Maggie Gyllenhaal - Happy Endings

Jul 16, 2005

Maggie Gyllenhaal has been a SuicideGirls favorite since she starred in the critically acclaimed S & M film, Secretary. Normally when an actor delivers such a spot on performance in a popular movie like that they will get trapped playing those roles over and over again. But due to her diligence and great acting she has consistently turned in great performances in such as films as Mona Lisa Smile, Criminal and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Her latest role is that of Jude, the sexually manipulative free spirited girl in Don Roos Happy Endings. Jude puts herself into a home where she seduces the son of the house in order to live there and ingratiate herself with his very wealthy father.

Check out the official site for Happy Endings

Daniel Robert Epstein: In the past youve said that your roles get under your skin and you start acting like them, did that happen with this role?

Maggie Gyllenhaal: When I say that its not like Im playing a murderer and all of the sudden I feel like killing people. Its subtler than that. I shot my part for this movie in two weeks but sometimes when youre working on something for a long time it can take a while to get over. I made a movie recently where I played a girl that just got out of prison. We shot it very quickly but it was very intense so that took a long time to get over. But with Jude its complicated because I think Jude is really pained but very deep and broken. All of my energy was towards making her survive, making her beautiful, making her sexy and awake so I wouldnt have to focus on her pain so much. I was totally focused on the things inside her that were healthy. So I felt pretty good on this movie plus we were lounging around in this beautiful house in LA. Sometimes when we werent working I would just sit on those folding chairs by the pool. If I took on anything it was the carefree, lovely stuff about her because if I indulged in the other stuff about her it would have been much less healthy.

DRE:

What do you think happens to her?

MG:

I dont know. I feel like I really like made her a real person at least she feels like a real person to me. I see her singing because I think thats the one thing she really grabs onto.

DRE:

Do you think she stays as sexual as she was during this time in her life?

MG:

I really dont know how to answer that. Someone whos 26 or 27 has a very different relationship to sex than someone who is 30. Im not in my 30s yet but I know that Id like to think that she grows.

DRE:

Did you come up with a backstory for Jude?

MG:

I always kind of admonish myself for not doing that more but Ive realized I dont work that literally. But I do have some sense of some of that stuff, but its more unconscious and hazy so things will occur to me. I kind of think she came from the south but Im not sure. Judes kind of hazy so you dont know where shes from, I think I prepared in that way.

DRE:

How was it working with Tom Arnold?

MG:

Someone else could have played his part in the movie and he would have made so many judgments about him and not respected. Such as how hes the older guy who buys girls things. I think that what makes [writer/director] Don Roos characters so compelling. You really respect them and theyre not perfect, but who is?

DRE:

Since Secretary, do you generally get offered overtly sexual characters?

MG:

Most people in the world are interested in seeing 27 year old women in movies somehow connected to sex, especially little movies that have trouble getting made. I think sex is very interesting for most people, but for my life and in my work, Im interested in sex as a way of communication. Im not that interested in the fantasy version of a sex scene where everything is like a softcore porn movie. Im interested in why we communicate this thing through sex. Its another way of talking for some people.

Secretary is about sex and theres a lot of sex in it so that is the key. But at the same time youre talking about a lot of other complicated things. I just worked with Julianne Moore who is in her 40s and includes her sexuality in everything she does and is naked a lot. Diane Lane as well and they both older than me. I think its part of all of our narratives.

DRE:

You did make Casa de los Babys, which isnt about sex

MG:

Its not like Im only compelled to tell stories about sex! [laughs] I was interested in working with John Sayles, I was interested in the politics of it and I was interested in working with the other actresses. In the movie there was something to me that was really compelling about that woman who already knew she couldnt get pregnant. When I made that movie I was 24 years old so to be that age and already know you cant get pregnant, that was really interesting to me. Also to be so much younger than everyone else on the set was an interesting dynamic.

DRE:

You do a lot of independents. Are you planning on doing a blockbuster like your brother did?

MG:

I just made a movie that was much bigger called Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Marc Forster directed. When I first started I thought Im making these movies for me. I didnt care if people saw it. I was younger so I had a different point of view about it. Now I do want people to see my movies, I make them because I believe in what they have to say and I want to have some effect on the way the world works in whatever way I can. I also want to have the power to help get the movies that I think are important made. At the same time, acting is something thats really important to me, so I think it would be really hard for me to do something I didnt believe in.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

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