Gyllenhaal at the 2010 Academy Awards
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Born
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Margalit
Ruth Gyllenhaal
November 16, 1977 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Alma mater
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Occupation
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Actress
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Years active
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1992–present
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Spouse(s)
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Peter
Sarsgaard (m. 2009)
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Children
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2
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Parents
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Family
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Jake
Gyllenhaal (brother)
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Early life
Gyllenhaal was born in New
York City to film director Stephen Gyllenhaal and film producer and
screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (née Achs).[6]
Jake
Gyllenhaal, her younger brother, is also an actor. Her father, who was
raised in the Swedenborgian religion, is of Swedish and English
ancestry, and is a member of the Swedish noble Gyllenhaal
family.[7]
Her last native Swedish ancestor was her great-great-grandfather Anders Leonard
Gyllenhaal, a descendant of Leonard Gyllenhaal, a leading Swedenborgian who
supported the printing and spreading of Swedenborg's writings.[8]
Her mother was born in New York City, and is from a Jewish family (they
immigrated from Russia
and Poland). Her
mother's first husband was Eric Foner, a noted historian and history professor at Columbia University.[7][9][10][11][12]
Gyllenhaal has stated that she "grew up mostly Jewish, culturally",
though she did not attend Hebrew school.[13]
Married in 1977, her parents filed for divorce in October 2008.[14]
The name on Maggie Gyllenhaal's birth certificate is Margalit, which she did
not discover until 2013 when she officially changed it to "Maggie".[2][15]
"Margalit" is a Hebrew word meaning "Pearl"; some news
stories spelt it "Margolit".
Gyllenhaal grew up in Los Angeles,
and studied at the Harvard–Westlake prep school.[11]
In 1995, she graduated from Harvard–Westlake and moved to New York to attend Columbia University, where she studied
literature and Eastern religions;[11][16]
she graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[11]
After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in
London,[17]
she took a summer job working as a waitress in a Massachusetts
restaurant.[18]
Career
Early work
Gyllenhaal's first films—her feature film debut
at the age of 15, Waterland (1992); A Dangerous Woman (1993); and Homegrown (1998)—were directed by her father;
the last two also featured her brother; they had supporting roles as children.[11]
With their mother, she and Jake appeared in two episodes of Molto Mario,
an Italian cooking show on the Food
Network.[19]
After graduating from college, she played supporting roles in films like Cecil
B. Demented (2000) and Riding in Cars with Boys (2001).[20]
Gyllenhaal later achieved recognition in her own right playing her real
brother's on-screen sister in the indie
cult
hit Donnie Darko (2001).[21]
She made her theatrical debut in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of
Patrick
Marber's Closer,[22][23]
for which she received favorable reviews.[24][25]
Production started in May 2000 and ended in mid-July of that year.[24]
Gyllenhaal has performed in several other plays, including The Tempest,[26]
Antony and Cleopatra, The Butterfly
Project, and No Exit.[27]
2002–2005
Gyllenhaal attending an event in Barcelona,
Spain, in 2008
She next played a supporting role in the
comedy-drama Adaptation. (2002), a film that tells the
story of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's struggle to adapt The
Orchid Thief into a film.[37]
She later appeared in the unauthorized biography Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
(2002), part of an ensemble cast that included Sam
Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George
Clooney, and Julia Roberts.[38]
The movie grossed US$33 million worldwide.[39]
That same year, she had a smaller role in the comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights.[40]
In 2003, she co-starred with Julia Roberts in Mona
Lisa Smile in the role of Giselle.[41]
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she revealed the
reason for accepting the role was "to play somebody who feels confident in
herself as a sexy, beautiful woman".[42]
The film generated mostly critical reviews,[43]
with Manohla Dargis of the Los
Angeles Times describing it as "smug and reductive".[44]
Her next roles were in smaller independent films: Casa
de los Babys (2003), a story about six American women impatiently
waiting out their lengthy residency requirements in an unidentified South
American country before picking up their adoptive babies,[45]
and Criminal (2004), a remake of the
Argentinian film Nine Queens, with John
C. Reilly and Diego Luna.[46]
Gyllenhaal plays an honest hotel manager forced to help her crooked brother
(Reilly) by seducing one of his victims.[46]
Gyllenhaal was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences in 2004.[47]
She starred in the HBO
film Strip Search (2004), where she portrayed an
American student in China suspected of terrorism.[48]
In 2004, Gyllenhaal returned to theater in a Los
Angeles production of Tony Kushner's Homebody/ Kabul as Priscilla,
the Homebody's daughter, who spends most of the play searching for her elusive
mother in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Kushner gave her the role in Homebody/ Kabul on the strength of her
performance in Closer.[49]
Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: "Ms. Gyllenhaal provides
the essential bridge between the parts of the play's title."[50]
John Heilpern of The New York Observer noted that
Gyllenhaal's performance was "compelling".[51]
Viewed as a sex symbol, she was ranked in the "Hot 100 List" by Maxim magazine in 2004 and 2005.[52][53]
Gyllenhaal's next film role was in the 2005
comedy-drama Happy Endings, in which she played an
adventuress singer who seduces a young gay musician (Jason
Ritter) as well as his rich father (Tom Arnold). She recorded songs for the movie's
soundtrack,[41][54]
calling the role the "roughest, scariest acting ever" and adding she
is more natural when singing on screen than when acting.[54]
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly declared Gyllenhaal's
performance "as wonderfully, naturally slouchy-sexy as her character is
artificial".[55]
2006–present
Gyllenhaal at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, January 11, 2009
In Sherrybaby, Gyllenhaal played a young drug-addicted thief trying to put her life in order after prison so she can reconcile with her daughter. During promotion of the film, she noted of her portrayal of the character: "I think she's in such dire straights [sic] that all she has are these kind of naive, fierce hope. And while I was playing the part I was looking for pleasure and hope in everything, even in these really bleak things. And so it was really mostly after I finished the movie that I felt pain."[67] Her performance in the film was well received: David Germain of the Associated Press wrote, "Gyllenhaal humanizes her so deeply and richly ... that Sherry elicits sympathy even in her darkest and weakest moments",[68] and Dennis Harvey of Variety called her performance "naturalistic".[69] For her work, Gyllenhaal earned her second Golden Globe Best Actress nomination[70] and won the Best Actress category award at the 2006 Stockholm International Film Festival.[71]
Gyllenhaal at the premiere of The Dark Knight in New York City, July
14, 2008
She appeared in The Dark Knight (2008), the sequel to Batman
Begins (2005), in which she replaced Katie
Holmes as Assistant District Attorney, Rachel Dawes.[72][73]
Gyllenhaal acknowledged her character was a damsel in distress to an extent, but said
director Christopher Nolan sought ways to empower her
character, so "Rachel's really clear about what's important to her and
unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change" from the
many conflicted characters she had previously portrayed.[74]
The Dark Knight was a financial and critical success, setting a new
opening weekend box office record for North America. With revenue of
US$1 billion worldwide,[75]
it became the fourth highest grossing film of all time,[76]
and remains Gyllenhaal's most commercially successful picture to date. In a Salon
review of the film, Stephanie Zacharek called Gyllenhaal's character "a
tough cookie in a Stanwyck-style bias-cut gown" and stated that
"the movie feels smarter and more supple when she's on-screen".[77]
IGN film critic Todd
Gilchrist wrote, "Gyllenhaal adds real depth and energy to Rachel
Dawes".[78]
Gyllenhaal played Yelena in the Classic Stage Company's 2009 Off-Broadway
production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya
in New York City.[79][80]
The cast also included Peter Sarsgaard, Mamie
Gummer, Denis O'Hare, and George
Morfogen.[79][80]
The production, directed by Austin
Pendleton, began previews on January 17 and ended its limited run on March
1.[79][80]
Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News was less than
enthusiastic about her performance, writing: "Gyllenhaal, who was so
dynamic as a druggie in the film Sherrybaby, plays Yelena with a slow-mo
saunter and monotonous pasted-on smile that makes it seem as if she's been in
Sherry's stash."[81]
However, Malcolm Johnson of the Hartford
Courant was complimentary, noting that she "ultimately
blossoms" as the character.[82]
Gyllenhaal agreed to appear in the comedy film Away We Go,
where she plays a bohemian college professor who is an old friend of John
Krasinski's character.[83][84]
The film generated broadly mixed reviews,[85]
with Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly describing
Gyllenhaal's subplot as "over-the-top".[86]
However, A.
O. Scott of The New York Times praised Gyllenhaal and co-star Allison
Janney for their performances, writing that "both [are] quite
funny".[87]
Scott concluded with, "Ms. Gyllenhaal's line about sex roles in 'the
seahorse community' is the screenplay's one clean satirical bull's-eye".[87]
Her next role came in the musical-drama Crazy Heart,
in which she played journalist Jean Craddock, who falls for musician Bad Blake,
played by Jeff Bridges.[88]
The movie received favorable reviews,[89]
with Gyllenhaal receiving praise from critics. Peter
Travers of Rolling Stone reported that Gyllenhaal was "funny,
touching and vital as Jean" and that her part was "conventionally
conceived, but Gyllenhaal plays it with a tough core of intelligence and
feeling."[90]
Her performance earned her an Academy
Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.[91]
In 2010, Gyllenhaal appeared in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang,
the sequel to the 2005 film Nanny
McPhee.[92]
The role required her to speak with an English accent.[93]
The feature received mixed reviews,[94]
and earned US$93 million worldwide.[95]
Away from acting, she served as host of the PBS television
documentary series Independent Lens.[96]
Gyllenhaal also appeared in Hysteria, an independent movie focusing on
the creation of the vibrator.[97]
In February 2011 Gyllenhaal starred in another
Anton Chekhov production as the character Masha in Austin Pendleton's Three Sisters at the Classic Stage Company.[98]
The play focuses on the Prozorov sisters (Gyllenhaal, Jessica
Hecht, and Juliet Rylance) "unlucky in love, unhappy in
the provinces and longing to return to Moscow", as summarized by Bloomberg's
Jeremy Gerard.[99]
The off-Broadway production began preview performances on January 12, with a
limited engagement through March 6.[100]
In the 2012 film, Won't Back Down, she played a parent
involved in a parent trigger takeover of her child's school. She
appeared as a Secret Service agent in the action-thriller White
House Down (2013).[101]
In 2014, she played the title role as an Anglo-Israeli business-woman in the BBC
Television series, The Honourable Woman.[102]
Personal life
Peter
Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal at the New York premiere of An
Education in October 2009
Gyllenhaal has been in a relationship with actor Peter
Sarsgaard,[103]
a close friend of her brother Jake, since 2002.[41]
They announced their engagement in April 2006,[104][105]
and married on May 2, 2009, in a small chapel in Brindisi, Italy.[106][107]
They have two daughters, one born in 2006 and the other born in 2012.[108][109]
The family lives in Brooklyn, New York.[110]
Activism
Politics
Gyllenhaal is politically active. At the 18th Independent Spirit Awards, she spoke out against the Iraq war, stating the reason for the invasion was "oil and imperialism".[111][112] In 2005, Gyllenhaal drew controversy for her statement that the September 11 attacks were "an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world [...] It is always useful as individuals or nations to ask how we may have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to this conflict."[113] Gyllenhaal took part in Artists United to Win Without War, a campaign started by Robert Greenwald with the aim of advancing progressive causes and voicing opposition to the Iraq War.[17][114] She and her brother Jake filmed a commercial for Rock the Vote, and visited the University of Southern California (USC) campus to encourage students to vote in the 2004 U.S. presidential election,[115] in which she supported John Kerry.[116][117] Gyllenhaal supported Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.[118][119] She has campaigned on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an organization her family strongly supports.[120][121]
In June 2013, Gyllenhaal and numerous other
celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea
Manning.[122][123]
Charity work
Besides acting, Gyllenhaal has modeled for Miu Miu[124]
Reebok,[125]
and Agent Provocateur,[126]
and recorded the first unabridged audiobook
version of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell
Jar.[127]
Gyllenhaal is a supporter of Witness, a non-profit organization
that uses video and online technologies to expose human
rights violations.[128][129]
She co-hosted a benefit dinner with founder Peter
Gabriel in November 2007.[130][131]
Gyllenhaal helped raise funds for TrickleUp.org, a non-profit organization that
helps impoverished people start a micro-enterprise.[132]
For one of the fundraisers, Gyllenhaal helped design and promote a necklace
that sold for US$100; all proceeds from sales went to the charity.[133]
In October 2008 she hosted a fashion show event called "Fashionably
Natural", which was presented by Gen Art and
SoyJoy in Los Angeles.[134][135]
The show featured four up-and-coming designers who only worked with all-natural
and eco-friendly fabrics and materials.
