Four moments that made Jake Gyllenhaal

Brut America

From playing a scarecrow in the "Wizard of Oz" to his iconic role in "Donnie Darko," here are 4 moments that changed Jake Gyllenhaal's life.

Transcript

00:00That was a moment where I felt,

00:02oh, this feels right to me somewhere in my bones.

00:13I think there was a period of time

00:15where it got me attention at the dinner table

00:17when I could mimic or I could perform,

00:19and I went, oh, that's fun.

00:21I like that feeling of making people laugh.

00:23I was very young, probably six or something,

00:26and I played like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz,

00:30and I remember being able to,

00:31I felt comfortable on a stage,

00:34like, with the energy going back and forth.

00:37I think if I really think about it,

00:39that was a moment where I felt,

00:42oh, this feels right to me somewhere in my bones.

00:45My dad's named Mitch, and he's a submarine commander.

00:50Danny.

00:51Submarine commander?

00:54He works for WBLN Radio.

00:57And then my sister was in a show

01:00when we were in high school,

01:02you know, high school production of,

01:04and I watched her, and I thought,

01:05ooh, that would be fun to do.

01:11I think as a kid, you take it for granted.

01:13It's life, right?

01:17And then you grow up and you start to realize,

01:19oh, this is what my parents do,

01:20or this is what the person who raised me does,

01:22and somehow you understand the language

01:24in a different way.

01:24So to me, I feel like,

01:26just like if you grow up in another country

01:29and you speak a different language,

01:30it's a fluency, right?

01:31Like, you have a fluency in that language,

01:33and to me, I grew up watching things

01:35and talking about storytelling,

01:36and so there's a semi-fluency in that language,

01:40you know, that I feel comfortable in.

01:46He has emotional problems.

01:48Oh, I have those too.

01:49What kind of emotional problems does your dad have?

01:51My new friend.

01:52Real or imaginary?

01:54Wake up, Donnie.

01:56Imaginary.

01:57Donnie Darko's a movie that comes back to me

02:01through people all the time.

02:04When I think about the cast of that movie,

02:06all the people in it,

02:07and all the things they ended up doing,

02:08and how incredible so many of them are,

02:11you know, at the time, it was just,

02:12we were just like having fun making this independent movie.

02:15And so yeah, it was definitely,

02:19I mean, it was the only movie I've acted with my sister in,

02:22so only thing I've ever really acted with her.

02:25I always knew that it would be found.

02:26When an idea is new, that's what I think is fantastic,

02:30like, and I think Donnie Darko's a different, new idea.

02:33I think in many ways,

02:36I think the effect it had on me playing it,

02:39and the experience of making it,

02:43and then what it's become, you know?

02:45They're all different forms of how

02:49something

02:54affects you as a performer.

02:56One is, I think, in doing it,

02:58and then sometimes is how it is responded to,

03:01and how it affects other people.

03:06The acting thing was not something I thought about doing,

03:10though I started doing it early,

03:11but the thing I really understood more

03:13was behind the camera.

03:14So, because my family, and friends,

03:17and different people were involved in that

03:19as I was growing up.

03:20So it is a pursuit that I would like to follow.

03:23Obviously, my sister has made a movie

03:26and to such incredible acclaim,

03:28so it's in our bones.

03:30There was a moment where he was,

03:33you know, ambulance is really tight,

03:34and so he was driving,

03:36and we were on the streets,

03:37like open streets of LA was he's driving,

03:39and I was in the passenger seat to talk to him.

03:45So, obviously, when you're filming,

03:46you have to be in the eyeline of the other actor.

03:49And so Michael passed the camera over to me,

03:52and I was operating his coverage

03:54while we were doing the scene.

03:56And then Yaya was saying,

03:57oh, that takes a lot of confidence to do that,

03:58and then more people were saying,

04:00oh, he was shooting scenes and stuff.

04:02I was like, I was not doing that.

04:04But I will say that it doesn't feel uncomfortable

04:06for me to hold a camera,

04:08and I grew up watching people make movies.

04:11I'm really interested in how a great filmmaker

04:15or whatever the genre is does what he or she does.

04:17And to me, that's like, it's like food, you know?

04:23And so that is the experience of a Michael Bay movie

04:28is that he says, capture anything when it's alive.

04:30Like, here, you, get it.

04:32If you can get it, get it, you know?

04:34And it's inspiring to me.

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