Jake Gyllenhaal is not just an Oscar-nominated actor with a legendary work ethic and a drop-dead smile. He is also a Jewish boy from LA, a Swedish nobleman, godson of Paul Newman, has studied Buddhism at Columbia with Robert Thurman, and is known for transforming himself physically and emotionally for his roles. Tom Ford is not just a fashion designer and film director; he is a 21st-century Renaissance man. After revolutionising fashion, he moved effortlessly into film with unprecedented success: his first film, A Single Man, was nominated for a raft of awards including the Best Actor Oscar nomination for lead Colin Firth. The two teamed up for Mr Ford's sophomore feature, Nocturnal Animals with Jake Gyllenhaal taking the dual role of Edward Sheffield, a writer, and Tony Hastings, the main character from Edward's book who suffers an unfortunate fate with his family while going on their summer holidays. Here, in an exclusive transatlantic telephone conversation, Mr Ford interviews Mr Gyllenhaal about the art of making movies, writing screenplays and being vulnerable.
Jake Gyllenhaal: Hello Mr Ford.
Tom Ford: Hello Mr Gyllenhaal. How are you? Where are you?
JG: I'm in New York. I'm good. I’m just finishing this film here. I was in Korea, and then I came back here to do a week's work, and then I'm off to London. Are you in London?
TF: No, I'm in Los Angeles. I was in London until three days ago, and I'm here for a week and then I'm going to Santa Fe, where I go every summer.
JG: Ah.
TF:...I'm going to be living in LA for the year and I'm kind of freaking out about it. I've had a house here for a longtime, and I've thought for a few years now that we should move to LA for a year and see how we actually like it. Now of course I’m panicking that we should go running back to London. It is such a great city and I miss it already.
JG: I feel the same way about London. I was just there, and in just one week I had so many interesting conversations and saw so many interesting things that I thought it’s the place to be.
TF: I'm curious about your next movie. What will you be working on in London?
JG: As it is with all films, I feel like you never really know what you're getting yourself into until you're there, but it’s this movie about an alien life form that attacks the International Space Station. It's all really kind of a figment of everyone's imagination in an interesting way as the creature exists based on how you respond to it, so it’s really a psychological thriller up in space.
TF: You said when you take on a film that you don't know what you're getting into. When you got into Nocturnal Animals, was it what you thought it would be?
JG: No. I mean it never is. As an actor, you are trying to interpret something that comes from someone else's mind, interpret someone else's words and vision. I've known you for a while but not really known you, and I had not spent a lot of creative time with you before that, and so I was very curious and honestly intimidated and unsure of what it was going to be like. You're a very strong person from afar and also from very close-up. But at the same time, I think because of the script you wrote, I was just shocked at how vulnerable and intimate the relationship became and what you were trying to say with the film, and that was a surprise to me. Not that I didn't think you were vulnerable, but I was really moved by what you wanted to say with the movie. The story was about intimacy, relationships. I was really pleasantly surprised that you were down to go anywhere and not many people want to do that.
TF: Isn't it interesting how people's perception of you is often so different than what you think it is? Because I have actually had people say to me, "Oh, my God. You know, I saw your first movie, and I didn't realise you had that depth” it is so interesting the way people have a perception of someone well-known that is often far from who they really are. What do you think would be something that most people wouldn't think about you?
JG: Wow. What am I really like?
TF: Yeah. Well, what people would not know about you necessarily from your public image? What do you think people would be surprised to know about you?
JG: The interesting thing over years of being in movies and people seeing you and having their own idea of who you are is that early in your career like when I was in my twenties, or even younger I was so desperately worried about what people thought of me. Now, I think the desperation is gone, and I think as an artist, I've become more interested in the audience and I feel a responsibility to them. I want to make movies that are always challenging the audience. But, in terms of my personality I'd be fascinated by what you would say, Tom, because I know you're, like, SO compassionate, like ruthlessly compassionate. I'd love to hear what you say about what I'm like.
TF: You are a solid, honest, sensitive person. That is what I would say. But what I love most about you professionally is your commitment and perfectionism. I loved that you emailed me a few weeks ago about that scene that you weren't happy with. I was incredibly impressed because it pushed me to go back in and really look at it. I love the fact that you are so serious about what you do, and reflective about it and it gave me an even greater respect for you as an actor.
JG: Thank you. Well, I mean the creation of anything is a very sensitive thing. And I feel like I've had enough experience somewhere knowing that when you make a comment as an actor to a filmmaker you have to be thoughtful enough to know all of the steps that have been taken before you've criticised [laughs] your own performance because I of course have my own response, which is my own irrational, weird response! [laughs]
TF: Oh, God. Of course, because you're watching yourself. I mean, how can you not have a response?
JG: Yeah.
TF: I think all of you have the worst job in the world, actors. I just can't even imagine how you do that. It’s... it's incredible.
JG: It's so weird [laughs].
TF: It's really weird, and then you’re... putting yourself in someone else's hands because then they can take your work and cut it into ways that make it either what you intended or not what you intended at all. As an actor you're vulnerable with your performance, and then you're vulnerable with what someone does with your performance. You would make a good director by the way. Is directing something that you would like to do?
JG: I hope so, yes.
TF: Because I know you have your own production company now.
JG: Yes. Just started really gearing it up last year, and we've just finished a film that we produced this fall.
TF: Which is called
JG: It is called Stronger. It will come out next year. It's about a man called Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the Boston bombings, but it’s really about his love story with his now wife and his family. It's a beautiful story, so we've done that. We're at ‘Director's Cut’ now so we should be finished like at the end of August.
TF: ‘Director's cut’? So, you're going to take over after that and re cut it into the ‘Producer's Cut’!
JG: No, no, no! David Gordon Green directed the movie, and it’s been a really interesting process. The thing about Nocturnal Animals is that it's fictional, so as a...result your creation is actually coming from you, whereas, in this non-fictional world, you have this sense that you have to stay true to the thing that existed. The event itself, the bombing, is so devastating, and it’s still so alive in many people's minds that it was an interesting journey just to go through, a very interesting one.
TF: What attracts you to a role, when you decide to take apart? I mean you read, I'm sure, many, many scripts and how do you choose?
JG: Let me use your script as an example. When I read your script, I remember feeling the vibrations of the story. It sort of rocked me in that it really messed with my mind in a way that I loved. I'm looking to explore feelings, to have the story elicit feelings or a script elicit feelings in me that I am not used to or that I'm afraid of in myself. And then I go, 'Oh, WOW.’ That's something to explore. Like, that's a new territory.
TF: Masculinity, the idea of masculinity is quite present in this film, and your character Tony/Edward is someone I relate to because at first look he's not the traditional strong and powerful masculine stereotype yet in the end, he is the strongest character of all. He wins. In the novel, he finally tracks down the killer, and in life he's the winner as well because he persevered and finally prevailed. What was perceived of as weakness was a kind of strength that was stronger than physical strength. HOW did you interpret that as an actor?
JG: Well, I guess I would say that this was an exploration into my question sin myself about what it means to be a man, a lover, or a father. Over the past few years a big part of the journey for me is asking myself those questions creatively or giving myself a fictional face-to-face to ask those questions. And so it’s interesting because coming off of a movie like a boxing film where I was in my body, and I was physical, and I was able to express this sense of protection through a physical sense, and my fear of being physical. I had to ask myself those questions and I had the opportunity to answer them in Southpaw. And when I came to your film it was so interesting to ask myself where real protection comes from and what is physical or emotional vulnerability? Both of the characters that I play in Nocturnal Animals put themselves in positions where they're incredibly vulnerable. And then, and in the case of Tony, the character in the novel, he has a very hard time physically protecting his family, which was a really tough thing for me. I have to say I really struggled with it especially in that big, long, scary scene you have at the beginning of the film. I didn't know what to do, because you didn't allow me to do much physically except to get hit [laughs].
TF: Which worked out perfectly for me as a director because the character is supposed to freeze and just not... quite know what to do.
JG: Like a deer in headlights.
TF: Exactly.
JG: And literally in headlights! We talked about it when we were shooting, but, you know, I constantly needed to find things outside of the working order to kind of express myself. As you know I was running all the time. I was trying to physically put myself in a place where I had some sort of expression. I didn't even realise until looking back at it that I was desperate to feel like I had some sort of strength, and what I realised was that the strength of the character came in his expression emotionally. He didn't really hide his feelings about what had happened to him.
TF: It's true.
JG: They were right there. And that was very helpful... for me and…
TF:...perfect for the role, I have to say. It was a subtle thing to express and I thought you played it beautifully.
JG: Thanks.
TF: I want to ask you about theatre. I recently read that you are going to do Burn This by Lanford Wilson on Broadway.
JG: Yes.
TF: Which I saw originally in the Eighties.
JG: Oh, WOW.
TF: With John Malkovich and Joan Allen. She won a Tony award for it. Yeah, I'm old [laughing].
JG: There are a lot of people around in the Eighties who didn't see Burn This, so I was just more excited that you'd seen it.
TF: Theatre acting versus film acting: what is the difference for you? Which do you prefer?
JG: I do love acting on stage, probably the most, but at the same time, I feel like it’s just a different medium, you know. The theatre is really a writer's medium and I feel film is a director's medium. With theatre, as an actor, I think you do have the live exchange. And I think the ability to sort of ride the waves of whatever comes at you in those moments is more of a learning ground. What I love about the theatre is that you make choices. You’ve had your rehearsal time. You've created a character over a long period of time alone in a... in a sometimes windowless room…
TF: Right.
JG: ... Um, very much the way you would write something. And then you really get to bring it out, and every night you have this endurance run of a story that you have some sort of power over. I would be remiss though in not saying that I have seen other casts do plays that I have done thinking that it was me that got the laugh, but when I've seen the cast [laughs] right after me do it, they get the laugh at exactly the same place, and I realise, "Oh, it's really a writer's medium [laughs].
TF: Have you ever...written anything? I mean a play or a screenplay.
JG: Yeah, screenplay. You know I'm the spawn of a screenwriter, and so I...like, I've written things badly, yes, um, which really only makes me admire people who do it well like...like you. I mean, you write so incredibly well. I think that's something a lot of people wouldn't necessarily assume about you. Particularly in the medium of in film, like, you're an incredible screenwriter.
TF: Thank you.
JG: Honestly. I mean, there are like three or four different screenplays that I would go that I've worked on, that I've made and that I am very proud to have been a part of that I've been able, been proud to interpret, and, like, Brokeback Mountain is one or, Nightcrawler is one of them, and, Nocturnal Animals is another. I mean it’s just an incredible screenplay.
TF: Thank you.
JG: But does anybody know the secret food that you eat... in order to create?
TF: What secret food?
JG: Oreo Thins! My character was created by you eating that one secret food that people don't know about!
TF: Yeah well, they haven't exactly made me "thin' It's true. I live on sugar. And, you know, I just had a handful of Oreo Thins before I called you.
JG: [laughs]
TF:...but I have to stop. I gained ten pounds making this film and I have to be in shape to be on a red carpet soon next to you, one of the most handsome men in the world.
JG: Oh, please.
TF: Now I'm going to ask you a question that we’re both going to have to answer [laughs].
JG: Oh, ok.
TF: Would you work with me again?
JG: Absolutely. Are these one-word answers or do I keep going?
TF: You can elaborate.
JG: Yes, but the only thing is I would doubt is if it’s possible for you to write something and create something as well as you have this. It's going to be hard to match, but absolutely. You know, I've rarely had an experience like this one. I think that it is because of who you are. And the talent and the people that you have around you is extraordinary, and so you have this incredible crew and this incredible group of people working with you, which is an inspiration. And then also, one on one, again, like I said, I had no idea how much you would love your actors, and how much you would love the process of working with us, and how fearless you were with us. So often I feel like directors don't understand the weird creature that an actor is, and you just do. I mean, I remember when you acted out the scene for me! And I thought, fuck, he's a good actor. It was a really emotional scene, and you got on the ground, and you were screaming and crying in this scene. The only two people who have ever done that for me are you and Jim Sheridan. And it was incredible. So the answer to that is yes, absolutely. I mean, as long as maybe you want to act too in it? [laughing]
TF: I think I'll stay on the other side of the camera but I would love the chance to work with you again. I thought you were absolutely brilliant and I loved every minute of it.
Photography: Matthew Brookes Styling: Jay Massacret Groomer: Losi at Honey Artists Photo assistants: Eduardo Silva and Niko Margaros Stylist's assistant: Olivia Julia Kozlowski Digital technician: Phillip Paulus On-set production: Madeleine Kiersztan at Ms4 Production: KO Productions Lighting: Milk Studios Location: Hudson Mercantile With thanks to CLM
This was first published in GQ Style magazine.Buy British GQ Style for iPad or iPhone from the App Store. Buy British GQ Style for Android from Google Play. Buy British GQ Style for Kindle Fire at amazon.co.uk. Buy British GQ Style at Conde Nast International Worldwide News, Vogue House, Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU.
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