Edward Zwick talks about Jake Gyllenhaal in Love & other drugs

"Gyllenhall’s character, Jamie Randall, is a philanderer and smooth talker who doesn’t live up to his millionaire brother, or physician father and sister. Hathaway plays Maggie Murdoch, whose early Parkinson’s diagnosis drives her to fear her own mortality and to push people from her life.“I didn’t want to do a standard romantic comedy, something that was contrived so it was about finding the right story,” Zwick said. “And more than that, it was about finding the right actors.”
Though audiences have seen powerful performances from Gyllenhaal, such as his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain, Zwick thinks he’s still coming into his prowess as an actor.
“There is a moment in every actor’s life when those things come together,” he said. “There is a moment in every young man’s life, not necessarily when you’re 24 or 28. Sometimes you have to get a three in front of their age before everything starts to function and they fire on all cylinders. I think it’s happening and very abundant and clear in the film.”
Jake Gyllenhaal as Jamie Randall and Anne Hathaway as Maggie Murdock in "Love and other drugs" (2010)

Though billed as a romantic comedy, the film does exactly what Zwick wants and detours from typical contrived conventions, and detours into more serious territory as the bond between Gyllenhaal and Hathaway’s characters deepens. Zwick credits life as inspiration for their performances.
“Everyone goes through things. Annie had this relationship that was traumatic.
Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal dining in Paris, France on 14th March 2009

Jake was deeply in love with someone that had two children and it ended, and these things mark you. They have an effect on your soul and your instrument, and it’s happened to both of them.”
“When I was 30, I got married,” Zwick said. “And within two weeks, my mother died. I think it pertains to this movie, that is has the word and in it. Sometimes the best thing happens, but the worst thing happens as well. It’s not just — it’s and.” Source: blastmagazine.com