Q&A with Love & Other Drugs Star Jake Gyllenhaal and Director Edward Zwick
Love & Other Drugs Star Jake Gyllenhaal and Director Edward Zwick during CMJ Film Screening Q&A photo by: Leslie DJ
“Annie wanted to say that she really wanted to be here but had a previous engagement she couldn’t get out of,” stated Jake Gyllenhaal regarding his notably absent costar Anne Hathaway. “She actually doesn’t care about you [guys],” he joked and thus began the Q&A session that followed the film screening of “Love & Other Drugs.” He was joined by director Edward Zwick who spoke candidly about the film’s premise, what it was like working with Jake and Anne among other things.
The film is based on the book, “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,” by Jamie Reidy and takes place in the 1990s, 1996 to be exact. A time in which songs like the “Macarena” and alternative music were all the rave. The film’s synopsis reads as follows: Anne Hathaway plays Maggie, an alluring free spirit who won’t let anyone – or anything – tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie’s evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love.
Music plays a pivotal role in the film, “I never thought there’d be a time I’d use the Macarena,” admitted the film’s director. “The 90s were an odd moment in time, the mid 90s as well, it wasn’t our finest moment,” lamented Ed. He continued, “We were a little hesitant to [use music] too much,” stating that a lot of movies nowadays rely on the music to do the job of the actors. The trick is finding a balance between the two because as Zwick stated, “we had music in movies long before we had talking,” so it goes hand in hand with filmmaking.
Gyllenhaal admitted begging to be a part of the film after reading the script, “I grew up watching [Zwick’s] work,” said the actor. Zwick is the man behind such films as “Glory,” “Blood Diamond,” and “Defiance,” among others and his TV credits include “Thirtysomething,” “Once and Again” and “My So-Called Life.” For Gyllenhaal it was a no-brainer, he had to be a part of the film. Once cast he spent weeks rehearsing and researching his character, “I’m the type of actor that needs to put it into motion. I can’t just sit in a room by myself. I need to be able to fuck it up.” He went as far as sitting in on auditions, while the rest of the film was being casted, and going over the scenes with the different actors. The hard work paid off, the actor gives a moving performance which he credits all to Zwick. “Jake is being modest…I didn’t make him do that stuff, it was him. I just gave him the tools to bring it out,” said Zwick.
The film features a lot of nudity, “Annie [and Jake] are both about authenticity,” explained Zwick. The actors relied on Zwick to portray them in the best possible light when it came to the love scenes. “Fear is the killer of creativity,” said Gyllenhaal regarding mentally blocking out the fact that audiences will be seeing their naked bodies. “You have to block that out otherwise you’ll never get anything done,” he said.
Throughout the course of the Q&A Gyllenhaal lamented Anne Hathaway being absent from the session and commended the actress for her bravery and suggesting changes be made to her character in order to make it more lively, realistic and three-dimensional. “It was Annie’s idea to have [Maggie] trump [Jamie] in the sex game,” revealed Gyllenhaal. In the end it all worked itself out nicely. “We decided last night that we’re not calling this film a romantic comedy,” said Gyllenhaal. “We’re gonna call it an emotional comedy because that’s what it is, it’s life.”
