Maggie Gyllenhaal: on playing coy, playing house, playing druggy ex-cons, playing movie star, and never playing it safe

Interview, May, 2008 by Tim Blanks

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Maggie Gyllenhaal is a broad-in-waiting, the kinda-wanna-sorta brunette who cracked wise through Hollywood's Golden Age. You could see as much four years ago when she made Vanity Fair's Hollywood cover, slumped in a chair on the far right of the gatefold, separated from the gilded company she was keeping, wearier, worldlier. This summer, she's bringing her New Age Rosalind Russell smarts to the role of lawyer/love interest Rachel Dawes in Christopher Nolan's latest Batman vehicle The Dark Knight. Indie queen to multiplex goddess? If there's any justice in Gotham City's legal system ...

TIM BLANKS: Did you have any doubts about saying yes to a part like Rachel Dawes?

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: Sure, I did. At the same time, I knew who was in the movie--Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Heath [Ledger] and Christian [Bale], all these really great actors. I'd seen Chris Nolan's movies, so it didn't feel as though there was any chance it was going to be a compromise. I had a meeting with Chris, and my daughter Ramona was probably 3 months old. I had huge, milky boobs, and was still kind of in that hazy mom state. Chris asked me if I wanted to read the script, which was a big deal. And someone had to come and wait in my driveway while I read this huge script. I was mommying, so it took me 20 full hours to get through it, and this guy was sitting in my driveway. I liked it and I talked to Chris, and with every idea I had, he was either totally excited by it or had a great reason as to why it wouldn't work. I thought, This will be collaborative. But I also thought, It's a huge movie, it can't be that collaborative. Chris probably will say, "Do your thing. I need to worry about the thousand extras." I was totally prepared for that, but it wasn't the case. I was shocked by Chris Nolan. There would be literally a thousand extras and he'd be working with the DP on complex shots; then he'd come to me and have really exciting ideas about my tiny little scene. And every place where I thought, Okay, I need to make sure Rachel is not just the damsel in distress, I'm going to push it a bit, he would push me even further. So it ended up being really fun.

TB: Is this your investment in mainstream Hollywood?

MG: When I decided to do the movie, it wasn't. But now? Sure it is. Now I really feel I want to make movies that people see. I want to play strong, beautiful, powerful, elegant women. Now I really feel like there is something about mainstream Hollywood that I absolutely embrace. I've shed that adolescent part of myself that wasn't interested in it before. When I took this movie, I was hesitant. My daughter had just been born, and we were living in New York. We had been accosted by paparazzi at every turn in the worst ways. I thought, "I don't want that life. I'm only fueling that if I do Batman." But then I also thought, "I can't live my life afraid. If I believe in being an actress and I love it, then I should do it." Now I'm really embracing that. Mainstream Hollywood makes a few good movies a year. And in order to be in one of those, you have to be one of five people. Hollywood makes many bad movies too, which I'm not interested in being a part of. But there are only a few good independent movies a year, and many, many bad ones. I want to be in good movies, and I want people to see them.

TB: Was turning 30 a milestone moment for you?

MG: I didn't expect it to be, but it ended up that way. Not the actual birthday, but some kind of general shift happened. I see women 35, 36, a little older than me ... and they have something that I admire and aspire to, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the decade. I'm actually just 30 and a half now, so I don't have a lot of hindsight on this yet.

TB: Does turning 30 make you ready for anything the world can throw at you?

MG: No, I don't think it makes me ready for anything the world can throw at me. But it's funny the way celebrity stuff has been a part of my life and how much I've learned already. I'm not very good at something unless I find some way to enjoy it. It's like figuring out how to do press for a movie, how to talk about it, what about it I'm going to bring to light. I have to find things that are interesting to me. And I have to say that I have been enjoying this. When you have a baby, there's a part of it where your body is your baby. I was nursing Ramona during all the Sherrybaby [2006] stuff, going to the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, and my body was totally different. It was hers, you know? Now I feel like I'm mine again, and I feel inspired by that. I'm really looking for something interesting to work on. I haven't found it. But I feel ready to be in my body and be a woman in a different way, and be an actress in a different way.

TB: You said that every time you put on a new outfit, you're thinking, Who am I?

MG: That's very true. Shopping is that way. Hair and makeup are interesting for me because I never wore makeup growing up. My mother doesn't wear makeup, she cuts her hair really short, never dyes it, doesn't even shave her legs. I never learned any of that. I've had to find it as an adult. My late twenties were when I really started to think about the joys of being a woman.