2024-03-06 03:01:00
Peter Sarsgaard, slim and youthful looking, nominated for Emmys and Golden Globes, He is an actor who has never had problems with sex scenes, nudity or breaking taboos. In the biographical film Kinsey he got naked and seduced Liam Neeson. In the psychological thriller The Dying Gaul was masturbated by Campbell Scott. For the director Maggie Gyllenhaal -his wife in real life- leaned against a tree in the short film Penelope and slept with one of his students in The dark daughter “I’m an object of desire in that movie,” he says from the studio of his New York brownstone. “I couldn’t be more an object of desire!”
There is also frontal nudity in his new film. Memory tells the story of Sylvia, a traumatized rape victim (played by a Jessica Chastain with closed and very dim eyes), who falls in love with Saul, a man with juvenile dementia. Sarsgaard is magnificent in this role, which won the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival from last year. AND Memory, Taken as a whole, it’s a triumph, one of the most energetic and uplifting films of the year. Here’s what’s surprising: although Sarsgaard gladly strips naked, he feels insecure about his appearance. “I don’t like the way I look,” says the 52-year-old performer. “That happens to a lot of people. But I guess it’s unusual, since I’m an actor.”
He indicates that he has no problems seeing Memory, although he says that he is “heavier” in it than he has ever been, the result of a injury which left him unable to exercise for a few months before filming. “I have all these disclaimers with this character, so I don’t care what I look like in it.” He adds that it is more difficult when he plays a role in which a well-groomed appearance is especially important. “You already know, when you’re supposed to look like Hugh Grant. Then comes all that, the worry. But luckily I don’t do many characters like that. I’m not that critical of how I look in movies.” He sighs. “There’s more to life.”
It is not that it is given to self-pity. Sarsgaard’s wife has echoed the way women in Hollywood are constantly judged by their looks, especially as they approach middle age. Sarsgaard understands it perfectly. Suddenly animated, he says: “I’m so grateful to be a man!” He explains how he and Gyllenhaal recently ran into an actress in her fifties. “She was standing there, listening to Maggie and this woman talk about how difficult it is to be an actress when you get older. That kind of thing always They open my eyes. As I get older, the roles I’m offered are more interesting. As a man, I take a lot of things for granted.”
He is delighted that Gyllenhaal has found a way to be visible within the film industry. “I am extremely proud of what my wife has done, which is completely reinventing yourself. “Although, to anyone who knows her, it’s not really a surprise.”
Gyllenhaal’s second feature film, Girlfriend, is a big studio film backed by Warner Bros. that builds on the horror classic James Whale from 1935 Bride of Frankenstein. Also scripted by Gyllenhaal, it features an incredible cast which includes Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Penelope Cruz and Annette Bening. Sarsgaard plays the detective who follows Frankenstein’s monster (Bale), his newly created companion (Buckley) and maybe someone else. There are rumors that Buckley’s “girlfriend” will be paired with Cruz’s character. But Sarsgaard will not reveal anything. He’ll just say, “It’s a great, romantic, monster movie. deeply romantic, wild and punk! I think it’s going to be energizing. She is naughty. People are going to be very surprised that this is Maggie’s second film. It doesn’t look anything like The dark daughter.”
Gyllenhaal has paid tribute to Sarsgaard in the press, saying that while she was filming The dark daughter he dealt with “the family side of things,” a rare example of a man who supports his partner “with grace and intelligence.” Do people tell his wife that she is lucky to have him? She makes a face of disbelief. “I feel like I’m the one who’s lucky. Lucky to have Maggie. Because now I have my own director who is going to put me in her films. I’ve always wanted to work with someone over and over again, making that relationship deeper and more interesting. I think that I have never worked with the same director more than once. My wife is the only one.” So that’s the plan? Will she become the Gena Rowlands to his John Cassavetes? “That sounds good! It sounds very good! Although I don’t know if Girlfriend “It’s what you would call a Cassavetes film.”
When they are at home, Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal They don’t talk about work. “Let’s roll Girlfriend in early April,” he says. “I know Maggie is talking to some of the other actors in the movie, but she and I have barely said anything. She knows that’s not the way I work. I read the script a lot. Then daydream with all the things that are not in it.”
He’s the kind of actor who thinks a script can always be improved. When Sarsgaard reads one and sees a phrase like “he cries,” he usually crosses it out. “I’ll decide if I find something moving. You don’t have to tell me. You could do it with anyone. “I’ll think of something else.” He develops a theory that he has clearly thought about. “What someone writes on a piece of paper, in his apartment, has nothing to do with what we do that day… It is very difficult for a screenwriter to get fully into each character and give them their own point of view. “That’s why actors are hired.”
Surely there are filmmakers who disagree. “Almost never,” she says with a sly smile. “Because I come to set with a positive attitude. I don’t verbalize anything. When action is called, I start doing it my way. Then I listen to what the directors say and try to incorporate it, or if it doesn’t make sense to me, I start working with them.” He is sure that directors like to collaborate with him. “Michel Franco, who directed Memory, said The Spanish word for ‘script’ is ‘guide’.”
Sarsgaard is really proud of Memory, a low-budget independent film that, as he himself points out several times, is a project “tiny” that few people have seen until now (it only raised a few 4,000 dollars at the US box office). He is aware that The term “dementia” can be discouraging. “I often don’t even mention that word. When asked what it is about Memory, I tell you: ‘It’s an unusual love story.’ And it is.” He praises Chastain for having held down so much to get the film made (she was the one who urged Franco to hire Sarsgaard). When she is asked to describe her co-star in one word, she chooses “direct.” What would she say about him? “Intuitive? I know that I am very intuitive. “That is perhaps my greatest skill.”
One of his favorite hobbies is Observe people. “I like to discover relationships between people. I go to the park near here and think: ‘Father and daughter? No. Man and lover.'” She grimaces. “If it can be down. You don’t have to listen to the conversation. They say that very little of the communication between us is verbal. Also I like to play chess with strangers in the park. “I like to try to read them.”
He believes he started observing people at a young age. Her father was an Air Force engineer and the family moved a lot. “He didn’t talk much. He was an only child, he had no one to talk to. He was very quiet and calm. So it might have been obvious that he was thinking about something other than video games.” Sarsgaard’s maternal grandfather, Phillip Reinhardt, “he had the bearing of Robert Duvall or Tommy Lee Jones,” says. “He was a very tough, southern man; a mechanic at the firehouse. I was with him all the time and he said almost nothing. We hunted and fished. He was the one who taught me how to play the guitar with my fingers. He used to play Mississippi songs John Hurt and Son House. A lot of African-American music. I felt like I knew him better than anyone, and yet, I didn’t know anything about him. Nothing literal.”
Sarsgaard’s way of interacting sounds intense. He nods his head. “I need to know what’s happening with the people around me. It could be irritating to live with me, in fact, because I am always spying in one way or another, especially with my children. “I’m always thinking about them.”
He and Gyllenhaal have two daughters, Ramona, 17, and Gloria, 11. Gloria sings and plays the violin, Ramona plays the oboe, accordion and double bass. Sarsgaard moves the camera so that he can see the instruments arranged in the corner of the room. “This is what I do mainly with my daughters. “We have a little band.”
Sarsgaard’s study seems immaculate. I tell him that I interviewed Gyllenhaal when he was starting out, when he was promoting the black comedy The Secretary (2002). He gave me advice: always make your bed in the morning, as a “gift” to yourself. Sarsgaard frowns. “That’s a great idea. Hmm… I’m thinking about whether or not our bed is made right now. I think the answer is… probably.” She looks over my shoulder at my bedroom-study and says, cheerfully, “I see yours is!”
“Do you know what my advice would be?” he adds. “When you wake up, Take a whole glass of water. That has helped me. “I think I was dehydrated most of my life.”
Just as we’re about to say goodbye, Sarsgaard blows someone a kiss. It turns out that his dog Babette, a wire-haired griffon, is in the room. “Come here, honey!” Sarsgaard croons, before taking her into his arms. She gives him a series of fierce licks before he puts her back down on the ground. As he walks away from her, he shakes his head fondly. “She’s sweet. She just wants to be with me all day.”
Sarsgaard loves dogs. And to the helpless. In these difficult times, he’s just the sensible guy we need.
* Of The Independent From great britain. Special for Page 12.