Jake Gyllenhaal: Do you know what fear stands for? False Evidence Appe...

I think my family love each other so much and expect so much from each other, and I think we expect a type of honesty in the work that we all do.

Jake Gyllenhaal

family-love honesty thinking

My mom would always say this thing about writing - and I've taken it into account in a lot of things in my life - which is just, "Make it shorter." Figure out what you are truly saying, whittle it down to the essence, then say that.

Jake Gyllenhaal

mom taken writing

When I was 19, I thought [Brokeback Mountain] was going to be the best movie ever made. And everyone was going to see it and it was just going to be incredible. And then nobody saw it and it didn't get bought at Sundance. And it was a really great experience. Humbling. And then it's since found its way.

Jake Gyllenhaal

brokeback-mountain saws way

To me I just, I'm a geek when it comes to cinematographers . And when it comes to Robert and when it comes to someone like Roger Deakins who shot Prisoners and he shot Jarhead.

Jake Gyllenhaal

roger geek shots

I always find you go back to an animal; it will always show you the sort of primal aspects of behavior. You always know how to respond if you choose that.

Jake Gyllenhaal

aspect behavior animal

I also think within the scene, a specific scene - if I were to play a part that I played 10 years ago now, my interpretation of that scene would be totally different. I would be making different choices. Because I can't somehow subtract all of the experiences that I've had in my life. And it's fascinating to see, because somewhere I'm very reflective in that. You know, I've been playing basically actually close to 40 years old, so I'm somewhere lost in age in this movie. But it's been fascinating to see that I can't subtract that time.

Jake Gyllenhaal

play years thinking

I was working with Michael Shannon and I was like, "Oh man I'm having trouble with this scene." And he's like, "Well, then just open it up." I was like, "But, the mark?" And I was like, what's wrong with me? And he was like, "Dude, what's wrong with you?"

Jake Gyllenhaal

scene trouble men

I know exactly what that movie's [Brokeback mountain] about. I can't define it; it doesn't tie up in a perfect bow. But it's about adolescence. It's about what it feels like - this isn't meant as a criticism, but like things I didn't relate to, which were high school movies. Where I'd watch it and I'd be like, "Well, am I like the kid that nobody likes? Or am I like the person who everybody [likes]?" I couldn't [tell]. I was like quantifying, putting me in a box. "This is my personality at that age" and "I'm this kind of person" just felt like bullshit to me.

Jake Gyllenhaal

ties kids school

When somebody's really good, they're not just thinking about their job.

Jake Gyllenhaal

jobs thinking

Working with Robert, Robert [Elswit] is a storyteller. He's not a cinematographer, he's a storyteller. And to me, that's the graduation I hope to get to in my profession. That I'm not just an actor, I'm a storyteller. And I think that takes a long time in, when you have one job on a movie set. Makeup artists, actor, whatever. To graduate from just that to storyteller.

Jake Gyllenhaal

makeup artist jobs

I started to realize I love study, I love the study of human behavior.

Jake Gyllenhaal

realizing behavior study

People say to me, well "What's the character you really want to play?" And I go, I don't know.

Jake Gyllenhaal

play character people

When I was younger, I did work with coach. I went to this place called Actors Space in the Valley. I was pretty young, and we were doing acting and improvisation. But no, no I didn't go to RADA, I didn't do that. But I do now work with an acting coach, primarily for the initial intellectual connection to the material.

Jake Gyllenhaal

acting space intellectual

Sometimes you need an anchor, whatever it might be. You need a space to connect. So often you get into a way of doing things.

Jake Gyllenhaal

anchors space needs

Even as an actor, I think like a storyteller. My parents raised us to look at the script.

Jake Gyllenhaal

parent looks thinking

Other people's belief changes you. We all have insecurity, and uncertainty, and to have that glow cast over you by somebody that you respect, makes a gigantic difference.

Jake Gyllenhaal

differences over-you people

It's one of the most beautiful scripts [Brokeback Mountain] I've ever read, and it was Ang Lee, and at the time Heath [Ledger] was a friend of mine - before we even shot the movie - and always sort of alluring to me.

Jake Gyllenhaal

brokeback-mountain scripts beautiful

When you have the opportunity to choose projects, inevitably you start being moved towards the things that you're moved by, right? And that changes over time, as we change, right?

Jake Gyllenhaal

changes-over-time projects opportunity

I think, when someone say, "When did you feel like an actor?" it's those moments when I feel like, "I'm an actor, wow." That's an extraordinary moment for me. So it's not like I walk around going, "I'm an actor."

Jake Gyllenhaal

extraordinary-moments actors thinking

Ang [Lee] gave us a lot of books about cowboys who had been gay or stories about it and all that stuff. And I just talked to a lot of my friends - who [was] their first, particularly same-sex, first situation. That was fascinating to me - trying to learn what that was in a certain period of time. Certain age. The secrecy involved in it. All those things.

Jake Gyllenhaal

gay book sex

Do you know what fear stands for? False Evidence Appearing Real.