From playing a scarecrow in the "Wizard of Oz" to his iconic role in "Donnie Darko," here are 4 moments that changed Jake Gyllenhaal's life.
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00:00That was a moment where I felt,
00:02oh, this feels right to me somewhere in my bones.
00:13I think there was a period of time
00:15where it got me attention at the dinner table
00:17when I could mimic or I could perform,
00:19and I went, oh, that's fun.
00:21I like that feeling of making people laugh.
00:23I was very young, probably six or something,
00:26and I played like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz,
00:30and I remember being able to,
00:31I felt comfortable on a stage,
00:34like, with the energy going back and forth.
00:37I think if I really think about it,
00:39that was a moment where I felt,
00:42oh, this feels right to me somewhere in my bones.
00:45My dad's named Mitch, and he's a submarine commander.
00:50Danny.
00:51Submarine commander?
00:54He works for WBLN Radio.
00:57And then my sister was in a show
01:00when we were in high school,
01:02you know, high school production of,
01:04and I watched her, and I thought,
01:05ooh, that would be fun to do.
01:11I think as a kid, you take it for granted.
01:13It's life, right?
01:17And then you grow up and you start to realize,
01:19oh, this is what my parents do,
01:20or this is what the person who raised me does,
01:22and somehow you understand the language
01:24in a different way.
01:24So to me, I feel like,
01:26just like if you grow up in another country
01:29and you speak a different language,
01:30it's a fluency, right?
01:31Like, you have a fluency in that language,
01:33and to me, I grew up watching things
01:35and talking about storytelling,
01:36and so there's a semi-fluency in that language,
01:40you know, that I feel comfortable in.
01:46He has emotional problems.
01:48Oh, I have those too.
01:49What kind of emotional problems does your dad have?
01:51My new friend.
01:52Real or imaginary?
01:54Wake up, Donnie.
01:56Imaginary.
01:57Donnie Darko's a movie that comes back to me
02:01through people all the time.
02:04When I think about the cast of that movie,
02:06all the people in it,
02:07and all the things they ended up doing,
02:08and how incredible so many of them are,
02:11you know, at the time, it was just,
02:12we were just like having fun making this independent movie.
02:15And so yeah, it was definitely,
02:19I mean, it was the only movie I've acted with my sister in,
02:22so only thing I've ever really acted with her.
02:25I always knew that it would be found.
02:26When an idea is new, that's what I think is fantastic,
02:30like, and I think Donnie Darko's a different, new idea.
02:33I think in many ways,
02:36I think the effect it had on me playing it,
02:39and the experience of making it,
02:43and then what it's become, you know?
02:45They're all different forms of how
02:49something
02:54affects you as a performer.
02:56One is, I think, in doing it,
02:58and then sometimes is how it is responded to,
03:01and how it affects other people.
03:06The acting thing was not something I thought about doing,
03:10though I started doing it early,
03:11but the thing I really understood more
03:13was behind the camera.
03:14So, because my family, and friends,
03:17and different people were involved in that
03:19as I was growing up.
03:20So it is a pursuit that I would like to follow.
03:23Obviously, my sister has made a movie
03:26and to such incredible acclaim,
03:28so it's in our bones.
03:30There was a moment where he was,
03:33you know, ambulance is really tight,
03:34and so he was driving,
03:36and we were on the streets,
03:37like open streets of LA was he's driving,
03:39and I was in the passenger seat to talk to him.
03:45So, obviously, when you're filming,
03:46you have to be in the eyeline of the other actor.
03:49And so Michael passed the camera over to me,
03:52and I was operating his coverage
03:54while we were doing the scene.
03:56And then Yaya was saying,
03:57oh, that takes a lot of confidence to do that,
03:58and then more people were saying,
04:00oh, he was shooting scenes and stuff.
04:02I was like, I was not doing that.
04:04But I will say that it doesn't feel uncomfortable
04:06for me to hold a camera,
04:08and I grew up watching people make movies.
04:11I'm really interested in how a great filmmaker
04:15or whatever the genre is does what he or she does.
04:17And to me, that's like, it's like food, you know?
04:23And so that is the experience of a Michael Bay movie
04:28is that he says, capture anything when it's alive.
04:30Like, here, you, get it.
04:32If you can get it, get it, you know?
04:34And it's inspiring to me.