I think on movie sets, people tend to act immaturely, or they’re allowed to. Sam would actually ask for the opposite so we just, that’s how it went.”
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Newfound Respect for People in the Military: “I started off without a doubt, I started off with a judgment - as probably anybody does who hasn’t had any experience in anything but has a point of view of it. I think I always connected the military with the administration and after being involved with a lot of guys, and I only speak for the marines really because that’s who we played… Right now to give you an example, if anyone’s like, ‘Oh I can’t really see you playing in the Army.’ I’m like, ‘No, I wasn’t in the Army.’ It really makes me upset and before I would have been like, ‘Yeah, whatever. Yeah,’ and now it really gets to me. I’m automatically like, “I play a Marine and there’s a difference.’
To me that’s where I came from and where I went to was like, I realized that, I guess I just thought there was a kind of innocence or like a non-choice. And it’s very clear that there really isn’t and there is a choice in it, and that it’s a pretty extraordinary place. The things that I learnt just from the peripheral of it, just being near the people who have been involved in the military of any kind like, just what I learned from that and how it made me realize things about myself. I can’t imagine what really happens when you’re in it. So just a profound respect in the end, and I think it’s a shock to my mother who has her own judgments and I think rightfully so, as everybody should and does, you know?”
Page 2: Jake Gyllenhaal on His Passion for "Jarhead" and Losing a Tooth During Filming
