Jake Gyllenhaal made his onscreen acting debut 30 years ago, and since then he’s comfortably transitioned from being a hugely talented child star into a promising up-and-comer, before spending the last decade solidifying his reputation as one of his generation’s finest talents.
The actor is currently enjoying rave reviews for his incredible showcase in Netflix thriller The Guilty, while he’s got Michael Bay’s action thriller Ambulance coming next year, and recently signed on to star and produce in big budget comic book adaptation Oblivion Song.
It was the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: Far From Home that ended his self-imposed blockbuster exile a decade after the dismal Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and in a new interview with Howard Stern via The Hollywood Reporter, the 40 year-old revealed that he was suffering serious anxiety issues when cameras started rolling.
“It’s hard, man. That acting is hard. All of it. That world is enormous. And I joined that world way into that run; a train that was already moving. Normally, I come in way early on, and I get to figure it out. I was freaking out. It was a scene with Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Holland, there were a number of actors in that scene. And I remember not being able to remember my lines. I was the wooden board. And they were like, ‘Whoa’.
And I went up to Tom Holland and was like, ‘Dude, help me out’. He’s like, ‘It’s all good, man. Just relax’. It was like he was me in so many situations. And I finally did. I just put a lot of pressure on myself because I love that world. I had to walk up and be like, ‘Look man, I just came off Broadway doing a one-man show for an hour and a half on stage, so I got this. Please, believe me’.”
It must have been jarring for Gyllenhaal to go from a one-man show to a $200 million behemoth, especially when it was a style of filmmaking he’d been unfamiliar with for so long. He acquitted himself very well as Spider-Man: Far From Home villain Mysterio in the end, though, so much so that fans would love to see him make a return.