Jake Gyllenhaal Quotes & Sayings

There are standards. I like to be prepared, I guess I should say - that type of pressure of, "All right, now you go with abandon," you know. Now when you're in it, you let go of all the things - that's what happens when you're onstage. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I want, overall, to trust what I know is right. There have been many times when I haven't. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I grew up on movie sets, so it was something I just found familiar. When I was growing up also, in high school, I would audition for things and my parents let me audition for things - with the thought that I wouldn't get them. And then I would get them ... sometimes, and it would surprise them. — Jake Gyllenhaal

When I look at that now, all I think about is what a master [David Fincher] I was working with, and all of the things I could have watched and learned - and I didn't. And how, now, in my career, how I would love to have a ton of takes. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think my strength is to do a take all the way through. I am definitely not someone who can do a sprint. Maybe I am not that smart, but it takes me a while to find the moment, and I like to be pushed toward it. — Jake Gyllenhaal

The last name is pronounced Jill-en-hall. It's spelled with two l's, two a's. We have a song in my family; G-Y-Double L - EN - HAAL spells Gyllenhaal. It's a Swedish name. It's a family heirloom set to music. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Romance is important, but to have a friend you can use as a mirror, who can give you an objective response, that's what's really important. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I've decided as an actor the only, the power I have really is in the performance. It's the only real place I get to sort of communicate. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I admire actors and artists who devote just as much time to their life as they do to their work. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to — Jake Gyllenhaal

Sometimes what I actually love to do is go to a farm and get fresh milk or watch a pig get slaughtered. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

Some movies you fall a step behind, and some you stay in the same place, make the same choices. And then sometimes there are people who know more than you but show you, and that's the maximum you can hope for - doing that with someone who says, 'I like you for what you are, and I want you to be in my picture.' — Jake Gyllenhaal

I remember Chris Cooper saying to me - I was doing October Sky with him - and he said, "You know, you're just yelling at me." He's like, "You're just yelling. You need to listen." We were in a fight, and you know, oh you'd get so excited as an actor, you're like, "We have a fight, oh, I get to get mad." And he just said, "You need to listen." And I started listening - and then all of a sudden where I was listening was where, I don't know, anger became something else. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think I work as hard as I do now, because of a lot of lessons I've learned early on. — Jake Gyllenhaal

You run your plays, you know your plays, you study your plays, you study the other team, you do as much as you can, you go to practice, you get in shape, you do what you need to do, and then by the time you get to the game, you know your plays, but they have to feel like they're in your bones. That has to be an unconscious thing, it cannot be conscious. That is everything to me. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm at a period in my life when I'm figuring out my idea of who I am and what I want and how to hold onto love
all that big stuff. And I'm starting to realize that it can happen at any age. I know people who are in their 50s who are figuring out what they want and who they are, and I think it's great. It's like you're always approaching life as a beginner. — Jake Gyllenhaal

My mum and dad are pretty amazing chefs and they spent most of my childhood cooking really extravagant things for my sister and me. — Jake Gyllenhaal

When you have a lot of opportunities, which I am blessed to have had in terms of my work, you get into the habit of not paying attention to certain specifics. And as we get busy, anything we do is the same thing. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I walk around thinking job to job, trying to not have regrets. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Being the youngest, I constantly have that insecurity of being the youngest, which ultimately is probably my drive. in a lot of ways. In terms of as an artist, the way we could communicate as a family very clearly was through movies and through acting, and when things became complicated with all of our own personalities, that's where we are most clear. I think that's also where we are most brutal with each other as well. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I don't always think it's necessary for somebody to be nice all the time. — Jake Gyllenhaal

We were talking about the kissing in the movie just recently. Clearly, it's pretty challenging material, but Ang said two men herding sheep was far more sexual than two men having sex on screen. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Theater has given me a different perspective on the way I approach films. — Jake Gyllenhaal

What made me most courageous was that I realized I had to try to let go of that stereotype I had in my mind, that bit of homophobia, and try for a second to be vulnerable and sensitive. It was f**kin' hard, man. I succeeded only for milliseconds. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I like the conscious manipulation that a great director can have. When you're both complicit in the manipulation of an emotion. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm going to continue doing what I want to do. And if it means I want to go and make a big movie, if it has something to say, I will want to make it. I don't want to spend my life wasting my time. If it's a big movie, I want to do it. If it's a small movie, I want to do it. — Jake Gyllenhaal

We are all from different cultures. Heath's [Ledger] Australian, really. I'm from here. Ang's [Lee] from China. But I think Ang gets very close in preproduction and rehearsals. And then he allows his actors - I don't think scared of actors, but I think he's scared of getting in on the scenes he's watching. The space he's watching. So he just totally disconnects from you while you're shooting. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

You know, it's flattering when there's a rumor that says I'm bisexual. It means I can play more kinds of roles. I'm open to whatever people want to call me. I've never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don't think I would be afraid of it if it happened. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I had not spent a ton of time around animals as a kid. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

I don't think I had any idea at the time how to work with someone as masterful as he is. And I don't think at the time I really understood what was happening. I think I was in a space where I was like: there are all these things. I was shooting all these takes with David [Fincher], and I was just confused, as a person, and as an actor feeling a little too big for my britches and that this thing was happening and then also not having enough skill yet, and technique to know exactly where I was, and know about the character. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think, in the initial process of discovering a character and the analytical process - and this is what I did take from Buddhism - initially I think there has to be an analytical, intellectual approach. And that has to be abandoned by the time you're playing the game. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I can't not have something attached to like what actually happens in real life. Like I can't do a romantic comedy without there being something where like, in the case of Annie Hathaway's character, her character ends up having Parkinson's, you know? To me, I feel like that's love, you know? Like to me. So every movie has to have that kind of sense of that. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I could draw ideas. I remember writing a paper for a seminar class. I remember writing a paper about - and this is going to sound really sort of pretentious, but that's where my mind was at the time - how acting and the performing artist can really be like a Bodhisattva, how they can communicate ultimately an idea in a way that can move and shift things. And that was wonderful. I didn't know many classes where I could try and relate the thing that I really loved and wanted to do into an intellectual idea, and that happened to be one of them. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think as an actor you have to be open to your emotions - that's how you tap into other characters. Besides, by being so open I've come to terms with how screwed I am! — Jake Gyllenhaal

You can't just lump things into two categories. Things aren't that simple. — Jake Gyllenhaal

'Brokeback Mountain' takes all your conceptions of America, and the Western, and cowboys, and sexuality, and love, and it stirs them all up. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Uta Hagen would say, there's the representational actor and the presentational actor. — Jake Gyllenhaal

There's no shame in somebody who doesn't necessarily do that job knowing a little bit more in that instance than you might know about your own job, you know, and I think that is where movies are such a collaborative art form. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Dad, I may not be the best, but I come to believe that I got it in me to be somebody in this world. And it's not because I'm so different from you either. It's because I'm the same. I mean, I can be just as hard-headed, and just as tough. I only hope I can be as good a man as you. — Jake Gyllenhaal

It's amazing how the world has changed because, at that time [2005], a lot of actors didn't want to play a gay role. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I love 'Training Day' - that's a great movie. — Jake Gyllenhaal

In a perfect world, I would love to do one play for every three movies. — Jake Gyllenhaal

They're the darkest people I know, comedians. — Jake Gyllenhaal

There's always an intellectual side to the films Ang Lee's doing and to the characters, and there's such a deep knowledge when you've worked with the actors that he's worked with, on stage in particular, but also in film. — Jake Gyllenhaal

The truth is most of the films that make a lot of money no one remembers, and I'm not interested in making films that no one remembers. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Working with Jim Sheridan for instance, we did this movie Brothers. Jim will ask anybody - we'll get a delivery on set, and like the poor delivery guy will be like, "Here's your pizza," and he'll be like, "Come over here. Come here. I want to ask you a question. Do you think this is real? What do you think? Should we do another take?" And they're like, "I, uh, you want your pizza?" There's no shame in everybody's ideas. There's no shame in somebody not knowing. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I don't think my approach to acting is all necessarily in service of the character. I think, selfishly, I've put it in service of myself, my perspective on the world and helping my life. — Jake Gyllenhaal

The amount of preparation I saw from someone like [David] Fincher, and how aware he is of everybody else's job on the set, and how much respect he has for every aspect of the film, and every aspect of the frame - that's the type of actor I am now; it's not the type of actor I was then. But without understanding his process, and then coming to learn it later on, I would never be the actor I am now. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I was trying to figure out where my intellect, if I really have one, where it fit. And so I was searching. I really didn't know who I was or what I really wanted to be, and in that search, like I think you do as an actor, you end up trying to define whatever that is, and I sort of said, "Oh well, searching spiritually in a way is interesting, and Eastern religion seems to be about a search." — Jake Gyllenhaal

In work, never have any regrets and always leave everything on the field. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

In that way, as an actor in particular, you're powerless. And so in that way as an actor in particular you can't make mistakes. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Ang Lee just allowed me to make what we would call mistakes and had no judgment of them. He also empowered me. You know, he's like, "You're my actor. I chose you. Whatever you do is right." Right? "I made the decision, I'm complicit in choosing you. And I went through everything I could to choose you, so I feel good and whatever you're going to do I'm going to give you this space." And so it was very empowering. — Jake Gyllenhaal

As much as I am one for real human interaction, I also want to make a show that's entertaining and that people want to see. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

But you need to strive to try and communicate and try and change things in a similar way. And then people can think that's pretentious or whatever, but it's your life's work, and you've decided that. That's what they made us believe. So we have a pretty high standard, which is at times great and at times not. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think that we all have within us the potential for almost anything. If we play close attention to our lives, then we can get at it somehow. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Being a star doesn't last. That's not what life should be about. It's a complete illusion that really has nothing to do with you. For me, finding out about life is the most important thing. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I like the idea of the adventurer's spirit. I think that is very much what a man searches for, in a certain way. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm a harsh critic, you know? I am. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I've become obsessed with learning other languages in movies, because I was like, since I was like, but I learned how to box so why don't I just learn another language for a movie? — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think I'm generally - fear, fear is very still, so in terms of that kind of fear - there's so many different kinds of fear, but fear is something, particularly in movies, that's interesting, because it's created by the film maker, that was created by [David] Fincher, that's why he's brilliant. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I promise that, one day, everything's going to be better for you. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I grew up in a family where many of our close friends were gay couples. As well as that, every man goes through a period of thinking they're attracted to another guy. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Heath [Ledger] would walk up to a horse and could like silence the horse. Just literally he'd be like, 'Shh. Shh.' And then he'd get on the horse. I'd be like, 'I'm going to get on you.' They'd be like, 'F - off!' I didn't really have that style. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I am inherently a little brother - that's just my nature. It has to do with my sister being very strong and wanting to protect me. It's the natural order of things. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Hardest emotion? They're all pretty damn hard; I don't know really if there's one specifically, but I do think, I don't know what's happening or what I'm feeling when I'm actually listening. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

When I walk into a screening, I'm nervous in a different way than I am as an actor. But the response is ultimately I know how I feel about it and that's what matters to me the most. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I heard about the movie business before I even knew what it was. So I surround myself now with people who are like, 'Can we not talk about movies for an hour?' — Jake Gyllenhaal

When I was young, before school, my father would wake me up and we would go running together. A love of being physical, being active and being outside was something he instilled in me. — Jake Gyllenhaal

There are lines that just stick with me, like I mean I still can remember it's like every line that I say from Nightcrawler, I mean it's just always there. — Jake Gyllenhaal

One of the things that I'm so proud of [about] that movie [Brokeback Mountain], was to see, within the past basically 10 years, how much has changed. When the Supreme Court [issued a ruling] just a little while ago, I felt like we had been part, a little part and parcel of that movement. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I have always had a deep belief that every movie, every artistic expression, is political. Don't be fooled. Even ones that we wouldn't consider overtly political are political. When we spend time doing anything, whether it's distraction or whether it's something that we have to face, it is always political. That's my belief. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Sometimes love is calm and easy and sometimes it's just plain dirty. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think I find tactile things, you know. Just the feeling of blood itself is enough for me. If you, even if it's not real blood. I mean that's enough, like sometimes there are very simple things that are enough. — Jake Gyllenhaal

As an actor, no matter what, you're at the whim of so many other people all the time. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I understand the opposite side of the camera. I have a profound respect for that. I have worked with people who, when you hit that mark, are doing 50 percent of your work for you. So, you know, it's a balance. When you walk into a mark and you're lit a certain way or something's happening so often you don't know what's behind you ... And that's what's so strange about being a movie actor. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I don't have a "I want to play this or that," I just don't have that. I've never been like that. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm superstitious a little bit. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I did a lot of background and research on 'End Of Watch,' and I definitely used certain skills that I learned. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

Peter Sarsgaard, he's an extraordinary actor, and I would say that Peter has really brought into my life and my sister's life a sense of presence as an actor that I never really understood or knew about until I met him. They've been together for a very long time, and he introduced me to the idea of the presentation. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm open to whatever people want to call me. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I liken movies to playing a piano: Sometimes you're playing the chords and different notes with unresolved cadences and playing all major chords that are all over the place, and you're enjoying yourself with a great, simple melody. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I think it's more, at least at the time, a sense of abstraction. My mind doesn't really work in a way where there's a definitive sense of something. I go one way and then it opens up into a million different ideas, and somehow, when you look at the art, Buddhist art, or particularly Tibetan art, you know, it's a similar thing. All of a sudden there are a million lotus leaves and you're following one to the next and to another, and I related to that, and it felt simple and easy to me. And it made me feel smart. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I like that when you create you really do create with a very small group of people, and in that space, before it goes out to all these people, that's what I love. — Jake Gyllenhaal

My parents taught me as a kid: do your work. Do it well. Try as hard as you can, whatever it is. It will one day, for the long [run], it will make some sort of change somewhere. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I love artists. I love watching other people work. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I love storytelling, you know, beyond anything. I love a great story beyond a great performance. Storytelling is about what we all do together and how we collaborate together. A performance can be a collaboration in ways, but oftentimes it's one individual thing. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I have a profound respect for cinematographers. That is my secret sauce. Like they are everything to me. — Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm always nervous about it. You know, somehow, without even knowing it, I try and recreate the idea of what it feels like to go in front of an audience every night when I'm making a film. And that similar type of pressure and excitement before a scene, or preparing for a movie, so ... — Jake Gyllenhaal

I had been brought up in an elementary school where, my first few grades, I remember being specifically told that my teachers were gay. I was just that age and that was just how it was, and my parents were very ... You know, that's how I was raised. Like super-progressive. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

The idea of competition, particularly in a creative atmosphere, is always there. And, if you don't acknowledge that, you are doing yourself and the process a disservice. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Ask yourself why a red carpet is red. It could be any colour. — Jake Gyllenhaal

Crazy people don't sit around wondering if they're nuts. — Jake Gyllenhaal