Maggie Gyllenhaal on mainstream movies, fashion and juggling motherhood and an acting career
INDIE icon Maggie Gyllenhaal is all grown up. She gets real about mainstreaming with Channing Tatum, her style limits and the relationship that brought her to her knees.
ASK Maggie Gyllenhaal what topic gets a good airing around the dinner table at the Brooklyn, New York, home she shares with her husband, fellow actor Peter Sarsgaard, and she smiles.
"It's all about the logistics."
Since becoming a mother to six-year-old Ramona and 15-month-old Gloria Ray, she says: "That's all we talk about. We do a lot of talking about how we're going to manage."
And, like families the world over, things don't always go to plan.
"We try to arrange our schedules so one of us is home while the other is working, but it doesn't always work out that way," says Gyllenhaal.
"For Peter and I, it's just really hard. We're working it out all the time."
On screen, though, Gyllenhaal seems to be working it out just fine. In her latest film, the blockbuster White House Down, she plays Carol Finnerty, a high-ranking Secret Service operative.
When an old and unreliable flame (Channing Tatum) comes calling at the White House about a possible job protecting the president (played with brilliant humour by Jamie Foxx), she turns him away.
But events take a different course when the president finds himself the target of domestic terrorists, with only one person around to protect him - Tatum's John Cale.
Let's be clear here.
White House Down won't win any Oscars; it's a feel-good flick, an excellent date movie very much in the tradition of Die Hard, where the flawed hero tries to make amends for past personal and professional transgressions - Bruce Willis's John McClane has become Tatum's Cale.
White House Down is not Gyllenhaal's usual fare. Although she appeared in the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight, she's not really the blockbuster type. Indeed, before the doe-eyed Zooey Deschanel came along, Gyllenhaal was the reigning indie movie queen, who first came to notice in 2002's sadomasochistic Secretary.
As such, she's pretty honest when asked about her motivations for taking on such a mainstream role.
"I guess, in a way, there's something exciting about being in a movie that many people will see," she says, adding that "it didn't hurt working with Channing".
"There are a lot of movies I've made that I think are great, but really don't reach very many people, so it's kind of interesting for me to be a part of something that's such a bigmachine. I'm used to working on films that have no budget, and here we were treated very well. I have a small baby, and the crew were very gracious about allowing me breaks to breastfeed, so it helps having a nice trailer."
Gyllenhaal was also happy that her character was "a powerful, capable, smart woman" - a rarity in films of this genre.
More interestingly, she's "vulnerable, exhausted, confused and scared - like me and every woman I know".
When you speak to the 35-year-old, she's passionate and engaging. Her answers don't seem as if she's reeling them off by rote, and there's a real sense of back and forth with her - which is incredibly rare in celebrity interviews.
In fact, Gyllenhaal has never been shy about expressing her own political views. She has been an outspoken advocate against the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, has supported infamous whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, while also being heavily involved in the American Civil Liberties Union, an organisation her entire family supports.
Hollywood, of course, usually doesn't want its stars to be too political (a little is fine).
Jane Fonda, Richard Gere, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon have all suffered over the years for their non-populist views, and who can forget documentary-maker Michael Moore being booed at the 2003 Oscars for trashing then president George W. Bush?
Gyllenhaal, though, says she's less worried these days about speaking out on political issues now than she was her earlier years, when she was afraid her opinions would damage her career.
"There was a time when I got scared by the kind of reaction to some things I would say," she says, adding that another reason she was drawn to White House Down was because "I would never be involved in a movie like this that subtly said things I didn't believe in, and this movie subtly says things I do believe in."
She grew up in a political family (her parents divorced in 2009 after 32 years of marriage), and discussions around the dinner table were certainly encouraged.
"My mom has always been very political and my dad, too. My dad has gotten more political as he's gotten older," she says. "My mom was always political and radical, particularly when she was in college. When she got older, she became less radical, but my family is still very left of centre, so that's just how I grew up."
Her family, of course, is also entrenched in the entertainment business. Her father, Stephen, is a film director and her mother, Naomi, a screenwriter - and we all know who her brother, Jake, is.
She grew up around women such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Emma Thompson, both close friends of the family.
Gyllenhaal says it was priceless having access to women who could encourage and advise her.
"It's incredibly helpful to have role models who are a bit older and have a little more experience," she says of Curtis and Thompson.
"And who you admire how they've lived their lives as an artist and a woman - I mean, that's a gift to anybody."
Growing up with a brother who wanted to follow the same career path was advantageous, too.
"We've never really competed," says Gyllenhaal, who played Jake's on-screen sister in the cult classic Donnie Darko.
While the two enjoy a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, it's more about wanting to push each other on rather than any genuine feelings of envy.
"Jake and I can always tell each other what we really think, and he will challenge me and question me, but he also supports me endlessly," she says, adding that "he's an incredible uncle to the girls".
For his part, Jake has said that he and his sister "love each other's work more than anyone else".
But Gyllenhaal insists it's her husband of four years (they've been together 11) who's had the greatest impact on her career.
"The benefits for me are more with Peter," she explains. "He really understands what I'm doing when I go to work. Our taste is almost exactly the same; we like very similar things. When I'm working, he has this innate understanding about what's going on with me, and I really appreciate that. And he knows how to help me when I'm having a hard time."
She's open about her own foibles and insecurities, and knows she can't be everything to everyone - whether that be her friends, family or children - even though she might try.
"I put lots of pressure on myself, which I now try to have some objectivity about," she says.
"There's a part of me that's kind of at war - that goes, 'I like what I like, I am who I am'. And as I get older, I get more in touch with that. Then there's another part of me that feels hurt and disappointed when everybody doesn't agree with me or see me, but that's where I am right now at 35.
"At least I'm aware, I guess, of both of those wars within myself. We're all a little bit
strong and a little bit weak."
Having children has brought about other, more significant changes. "I have changed in that I think I've become more solidly a woman as opposed to a girl in the years since I've had my first daughter," she states.
"I went from being 28 to 35, and that's a big change."
She's also honest about the fact that motherhood has humbled her. "It's such a complicated relationship, but it has completely brought me down to earth - and down to my knees," she says, with a snort.
"They've just ripped open the spectrum of feeling in my life - both the very best and the very worst of feelings. I've seen the very best and the very worst of myself. I cannot recommend it more and at the same time, it's the hardest thing I've ever done."
Having children hasn't changed the roles she's drawn to, but it has affected where she's willing to travel for filming (there's that word, logistics, again).
"My daughter's just starting second grade, and I can maybe justify taking her out of second grade for three weeks, to go on location, but I can't really fly her all the way around the world the way I used to," she says. "And I have to keep in mind that I have a 15-month-old baby, for whom being at home and in her room and in her bed is very important."
She's a style icon who has the quirky Brooklyn look down pat, but she admits motherhood has impacted her clothing choices.
"Even though I love clothes in my work, in my life - and even the wardrobe for a character is really important to me - at the moment, I'm dressing for comfort.
"At the same time, I'm always aware of expressing something in the way that I dress, but it's got to be super-easy now. It's got to be, 'OK, I'm going to grab one of these three pairs of pants and a T-shirt, and they're going to make me feel like I'm me, and it's OK if they get dirty.' You
know, if I happen to get photographed by the paparazzi, I'm not going to be terribly embarrassed about it."
She's a fan of Céline ("even though I own none"), Dior, Alexander McQueen, Chloé and Dries Van Noten, who designed her wedding dress.
"I've always loved Dries Van Noten, and any time a stylist does pull clothes for me, I'm always drawn to his pieces."
However, there are practical fashion considerations she needs to heed, including the challenge of wearing heels when you're 1.75m.
"I have to wear them for my work and I can manage in them just," she says, laughing, "but I'm much more interested in being comfortable in my shoes than I am in basically anything else."
Although she has a keen eye for fashion, Gyllenhaal employs a stylist, because "otherwise I'd spend my whole day thinking about clothes, and there are a whole lot of other things I need to be thinking about. I need to have a stylist, because I need that help."
She admits her relationship with her stylist is "a very specific thing", adding that she split with her long-time stylist a while ago and tried a few others to varying degrees of success, before settling on her latest.
"I just found this woman I love who really sees me and gets me."
One of the benefits of the intense global press tour she's been on for White House Down is that she's enjoying getting dressed up again after recently being able to fit back into her clothes, post-baby.
"I don't want to wear a plain, nothing thing. I want to wear something kind of spectacular and I want it to make me feel beautiful," she says.
"I want to take the opportunity to put on one of these amazing works of art. I feel like it's so rare that any of us get to really dress up. I mean, who doesn't want to wear a pretty dress?"
White House Down is in cinemas on September 5.
Story from Sunday Style, download the Sunday Style app here.
###