There’s a bromance going on between actor Jake Gyllenhaal and Quebecois filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.
Last year, they made two films together (Prisoners and Enemy), and both men claim they bonded immediately.
Says Villeneuve, 46, “When we met the first time, we realized we had a lot in common as artists and as men. We became close friends very quickly, and our relationship was born of the will to say the truth and be authentic. We are super-straightforward, like brothers.”
They want to work together again, and Gyllenhaal, 33, jokes about the insecurities that come out in their e-mail relationship. “We have these moments, where one of us will write the other. I’ll write to him, ‘Let’s go do something! Let’s do this together,’ and then he won’t respond for a little while, because I know he’s somewhere thinking, ‘Should we?’ And then all of a sudden he’ll write me two weeks later, and say, “Let’s do something! Are you available?’ and that’s how we feel.
“We’re constantly orbiting this thing, and during our process, we’re deeply inspired, hurt, moved, enraged, all of those things together.”
The duo visited Toronto to talk about Enemy, a psychological thriller opening in March about a schlubby college lecturer named Adam who is stunned to encounter his double — a macho actor named Anthony.
Gyllenhaal plays both roles in the film, bringing both characters to life via carefully nuanced performances impressive to watch.
The movie, which concerns issues of identity, was filmed in Toronto. The city looks chilly and anonymous and becomes a character in the storytelling.
Trying to describe what he was going for, Villeneuve says, “We tried to portray a kind of claustrophobic, oppressive environment, and Toronto had all the qualities we were looking for.” We sure he meant that in the nicest way.
“I feel Toronto is a bit, you know, not loved enough,” he adds.
And that ties it perfectly to the story’s themes of identity, notes Gyllenhaal.
“When we were shooting, there were moments you could feel like you were in Sao Paulo or Hong Kong or anywhere. Culturally, it’s pretty extraordinary … and I think that question of identity, in an interesting way, is at the heart of Toronto itself. We’d walk around and people kept saying, ‘Thank you for coming!’ and I’m going, ‘Why?’
“There is that, ah, general attitude,” Gyllenhaal says, and he laughs.
“In New York, it’s like, ‘F— you for coming.'”
