Video:Maggie Gyllenhaal Crazy Heart Interview
with Rebecca MurrayMaggie Gyllenhaal stars with Jeff Bridges in 'Crazy Heart,' a movie that's earned critical acclaim, awards, and has made a substantial amount of Top 10 lists. At the BAFTA/LA Awards Season Tea Party, Gyllenhaal talked about the dramatic film.
Transcript:Maggie Gyllenhaal Crazy Heart Interview
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the 16th Annual BAFTA/LA Awards Season Tea Party held Saturday, January 16, 2010 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
I love the film and I love your character. How much fun was she to get into?Maggie Gyllenhaal: "She was fun to get into. She's kind of not thinking very much about what's good for her, and just going after what feels good to her. And that's always fun to do for a while."
I always saw her as a mom first, above everything else.
Maggie Gyllenhaal: "I think a real give away is that first time she lets Bad take her son out. And they're not home when she gets home and there's this five seconds that she doesn't know where he is, and she completely freaks out. As opposed to if you really trusted someone who's taking your kid, they're not back yet it's probably fine. She really freaks out and I think she knows he's a drunk. The only time she says to him, 'Don't drink,' for the first three quarters of the movie she kind of straddles him and says, 'Don't drink in front of Buddy,' and the watches him down his drink and goes on with it. I don't think she's putting her child first until the end."
Working with Jeff Bridges must have been a fantastic experience.
Maggie Gyllenhaal: "Yeah. He and I really, we work very similarly. Scenes were never the same twice. We really kind of let ourselves react to each other in every moment. We just kind of went for it. Not everybody works that way. Some people really like to plan things, really like to hit the beats and stick the landing and stuff. But we just kind of rolled with it, that's much more the way we both work. It was an incredible pleasure."
And also you took a chance on a first time director, too, working on this. How was he?
Maggie Gyllenhaal: "I loved Scott [Cooper]. And I went into it... At this point, often, I've worked with a lot of first time directors. To be honest, sometimes when I meet them - because it's so hard to know how it's going to go - I'm meeting them to see if I can do the movie alone, if I could do it without any help, if they won't get in my way. You know, it's not ideal when you need help and you want someone to help you. But sometimes you read a great script and you think, 'All right, I've got Jeff, a great part, can I just do this by myself? Is he going to get in my way?' And that's how I went into it with Scott. And after about a week, I started to kind of notice, 'Oh, you can see me. Maybe you can help me.' I loved him."
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