Jake - 'It's like watching me sometimes' - Jake and Maggie and Weekend magic

As I try and get a grip after seeing the photos of Jake Gyllenhaal, so delicious and well, so hot!, with his long locks, here is a quote from USA Today, which, with only a few days to go until The Dark Knight opens in the US, published an interview with Maggie. Maggie talks about what is was like to pose for Agent Provocateur only six months after giving birth. '"I didn't know how scrutinized I'd be. My brother called me and said, 'I'm in Heathrow, and there's a 12-foot picture of you upside down in a negligee.' People are really rough on you when you do things like that. But I had a good time."


Maybe one of these days I'll be walking through Heathrow and see a 12-foot picture of a scantily-clad Jake. Where was I...?

This interview contains some interesting snippets about Maggie, her role as Rachel Dawes and about juggling time spent with Ramona and Peter and grasping the opportunities available to her in her career. Maggie has been associated with the project South Solitary, to which Paul Bettany is also attached. But, in this interview, it sounds as if Maggie has had a rethink, even though her acting ambition is back and she's 'looking for "something hard. I want to find a really good, hard drama. But there are things I can't do anymore. There was a movie that wanted to shoot off the coast of Tasmania, on an island that had no inhabitants, no store. Peter was great. He said, 'If you want to do it, we'll figure it out; I'll go with you and take care of her.' I think it would be irresponsible. I can't do that anymore. Your priorities shift."' That project was South Solitary.


Having discussed here recently the best way to slice an avocado, following an interview with Jake while he scrambled some eggs and prepared a salad for the interviewer, here we learn that Maggie will 'happily demonstrate the correct way to eat an artichoke.' I have it on good authority (ie my tastebuds) that there is no correct way to eat an artichoke, except at knifepoint.


In another interview, Maggie reflects on the changing moviescene, one that may be teetering on the edge of an actors' strike. While, in this interview, Maggie doesn't rule out South Solitary, she does admit to frustration that the days of small budget independent movies being given the studio backing and the distribution they deserve may be gone: 'Something's really wrong right now. [looking at her publicist] Am I allowed to say that? It's clear to me, I don't in any way credit myself as having started the independent film stuff but I was a part of it. I was a real part of it and I feel like things are soooo different now. You can't make a movie for three million dollars with like a kind of known actor in it. It's impossible and it has to do with, in general, the financial state of the country. It's tough for everybody in every business. But independent movies have really suffered I think.'


'Question: Do you think Secretary would be in trouble now if there were trying to get funding? Gyllenhaal: They would never have made Secretary now. They would never have been able to finance Secretary with an unknown actress and James Spader. There's no way. Maybe if you wanted to try and make it for like three hundred thousand dollars.' We only have to look at the tortured process of Nailed to see how hard it is to keep independent movies moving, even with such a cast.


Maggie also describes what an inspiration it was to work with Heath: 'I think that he is doing something in the movie that is really extraordinary and unusual even for the most talented and experienced actors in that he finds a stride that is totally free and when you're around that, it sort of bleeds down to everyone else and everyone else's work and so acting with him, even though the scene was scary and full of tension, it was actually really fun.'


So what of the other sibling? Here is a quote from Jake back in 2003 about himself and Maggie: 'I think we are less competitive now. We've realised our competition doesn't come from each other. It's from the outside, people pushing the competition and us being like, 'Wait. What the f*** are we doing? I love you. I love you too. There's no need for this'. Then again, we both want to do great work. I know she's great, but the choices she makes come from the same places mine do. It's like watching me sometimes. We're really close that way. Maggie's my best friend.'

This post includes further photographs of Maggie from the August edition of Tatler. It also includes a second look at some of the stunning pictures of Jake from this weekend. Can't get enough of them!





Includes pictures from IHJ, Just Jared, Agent Provocateur, Tatler, here and links.