Photo:WireImage/Getty
WireImage/Getty
Jake Gyllenhaalput his rizz to the test after director Ed Zwick challenged him while preparing for hisLove and Other Drugsrole.
Zwick’s new memoirHits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Yearsreveals how the director, 71, helped get Gyllenhaal, 43, into character.
In the 2010 rom-com withAnne Hathaway, Gyllenhaal played womanizing Viagra salesman Jamie. “His job as a salesman takes second place to his vocation, which is hitting on women. That wasn’t Jake’s style at all,” Zwick writes, adding, “Not to say he didn’t do just fine with women … but his ‘game’ wasn’t overt.” He explained that theBrokeback Mountainstar’s charm lied in his “innate authenticity.”
When Zwick noticed Gyllenhaal eyeing a woman at dinner, he urged him to get her number, the director said. After an initial refusal, the director managed to convince the star to approach her. He later returned with a grin and a number, scribbled on a napkin.
Back in 2010, Gyllenhaal toldHuffington Posthow he related to hisLove and Other Drugscharacter.
“Part of my job is a little bit of that. I’ve gotta be a salesman. There’s a nature to the act — there’s a real performance — and there’s a real performance to sales, so I think as an actor, it’s natural,” he said at the time, adding, “What I love about Jamie is his sense of performance. … A real sense of being able to walk into a room and have so much confidence that people would trust whatever he said. That was really wonderful to play, because I haven’t played anything like that before.”
In the memoir, though the director denies implying that the spontaneous flirting heavily influenced Gyllenhaal’s performance on-screen, Zwick does note that the star was “damn good” in scenes where he seduces Hathaway’s character.
Off-handedly, Zwick added that, at the film’s London premiere, Gyllenhaal introduced his new girlfriend at the time,Taylor Swift. “I’m just sayin’…” Zwick wrote.
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The singer’s relationship with Gyllenhaal is speculated to have inspired her 2012 albumRed, and nine years later, serve as the source for herBillboardHot 100 No. 1 song“All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version).”
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In 2022, theRoad Houseactor, who is now dating French modelJeanne Cadieu,denied the theoriesthat the song had anything to do with their relationship. “It’s about her relationship with her fans. It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that,” he toldEsquire.
Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Yearsis available now wherever books are sold.
source: people.com
