Gyllenhaal talks sexy underwear
Posted by April on January 7th, 2008Why did you do SherryBaby?
It was an exceptional script. It was very real in the way that real human beings do things you wouldn’t imagine. I made it quite a long time ago and was drawn to the fact I didn’t know how I was going to do it, it seemed like a challenge. I’m so glad I did it, though, as it turned out to be about what I hope all my movies are about: someone whom it would be easy to judge but who the audience is invited to love despite how messed up she is.
Is it tedious to promote something you did so long ago?
I know getting involved in a teeny independent movie about someone like Sherry is going to take up many years of my life. It’s not like doing a move like World Trade Centre. I had to promote that film but with Sherry Baby I had to help get it sold, distributed and advertised. A lot is on my shoulders and I’m really the only one who can go out and sell it. I have to be part of that. It’s not like it’s come as a surprise.
You’ve said you had a stormy relationship with the director, why was that?
We shot the movie in five weeks which is a very short time and I was in every moment of every scene so I was working very hard. I felt I was Sherry at the time, I didn’t mean to but I started to. I worked long hours, fell asleep with my clothes on, woke up and went to work again. I was very stubborn and it was hard to have a civilised conversation with me because I was being Sherry. We also had a fundamental disagreement about who she was, I wouldn’t back down on my opinion. Sometimes an actress knows more about the character she’s playing than anyone else can know. I felt the only way that the movie would work would be if Sherry was someone who felt she was getting out of jail and going to be a great mother, which makes the obstacles she has to overcome all the more heartbreaking. Looking back though I must have been a fucking handful.
