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“The Dark Knight” represents the first foray into summer blockbuster action filmmaking for indie It girl Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Best known for her standout work in quirky projects like “Secretary” and “Stranger Than Fiction,” Gyllenhaal immediately faced controversy when she signed up to play Bruce Wayne’s childhood love Rachel Dawes—the role played by Katie Holmes in “Batman Begins.”
(Holmes, who received an unduly harsh Razzie nomination as worst supporting actress for “Batman Begins,” was apparently otherwise occupied with a prior commitment to this year’s poorly received comedy “Mad Money”—although the rumor mill went in to overdrive with other potential reasons why the freshly minted Mrs. Tom Cruise was suddenly unavailable.)
But Gyllenhaal weathered the tabloid storm to breathe life into “Dark Knight’s” lone major female character. Metromix spoke with the actress about replacing Holmes, being part of a superhero love triangle and her most rewarding role yet: motherhood.
When it was announced that you would be replacing Katie Holmes for this movie there were reports that you said the filmmakers “wanted a real actress.” Was that true?
My agents said ‘oh my God, look what they said you said’ and I thought ‘why would I ever say that?’ You know? In fact, I wrote to her. I wrote her a little email after that because I just thought ‘I doubt she’d really read it, but if she [did], I wouldn’t want her to feel bad even for a second.’
I’m a fan of hers, and I think she’s a lovely actress, and I really thought she was great in the previous movie. Once I knew that I had her blessing in terms of doing this, which I found out I did, I kind of thought ‘okay, the only way for me to [play Rachel] is to think of her as a whole new woman.’ I’d be horrible if I tried to imitate [Katie], or if I were tied into choices that she had made. I had to make [Rachel] my own woman.
What was it that got you interested in being a part of “The Dark Knight”?
When I was approached about this, I wasn’t looking to work. I had a three month old, I hadn’t been reading scripts at all, and I wasn’t in the sort of work frame of mind, but I was a big fan of Christopher Nolan [and] the actors in the movie were so amazing. It was pretty hard not to take seriously the possibility of working with them.
I met Chris, he gave me the script to read, and he said ‘[Rachel] isn’t really finished yet in this draft.’ I had a lot of ideas and I said I really only wanted to do it if she could be a real woman…if she could be feisty and awake and a fully formed woman with a mind who is just as impassioned about finding justice and honor in the community as these other guys are. And I think that was exactly what Chris wanted her to be.
What are your thoughts on Rachel’s romantic dilemma in the film—choosing between Bruce Wayne, who she knows is Batman, and Harvey Dent?
I think she’s trying to figure out which of these two very honorable men is going about trying to change the world they live in, in a way that is more effective. There’s Harvey Dent who is following the system, using the system to change the system and make things better, which is what she’s doing in her job too. And then over here she sees Bruce Wayne, as Batman, who is maybe more of a radical. He thinks the system is so broken that it needs…someone sort of smashing [it] in order to really change things. I think she thinks there is a part of that that is very, very brave and a part that is very cowardly.
What type of role would you like to do that you haven’t done so far?
I have played a lot of people who were really broken. I think part of the reason I was attracted to doing that is because I felt that it was an honorable thing to do—to take somebody who is troubled and show an audience how they’re lovable. If you can show them that about an imaginary person, it’s almost a way of practicing, teaching and being compassionate. In fact practicing being compassionate myself—to take these people who I might not immediately like and learn how to love them. I love that [but] I’ve done that for years. Now I want to play somebody who’s strong and elegant…like a queen.
You mentioned you became a mom not long before making this movie. What’s surprised you most about having a child?
I think there are so many things that you cannot tell someone when they’re going to be a mother or father about having a child that are totally surprising. How much you’ll change, how hard you’ll work, how much you’ll love. I think it’s just expanded me in every way. It’s incredible.
Are you planning to have more kids?
At some point, I’d like to have more, but I’d like to do some work first.
