Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California) is an American film actor and brother to actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.
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- Being a star doesn't last. That's not what life should be about. It's a complete illusion that really has nothing to do with you. For me, finding out about life is the most important thing.
- 1999, Raygun
- 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.
- The question of identity to me, whether it's sexual or whatever it is, is what makes this movie so powerful. That's why I did it. My own struggle with who I am, and who I am to other people, and what masks I put on, is all hopefully interlaced in this character, and it's just kind of put in a different context.
- On the challenging role of Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain http://et.tv.yahoo.com/movies/13227/
Unsourced
- First, it's 'Who is Jake Gyllenhaal?,' then it's 'Get me Jake Gyllenhaal,' then 'Get me someone who looks like Jake Gyllenhaal,' and then 'Who is Jake Gyllenhaal?'...Right now, I'm between 'Who is Jake Gyllenhaal?' and 'Get me Jake Gyllenhaal.'
- On the stages of fame in Hollywood.
- Why not do what you really think, even if it's a mistake?
- Occasionally, I'd pick up the lifeguard buoy and run down the beach Baywatch-style, like something was actually happening.
- There are three things I'll never do again - eat Play-Doh, run with scissors and keep my ice-cube collection in a shoebox.
- Voting is sexy. I think everybody should do it, and I want everybody to do it with me.
- Don't listen to what anybody says except the people who encourage you. If it's what you want to do and it's within yourself, then keep going and try to do it for the rest of your life.
- Someone once said that I was the 'thinking woman's man,' and I was just like, I hope every woman is thinking.
- Films take me to places I never thought I would get to, and over walls that I never thought I could get over. When I think about that it's just... I dunno... I forgot. [...] Let’s be real. I forgot. And I was almost there. It was really gonna be good.
- Accepting his Desert Palm Achievement-Actor award at the Palm Springs Film Festival Gala Awards
- 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.
- We live in a sad time where actors are politicians & politicians are actors.
- It's very important for me to be in movies that don't have a message. Messages tend to be a little preachy, and I don't think that's what movies are about. It's important for me to be in movies that have a human level, have a heart in them. That's the reason why I did this (Rendition) and it just so happens to be really topical. This political issue is a very important one right now which as Americans we need to look at. So it seems like it's (the film) is very political, it seems like there's a message in it, but ultimately there's a real story about human beings dealing with actual human things.
- On why he dislikes films with obvious political messages
- For some reason, ... I just got so angry that I had chipped my tooth ... and just started hitting him and we didn't talk for a month after that.
- On being actually hit with a rifle while making Jarhead.
- I'd have to say Ewan McGregor's part in Moulin Rouge!. It was soooo close. I sang and everything. I went through months of auditions. It was between me, Heath Ledger and Ewan. I think it came down to age and where people were in their careers. I was the youngest and the least known. I would hope it didn't have anything to do with talent. Maybe it did.
- On the one role that got away
- The movies I've been in are full of interesting ambiguity and it's really nice to know that audiences are responding to an ambiguity. They don't always want something totally clear and spoon-fed. I give credit to my generation because I feel like they're really responding somehow to it and it's really cool. Both these movies changed my life in the process of making them.
- On his roles in Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain
- 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 fuckin' hard, man. I succeeded only for milliseconds.
- On his love scenes with Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain
- I'm in the business of helping stories get told, and I love this story. People don't say to me, When you were in Proof, were you afraid to play a mathematician? Or, Was it scary to play a Marine in Jarhead? Why is that?
- On being asked whether it was scary to play a homosexual man in Brokeback Mountain
- I fooled around with Heath Ledger, and Michelle Williams got pregnant.
- Interview about filming Brokeback Mountain, 2006.
- Every man goes through a period of thinking they're attracted to another guy.
- On playing a cowboy who falls for a man in Brokeback Mountain.