Jake Gyllenhaal is nominated for three Tony Awards, one as an actor in the play “Sea Wall / A Life” and two as a producer (with his company Nine Stories) of “Sea Wall / A Life” and “Slave Play.” Currently in production on Michael Bay’s action thriller “Ambulance,” he talked with Variety about why he wants to make theater an even bigger part of his life and work.
“Sea Wall / A Life” played on Broadway in the summer of 2019, which feels like an actual lifetime ago. What do you remember about the Broadway run?
Thinking about it makes me miss Broadway so intensely. It really became an example for me of why I make art, which is the interaction with an audience, particularly a live audience. The show was two monologues but we thought of it as a dialogue with the audience, and whoever wanted to speak to us afterwards, in talkbacks or backstage or at the stage door, got to tell us their story.
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