Maggie Gyllenhaal Interview: The Deuce

CULTURE

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL ON THE DEUCE AND TRANSITIONING INTO PRODUCING

The actress is back with exciting new projects, including the upcoming second season of The Deuce.

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Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose latest TV project, The Deuce, is currently prepping for its second season on HBO, is an actress unafraid of taking risks. Following her critically-acclaimed roles in films such as Crazy Heart, The Honourable Woman, and Secretary, Gyllenhaal is back with a series of bold new projects, including her upcoming film, The Kindergarten Teacher. Below, she sounds off on her new works, delving into producing, and navigating a showbiz family.

AS IF: From what I understand, your surname, Gyllenhaal, is of Swedish nobility dating back to the 17th century. Tell me what you know about this.

Maggie Gyllenhaal: As I kid I was told this story about my Swedish forefather. He was a botanist who specialized in butterflies, and the king of Sweden was so taken by a book he published on butterflies that he sought him out, found him in the countryside, and took him to live in the palace and made him a nobleman. He apparently gave him a golden hall to live in, which is where “Gyllenhaal” came from. I’ve since been told that Gyllenhaal doesn’t really mean golden hall! I’m sure much of this story has become more of a myth over the years. When I was pregnant with Gloria I worked on a television show called Finding Your Roots, and I learned a lot about both sides of my family. There was so much more information gathered about my dad’s side, who at a certain point in time made a lot of money. My mom’s side were poor Jews living in Russia. There’s not much information on them until the very beginning of the 20th century.

You began your film career as a teenager, and both you and your brother had roles in your father’s films. Did you always know you wanted to be an actor?

I used to go to my parents’ sets, which I never liked. When you are visiting someone’s set you feel out of place and kind of redundant, no matter how much effort people make to make you feel comfortable. But, I was always really interested in the actresses, and I would just sit and watch them work, like Debra Winger and Barbara Hershey. I remember sitting and watching Debra Winger. I was so intrigued by her deep concentration, and trance-like state she would get into in between the takes. I felt like acting was something I was good at, and in my family it was important to be good at things (laughs). From a very young age I felt that acting was like a secret way of expressing things within myself that couldn’t be expressed other ways, which is very helpful when you’re young, and I still feel that way about it. Acting is a form of self-expression, it’s not becoming someone else, and it’s not playing make believe; it’s about using the fiction of being someone else to express something about yourself.

Calvin Klein varsity-sleeve stocking top

Tell me about your HBO series, The Deuce, and your first impression when you read the script?

The writing was clearly excellent, which is very rare. I knew this script was worth paying attention to. Most things that really compel me also scare me on some level. And by scary I mean they require that I learn something about myself in order to do them, or while I’m doing them. The Deuce presented a real challenge on a number of levels. We made the pilot almost two years ago, and we shot the rest of it last summer, which was before Donald Trump was elected. The final moments of the 2016 presidential campaign were underway when we were shooting episodes two through eight. I think most people thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win, but we could feel that there was something really broken in our culture, and it was starting to percolate underneath. Suddenly, people who normally didn’t pay much attention to politics started really paying attention to the news, started reading, started becoming aware of what was going on, and I count myself as one of those people. The themes in The Deuce include misogyny. We all know misogyny is a huge problem in our culture now: I mean if a presidential candidate can say, I grab women’s pussies, and still get elected, we have a serious misogynistic problem!

“Acting is a form of self-expression, it’s not becoming someone else, and it’s not playing make believe; it’s about using the fiction of being someone else to express something about yourself.”

The night before we shot this cover story, you wrapped on your film The Kindergarten Teacher which you star in and also produce.

It’s a different thing on a small independent movie than on a huge HBO show. On a little independent movie, it’s not uncommon that I’m asked to help find a Director of Photography, for example. People will ask you to call on people you’ve worked with in the past to see if they can come on board. So, you’ll make a few calls, send a few emails, and help build the crew and even the cast. You’ll have lunch with the financers and see if you can close the deal. You’ll do the festival circuit to find a distribution deal. At this stage in my career, it’s nice to get an actual credit for doing all that work, and asking for the credit is also is a self-respecting act. If I’m going to be doing a lot of leg work, aka producing to get this film made, I’d like to actually have it be called what it’s called. At the same time there are major elements of producing that I’m a total beginner at, but I’m really excited to learn.

Maggie Gyllenhaal Gucci Top Chanel Pearls Audemars Piguet Bracelet

Tell me about the project.

The Kindergarten Teacher is a thriller, kind of a Bergman / Polanski-esque thriller about a woman who’s a kindergarten teacher, though really a poet, but nobody pays any attention to her poems. She has a marriage that’s just okay, she doesn’t really seem to have any friends, and she’s in a dark place when she becomes obsessed with a boy in her kindergarten class who she begins to think is a poetic genius. I think the film is really about how society can drive you mad if you don’t have support in life.

MARNI silk, nylon, and polyester dress, and leather shoes

Maggie Gyllenhaal Bottega Veneta Dress Cartier Diamonds

Bottega Veneta desert rose silk crepe de Chine dress with goat hair details, and buckle pump in new moss Nero Karung | Cartier Cactus de Cartier bracelet in 18k yellow gold, emeralds, and diamonds

Who has been your most challenging and exciting actor or actress to work with?

 I really loved working with my husband. I did two plays with him in New York, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters. Peter’s an incredible actor, and it was really exciting to discover that we could work together and become inspired by each other/ I loved working with Jeff Bridges, and Emma Thompson. And I would like to work with Holly Hunter again.