While Jake Gyllenhaal is famous for taking challenging roles, his hardest challenge involved preparing for a s-x scene.
From taking a punch for real for his sports drama Southpaw to concluding The Guilty‘s filming within a whopping 11 days, Jake Gyllenhaal hasn’t shied away from pushing himself beyond the limit. But for the actor, it’s none of his physically or emotionally taxing parts that were the hardest to pull off. Gyllenhaal revealed that one of his hardest challenges came during the filming of a 2010 rom-com, starring Anne Hathaway.
For Love & Other Drugs, Gyllenhaal, who played a Viagra salesman, starred alongside Hathaway, who played his love interest suffering from early on-set Parkinson’s. And while the duo’s chemistry was one of the saving grace of the entire rom-com, Gyllenhaal doesn’t share fond memories of his s-x scene with Hathway.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway | Love & Other DrugsPretending to Be Turned On by Anne Hathaway Wasn’t Easy for Jake Gyllenhaal
Prior to joining forces for the 2010 rom-com, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway were already familiar with each other following their time together on Brokeback Mountain. Considering the ice was already broken in the Western as they shared a s-x scene, the two were extremely comfortable being in each other’s company in Love & Other Drugs. But being too relaxed ended up making things harder for Gyllenhaal, as he explained that pretending to be turned on by a n-ked Anne Hathaway on set for the s-x scene was his hardest challenge. He said,
“I mean, look. I’ve had a pretty illustrious career at this point but the hardest thing has been pretending to be turned on by Anne Hathaway,”
Although it’s quite possible there was a sense of sarcasm in the Marvel star’s statement, it can’t be said for sure as there are no follow-up comments by the two actors on the matter.
Love & Other Drugs (2010)Anne Hathaway Recalled Getting Unnecessarily Naked in Love & Other Drugs
While Jake Gyllenhaal was seemingly struggling to prepare himself for his s-x scene with the Interstellar Star, Hathaway was having a blast even though she once mistakenly took off her clothes on set. Recounting one of her favorite memories of Love & Other Drugs, she recalled getting unnecessarily naked in front of the crew members after a mishap on her part. She said (via Belfast Telegraph),
“We were just back from lunch and I’d gone behind the set and was talking to someone… Then all of a sudden someone whispers ‘Annie you’re on!’ and I think because they were whispering I thought we were shooting, so I ran in and dropped [my coat] and I’m just standing there and I see Jake kind of freeze and go ‘huh?’ and I realize the camera is in a different place and we’re still rehearsing and that I got naked unnecessarily in front of everyone!”
Anne Hathaway
The Oscar winner was quick to pull her trench coat up, as she jokingly deemed it a case of life imitating art.
Love & Other Drugs is available to rent on Apple TV.
