One of the surprises from last week’s ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas was Warner Bros.’ star-studded “The Big Picture” presentation which featured some of the cast and filmmakers of the studio’s big summer movies including Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. One person who showed up unannounced was actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who replaces Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes in the upcoming sequel, and Superhero Hype! had a chance to talk to her briefly on the red carpet for the event.
Despite being the new girl in the franchise, Gyllenhaal was gracious towards her predecessor when asked whether her portrayal was inspired by Holmes’ version or would be completely different. “I think she’s a wonderful actress and I really admired the work that she did in the first Batman, but I don’t think it would have worked if I tried to imitate her. I think the only way to do it is to do it like myself,” Gyllenhaal told us.
“They just (expect you to) suspend your disbelief,” she continued when pressed about whether there’d be any sort of nod or mention of the fact that Rachel Dawes looks and acts completely different in the movie. “I’m Rachel Dawes now. I mean, how many Batmen have there been? Lots of them!”
Even though Gyllenhaal has become a name actress in recent years, she’s continued to do smaller independent films with only a few exceptions, so we asked her whether joining a blockbuster franchise like Batman has made her life any crazier. “It hasn’t really started yet, that craziness,” she admitted to us. “I imagine it will and I’ll just take it as it comes, that kind of thing, and in terms of the actual making of it, I anticipated it was going to be much different than making a small movie, and in the end, it didn’t feel that way, and I think it was because I was working with really good actors like Gary Oldman and Michael Caine and Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger. It felt like making any other movie, and I think Chris Nolan has a lot to do with that, and also because he really likes and respects actors, so it felt like doing good scenes in any movie.”
Before she was whisked off to the presentation, we asked whether she’d been getting into any of the action in the new movie and how that had been. “Somewhat,” she responded. “They took really good care of me. I thought I might get bruised up but in fact, I didn’t. They really knew what they were doing. I was scared to do some of the action stuff I had to do, and I did it once, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is a blast!'”
Next up for Gyllenhaal is Rebecca Miller’s adaptation of her own novel The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, but we hope to have more with the vibrant young actress closer to the release of The Dark Knight on July 18.
Source: Edward Douglas
