Jake Gyllenhaal sat down on the set of his Hollywood Reporter cover shoot to reflect on his "Hollywood Firsts," from his first audition, his first mentor in Hollywood and more. Plus, he shares a sweet story about a woman who once thought he was Spider-Man.
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00:00I did have a very sweet woman on a plane, an older woman come to me and say,
00:05came over and I said, yeah, can I tell my son I was on the plane with Spider-Man?
00:12And I was like, you absolutely can.
00:14Hi, I'm Jake Gyllenhaal and I'm here with The Hollywood Reporter
00:17and I am about to share some of my Hollywood firsts.
00:22I think it was the court jester with Danny Kaye.
00:27I remember watching Danny Kaye and thinking, wow, he's having so much fun.
00:32And I don't know if it was a film itself.
00:35I think it was really just as a kid, just watching people perform
00:41and the ones that brought me joy sort of brought me in.
00:46Is it telling that I can't remember the first audition that I ever,
00:50because I was a kid, but I think it was for City Slickers.
00:55Wow, I realized I got the first audition ever, but I was a kid.
00:59I was, I think I was 10 years old.
01:01I remember flying to, I think it was to Billings, Montana.
01:05The first day I shot on that movie that I was so, I was just so in awe.
01:11Yeah, I think I just was so excited to be there.
01:15I remember that they shot the scene that I was in
01:20at John Burroughs High School in Los Angeles where I grew up.
01:22It was pretty near where I grew up.
01:24And I played baseball at that high school.
01:27And so strange, there were all these trailers there and stuff.
01:31And I have so many memories of that.
01:35I've been in many movies I wasn't in, in certain people's minds.
01:39It's very inconsistent, the movies that people think that they recognize me from.
01:44Though I would say consistently in that space, it is probably,
01:50there is a lot of Donnie Darko, particularly now.
01:52There's been a, I think there's a resurgence of a time that was once cool is cool again.
01:59So there's definitely that.
02:01I did have a very sweet woman on a plane, an older woman come to me and say,
02:07she said, came over to me and said,
02:12can I tell my son I was on the plane with Spider-Man?
02:16And I was like, you absolutely can.
02:18I'm a food person.
02:20So I, you know, I, I, I have had some really nice meals.
02:26I mean, I, I mean, I, yeah, big purchase.
02:29I mean, I remember buying my house, you know, that was pretty incredible.
02:33I lived in Los Angeles, Los Angeles at the time.
02:36And that was, I just couldn't, I just couldn't believe it.
02:40You know, I remember the first time, that house.
02:43I remember Donnie Darko, this film I did.
02:46This film I did.
02:49It was such a sort of trippy journey through the whole script and then putting it into your body
02:55and, and telling it out in, you know, in, in, in 3D in the world.
03:01Like I had no idea what it was going to be.
03:02And it was also like the first thing that really felt like I felt very, very close to
03:08emotionally.
03:09And, and I think that's always, that's always scary.
03:12That kind of like that kind of vulnerability.
03:14I've been lucky enough to have a number of, I guess you could call them mentors in a way.
03:19Chris Cooper, when I was making this film, October Sky, when I was probably 6, 15, 16
03:25years old.
03:26Throughout the years, Chris, you know, like was just, has been and always still is so lovely.
03:32But when I was working on that movie, he was constantly helping me and giving me advice
03:37and support.
03:37I also was really, really privileged to know Paul Newman when he was around.
03:42And, you know, he, he constantly was just a wonderful support, just to a great human
03:49being, as we all know.
03:50And I think there are a number of hundreds of people, maybe thousands of actors in the
03:56business that would probably say the same thing I'm saying about Mr. Newman.
04:00I don't really have those regrets.
04:02You know, I like, I don't, I don't have a, I think you just slowly start to kind of go,
04:09these are all these things are meant.
04:10These are my journey.
04:12Some people ask me sometimes like, oh, like, was there a role that you were up for?
04:16Isn't that?
04:16I'm like, I'm always like, these are, unless you're doing theater, which I think is a different
04:21space, you know, where you're like, people play other roles.
04:25They're your own, whatever they are.
04:27I'm Jake Gyllenhaal, and those are some of my Hollywood firsts.