Jake Gyllenhaal recalls 'torture' of filming steamy scenes with Jennifer Aniston: "That doesn't turn me on"
It's always surreal to witness the magic of cinema unfolding on the silver screen, where actors mold themselves into another person, transporting viewers into unknown worlds. While acting is tough, filming steamy scenes adds another layer of challenge. Jake Gyllenhaal recalls filming romantic scenes with Jennifer Aniston, and called the experience 'torturous'.
Gyllenhaal and Aniston shared the screen in 2002's comedy-drama flick 'The Good Girl.' Aniston plays the character of a 30-year-old suburban wife stuck in a monotonous life, Justine Last. She works at a big-box store called Retail Radio. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when Gyllenhaal's character, Holden Worther, joins the store as a cashier, as reported by Tyla. Despite being eight years younger than Justine, Holden immediately connects with her and sparks fly. The unusual connection disrupts Justine's seemingly stable but unfulfilled life, and as the story progresses, both embark on a relationship that can be categorized as tumultuous.
One of the film’s notable moments involves a steamy motel scene between the two, and Gyllenhaal later opened up during an interview on 'The Howard Stern Show' about the challenges of filming such an intimate scene with Aniston, as per HuffPost. Gyllenhaal shared, "Oh, yeah, it was torture. Yes, yes, it was." He further explained that such scenes are often 'awkward' rather than sexy, saying, "Weirdly, love scenes are awkward because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching it," the actor said." Gyllenhaal further elaborated, "That doesn’t turn me on, so most of the time it’s oddly mechanical," describing love scenes as a dance—you’re choreographed for a camera."
While Gyllenhaal was feeling surly out of place, Aniston had a unique idea to ease the awkwardness. Gyllenhaal shared, "I do remember a pillow... the pillow technique was used." Gyllenhaal further added, "That was just preemptive and generally always used when actually in a horizontal place in that movie. Everything else was whatever it was." To which Howard Stern joked, "The pillow saved you," asking who taught him the technique. Gyllenhaal humorously replied, "I think that was actually Jennifer’s suggestion. I think she was actually very kind to suggest it before we began. She was like, 'I'm putting a pillow here."
Gyllenhaal, who was 21 at the time, also admitted to having a crush on Aniston before working with her in a chat with PEOPLE and EW editorial director Jess Cagle in the edition of 'The Jess Cagle Interview,' as per Entertainment Weekly. The actor revealed, "I will say, I had a crush on her for years. And working with her was not easy." He added, "It was lovely. It wasn't hard, that's what I would say." Gyllenhaal credits Aniston's personality, both on and off-screen, for his admiration, saying, "Not so much Friends, but kind of her personality from afar and movies she was in. And some of Friends—I’m not a huge Friends fan—but who she is."
