Finding her place in a new world order
A shift in roles on and off screen
LOS ANGELES - Maggie Gyllenhaal is done with indies.
Now she's playing the love interest in the newest Batman installment, "The Dark Knight." "People have been asking," Gyllenhaal said in a recent interview, "are you never going to make little movies again, are you only going to make blockbusters? And I keep feeling like . . . nobody makes little movies anymore."
Gyllenhaal has reigned as "little-movie" queen for almost seven years, starting with her performance in the S&M ode "Secretary" and peaking with her turn as an unfit mother in "Sherrybaby."
In "The Dark Knight," which opened last week, Gyllenhaal takes up where Katie Holmes left off, as Rachel Dawes, an assistant district attorney torn between Batman (Christian Bale) and her boss, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Gyllenhaal inserted herself seamlessly into the role. Asked about the experience of working with her, Christian Bale said, "She didn't jolt me out of the character."
Even though Gyllenhaal plays a comic-book love interest, the role is surprisingly light on cupcake-hanging-from-building scenes. "It was important to me that Rachel was just as invested and active in trying to make the world around her a better place as the guys in the movie. Often, in these kind of movies, the girl - they might be about working for justice and morality and all that, but the girl is much more incidental," Gyllenhaal said, her spindly body curled up in a hotel chair. She spoke in her signature soft-but-steely voice, each word actressy and deliberate.
It used to be that indie ingenues - such as Gyllenhaal, or Christina Ricci, or Zooey Deschanel - had to split their time between starring roles in "serious" or "meaningful" projects and bit parts in popcorn movies just to get by. Now, with Hollywood reinventing blockbusters with thinking directors like the Batman franchise's Christopher Nolan, they may not need to do this anymore. Or, they may not want to.
"I feel like I don't want to make movies that 10 people see, and they're the same 10 people who believe exactly what I believe. I want to make movies that many people see, and have an opportunity to change people's minds - to open their minds - to open their hearts, to see the world slightly differently."
This attitude belies the way Gyllenhaal is often portrayed in the press, as opinionated, private, and unconcerned with others' opinions. She was vilified in 2005 for making controversial comments about the 9/11 attacks, saying that America was "responsible in some way" for what happened.
"I was shocked and so upset and scared," Gyllenhaal said of the response to her remarks. "I wish I'd said what I'd said in a way for people who didn't believe what I did to understand. I was young, and I was upset. I learned so much from that."
"The Dark Knight" presents a bleak vision of urban America, where citizens have become inured to the terrorism of a sadistic nihilist (Heath Ledger's Joker). There are many parallels between Gotham's fictional society and our own, but Gyllenhaal was very careful to position the dark film - and herself - as "hopeful." She seemed rehearsed, sticking to a few talking points: good mother, hopeful movie, incredible cast, real acting.
Speaking of her character, Gyllenhaal sounded as though she were describing the new-and-improved, good-press version of herself. "I think Rachel is very, very hopeful. And Rachel, I think, believes in change, and believes in the possibility of change. I think she's working so hard to help make Gotham a better place, that [working on the movie] was not depressing, it was invigorating, because I wish I was as willing to sacrifice as much for what I believe in as Rachel is. Rachel's whole life is about making the community that she lives in better."
The difference between Gyllenhaal's indie and blockbuster personas is palpable. While one can't help but assume her repeated use of the word "change" is an oblique reference to the upcoming election, it's also a signal that Gyllenhaal is pointedly recrafting her image, from edgy artist to mother and leading lady.
Gyllenhaal mentioned her daughter, Ramona, frequently in the context of her work. "I think that I feel so much stronger after having carried her and raised her for almost two years. Giving birth is a huge challenge, of course, but nothing compares to actually having the child. The way that it stretches your heart, the way that it stretches what you thought you were capable of, the limits of patience - I didn't know how patient I could be, I didn't know how tired I could be . . . like everyone says, I didn't know how much I could love. And of course, if you're an actress, those are all things that I think will deepen your work."
Gyllenhaal hasn't explained to Ramona what she and her father, actor Peter Sarsgaard, do for a living. "I've tried to keep her totally out of it. I really wanted to bring her with me to the junket, just to be near her, because I've had to get up really early, and I usually miss her before she goes to sleep . . . and I'm used to spending most of the day with her. And Peter said, 'Why? Why do you want to bring her into any of that? You know, that's the sort of ridiculous part of all this.' " 