Jake Gyllenhaal had to practise a lot for "Love and other drugs" sex scenes

Jake Gyllenhaal playing Jamie Reidy in "Love and other drugs" (2010)

Your characters have to overcome a serious illness for their relationship to move forward. What wouldn’t you do for love?
Jake: I’m like Meatloaf… so that says it all! Anne: One of the things I love about the movie is it really explores the idea that true love demands a lot of you. Love requires you to become better and to go deeper, and I think that the movie shows us [that] when the stresses arise – in our characters’ case, it’s a degenerative illness that raises the stakes. I’ve never been challenged in that way. I hope I’m the kind of person that would, but I hope I never know what I would do.
What was your favourite scene to shoot?
Jake: I loved shooting every scene in this movie – that’s one of the rare experiences. I loved shooting the scene where Jamie says, ‘I love you’ to Annie’s character, Maggie. I thought that was a wonderful moment where we could have interpreted it in many ways. We found the humour in it and that was a real fun thing to do. She’s so funny, and she responds to me and I think I respond to her in a wonderful way.
Anne: I’m a big fan of scenes where I get to pretend to be asleep! And so I love the last scene. But each take took about half an hour to set up and, in between, I actually did fall asleep and I didn’t notice when we started to shoot! That tape did not wind up in the film because it was actually a real wake-up when you’re like, ‘Huuuhh?!’ It was really surreal because I was actually lying in bed with Jake Gyllenhaal!
Anne, what’s more terrifying – doing so much nudity in a film or the thought of hosting the Oscars?
I’ve done the nudity thing, and I can tell you the scariest part about doing nudity is having to watch it with an audience. And the second part of the nudity is talking about it – that’s a little scary, and all the attention it gets. But I’ve never hosted the Oscars, so I don’t know. I’m excited that I’m doing it with someone [actor James Franco] – that’s going to make it more fun than terrifying. I’m excited to have it be one more thing I can tell my grandkids I did.
Is it easier to shoot sex scenes with someone you find attractive?
Jake: I think it is easier to work with someone that you find attractive – I think it’s always easier to work with things that are actually occurring, and yet, there are boundaries.Anne: I actually do think that 65-70 per cent of my nude scenes have been with you, and you are very attractive, so I can safely say, yes!

What research did you both do for your roles?Jake: My character in this movie obviously has a lot of sex, so I had to practise a lot – that was very important! You have to devote yourself to your character, and I was fully devoted to research. Sacrifices, they’re sacrifices [laughs]! I can safely say I have never tried Viagra. Both Annie and I did a lot of genuine research for our characters. I met with as many pharmaceutical reps as I could, and it was really hard to get into that world. I found it much more difficult than even when I played a CIA agent in a movie. The guy who wrote the book that this is loosely based on, Jamie Reidy, I spent hours upon hours with him listening to stories, and even just stealing from him as a character. Anne: Because I was playing a character with early onset Parkinson’s disease, I obviously wanted to make sure I knew everything I could know about the illness. So I met with people with early onset Parkinson’s; people who had lived with the diagnosis for 20-25 years. I asked them a lot about their experiences with the illness, their experiences with their medication, their experiences with medical support. I tried to cover every base that I could. And I actually met with one of the women in the film, Lucy, who is the emcee at the Parkinson’s convention. And I was just blown away by people’s openness and their courage to share their stories with me, and my entire performance is totally indebted to that. One man said something that really put the whole experience of having Parkinson’s into perspective for me – I knew that I could never fully understand, but to understand the anxiety and the fear of it, this man said, ‘I miss being able to crumple paper’.
You two have already worked together on Brokeback Mountain. What was different this time around?
Jake: I got to be into her this time [laughs]!
Anne: It’s a wonderful thing, because Jake and I haven’t seen each other in a few years. We run into each other at a few things, but we haven’t really connected since the whole Brokeback experience. It’s a wonderful thing when someone you really admire and respect and really like has grown even more into themselves, and that’s what I witnessed with Jake. He was still the same person – he was just more grown up and his confidence had deepened. But all the good things, like how much fun we had together as people, were all still in place.

Love & Other Drugs is in cinemas nationally now Source: www.okmagazine.com.au



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Take the quiz yourself and find out what your love personality is. Go see Love & Other Drugs, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, in theaters November 24. loveandotherdrugsthemovie.com