Brothers and Sisters - Jake, Tobey and Maggie

You know what it's like - you're in line to get a table at a restaurant, minding your own business, when, all of a sudden, a Hollywood moviestar (while making a ratrun down an alley) spots you, comes screeching to a halt in his big black Mercedes and, before you know it, you're passing the time of day. And then you're joined by the head of a major movie studio... Actually, that's never happened to me, which possibly is just as well. But it happened to Tobey Maguire yesterday when eagle-eyed co-star Jake Gyllenhaal drove past in Brentwood, LA.

Here are the pictures of Jake, Tobey, Tobey's wife Jennifer Meyer, their daughter Ruby and Jennifer's father Ron Meyer, the head of Universal Studios. (I'm loving the chemistry here between Jake and Ruby - and what a lovely name.)






Maggie's in the Metro

Another welcome surprise today was opening my copy of the London paper, Metro, on the tube and finding Maggie as the focus of the 60 Second interview. This is because today marks the release of SherryBaby on DVD in the UK. It's very pleasant to hear Maggie had a good time in London filming The Dark Knight and is keen to return to the city to make more movies - we would certainly love to see her here. Also, Maggie is asked about those comments of Jonathan Rhys Meyers (complaining about actresses refusing to take their clothes off in a film), which produced steam from both my ears. It's no surprise that Maggie can't foresee a time at the moment when she may work with Jake again - these are two separate, hugely talented individuals. Here is the full interview:


Why did you do SherryBaby?
It was an exceptional script. It was very real in the way that real human beings do things you wouldn’t imagine. I made it quite a long time ago and was drawn to the fact I didn’t know how I was going to do it, it seemed like a challenge. I’m so glad I did it, though, as it turned out to be about what I hope all my movies are about: someone whom it would be easy to judge but who the audience is invited to love despite how messed up she is.

Is it tedious to promote something you did so long ago?
I know getting involved in a teeny independent movie about someone like Sherry is going to take up many years of my life. It's not like doing a move like World Trade Centre. I had to promote that film but with Sherry Baby I had to help get it sold, distributed and advertised. A lot is on my shoulders and I'm really the only one who can go out and sell it. I have to be part of that. It's not like it's come as a surprise.


You've said you had a stormy relationship with the director, why was that?
We shot the movie in five weeks which is a very short time and I was in every moment of every scene so I was working very hard. I felt I was Sherry at the time, I didn't mean to but I started to. I worked long hours, fell asleep with my clothes on, woke up and went to work again. I was very stubborn and it was hard to have a civilised conversation with me because I was being Sherry. We also had a fundamental disagreement about who she was, I wouldn't back down on my opinion. Sometimes an actress knows more about the character she's playing than anyone else can know. I felt the only way that the movie would work would be if Sherry was someone who felt she was getting out of jail and going to be a great mother, which makes the obstacles she has to overcome all the more heartbreaking. Looking back though I must have been a fucking handful.


There are several sex scenes in the film. Are they difficult to do?
I don’t find them so. It depends on what the person I’m playing in the scene is feeling. With objectivity you can see how sad those scenes are but she wasn’t feeling that way when she was having sex with those people. It’s my job as an actress to figure out how it was something she wanted, otherwise it plays that she’s being victimised. You don’t want to hit the audience over the head with that.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers said that actresses who won’t go nude should have their ears cut off. Do you agree?
It’s different for everybody as to how people use their bodies in their work and I don’t make any judgments about it. Sex scenes can be an incredible way of communicating something. The hardest sex scene for me would be if I had to be someone’s fantasy of beauty and sexiness – that’s a lot of pressure, ha ha. It’s better to be somebody real and do a sex scene.


I never put together agreeing to do an Agent Provocateur campaign with standing around in my underwear.

Is your Batman character a damsel in distress?
There are moments of that. Chris Nolan, the director, would joke about how I had to resign myself to being a little bit of a damsel in distress but he pushed me in other ways to make her a powerful character. I play a lawyer and have real relationships with the people I’m interacting with in the movie. She’s very smart and a real rounded person. Of course, if you’re the girl in Batman, you’re going to be a damsel in distress to some extent but she’s a really great character. So many people I play are a mess; Rachel’s really clear about what’s important to her and unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change.

Did you have a favourite superhero as a child?
Wonder Woman was around when I was a kid. I wasn’t that into superheroes, though.

How did you get the Agent Provocateur ad campaign?
They asked me to do it and I said yes, but somehow I never put that together with the fact I’d have to stand around in my underwear getting my picture taken. The pictures are very tongue-in-cheek and have an irony about them, it’s not the same as doing a Victoria’s Secret ad. I felt like I was playing a character, someone who wasn’t me.


Were you happy with how the pictures came out?
I really was. I was looking at them with Peter [her partner, fellow actor Peter Sarsgaard], saying: ‘I don’t think I look like that, that underwear really is good!’ I couldn’t believe how it made me look. The whole thing was a pleasure to do. When they came out, though, I was a bit surprised. Somehow I hadn’t understood that there’d be all these pictures of me out there in my underwear. I did it as an art project.


Will you work with your brother Jake again?
Maybe at some point. We don’t have any plans to do anything now.

What are you up to next?
I loved shooting Batman in London, so I’m thinking of doing a couple of films there. I ate at so many good restaurants. I loved walking around with my family. I saw an incredible exhibition at the Tate Modern and just loved the city. Where we stayed we could walk down the street and visit the butcher and the baker. It’s not really like that in New York.

And, finally

Talking of Maggie - she and Peter attended the Film Critics Circle Awards yesterday in New York City yesterday and she looked simply stunning (and Peter didn't look bad either).



Includes pictures from IHJ, Agent Provocateur and here. Interview from the Metro.

Can I just say - my Zodiac Director's Cut arrived today!