As Anne Hathaway tells Jake Gyllenhaal in “Love & Other Drugs” after he rebounds from a thrashing with an invite for coffee: “Oh, you’re good.” And he is.
When the actor gets on the phone from New York at nearly 6 p.m. on a recent Saturday he reveals, “I just want you to know you’re the last interview of the day. We saved the best for last.”
If he’s exhausted from answering the same half-dozen questions on a loop for the past eight hours, he doesn’t betray it. Besides, who else would inquire about the ink?
Asked about the fake Steelers tattoo he unveiled on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in December, he says, “You know my devotion then. You know my deep devotion to Pittsburgh.”
As for that team logo on his lower back, he playfully asks, “What do you mean? That’s a real tattoo,” but of course it will be covered up in any future movies. And then he lets the cheeky ruse drop and volunteers, “I really legitimately had a wonderful time when I was in Pittsburgh.”
Pressed about some favorite haunts, he says, “Oh, gosh. Let’s see, I went to so many places. I like to eat. I ate my way around. I ate everywhere. I wish I could remember the names of everything.”
Without any prompting, he recalls, “I loved Dish — the restaurant Dish. I did love the pancakes at Pamela’s, I’d have to say, which is probably the go-to. 21st Street Coffee. There was a Greek place that was right where I lived [in Squirrel Hill], I don’t remember the name.”
Mr. Gyllenhaal, who shot the Ed Zwick film from mid-September to late November 2009, says, “I was surprised at how much I loved all the food and actually how much I loved Pittsburgh. … I loved the change of seasons there, and I loved the people there and I had a great time. I would love to make another movie in Pittsburgh.”
