When Katie Holmes dropped out of the Batman franchise, it was time for director Chris Nolan to find a replacement. He called upon Maggie Gyllenhaal to fill her shoes as Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne’s longtime friend and love interest. Hollywood.com caught up with the actress to find out what it was like joining The Dark Knight cast.
Hollywood.com: How was it stepping into a role that somebody else played?
Maggie Gyllenhaal: First of all I wanted to make sure that I had [Katie Holmes‘] blessing in terms of doing it. When I found out that I did, you know I think she’s a great actress and I really loved what she did in the previous movie. I know her a tiny, tiny bit from a party here or there and she has a daughter who is just a little older than my daughter and I really like her, but I didn’t think it would do anyone any good for me to try to imitate her. It would have been awful, you know what I’m saying? I could never have done that so I thought, you know I have to make her a new woman. I think that was the best way to honor what Katie did as well to sort of really let her really start anew. There are some plot points and some things in the narrative that happened in the first movie that had a big effect on our movie and I paid attention to those. Most importantly at the end of the previous movie she says to Bruce Wayne, “I love you but I can’t be with you as Batman and I understand why you need to be Batman, but let’s see what happens.” And then of course that plays itself out all over the place in our movie.
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HW: Was there any physical challenge? Any pivotal scenes you had to do that were challenging in that respect?
MG: The only one which is where I’m falling from the building. I did it once and I realized these guys know what they are doing, so when else am I going to have a chance to hang off a building and pretend that I’m flying. I might as well enjoy it. They really know what they are doing.
HW: Can you talk about working with Heath Ledger?
MG: I think what Heath does in the movie is extraordinary and unusual and rare and special even for the most talented and experienced actors. He hits this stride where he is totally free in the movie and I think when that happens it bleeds out onto everyone around you. Acting with him, even though the scene was very scary and when I watched it was full of tension I actually had a great time working with him because anything I threw at him he would take it and threw all sorts of amazing things at me. It was what you always hope for.
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HW: The lion share of your work has been these really interesting characters in smaller films, what does a film like this mean to you?
MG: Well, when I was approached about this movie I wasn’t looking to work at all. I had a three month old. I wasn’t reading scripts so I wasn’t in the career-minded frame of mind at all. I was a fan of Chris’ and I knew who was in the movie, like Gary Oldman and Michael Cane and Morgan Freeman and Heath and Christian [Bale] and Aaron Eckhart, it was a hard thing not to take seriously…I read [the script] and I had some ideas and most of them were about making sure that she would be a fully realized woman. That she would be smart and feisty and fierce and just as invested in finding justice in the community that she lived in just as these guys were…So it was very similar in a lot of ways to some of the smaller movies I’ve done…It is very, very, very difficult to get an interesting movie made these days and I don’t want to make a movie that 10 people see and those 10 people believe in the exact same things I do. I want to make movies that many people see and I want to have an effect on people that don’t agree with me and feel differently about the world than I do and I want to open their minds and their hearts. Actually I think this is kind of an ideal way, this movie is exactly that.
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HW: Did you see a political message in this film, especially with Batman’s cell phone surveillance and Fox’s impression of that?
MG: Yeah, I think that was pretty obviously a comment on something, that little piece, but I think in general you would be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t say the world is in a tough place right now. I think things ebb and flow in that way. Look at history where you learn about this war and that war and right now we are in the midst of a tough time. I think that this movie, and all of Batman, that’s part of why it is so appealing it is about someone who is able to be courageous enough and risk enough to stand up against what they think is wrong and what they believe in and someone who is able to sacrifice their own comfort and possibly their own safety for the good of their community. I think when you are in trouble in a city, in a country, in the world you are hoping for people like that who can guide you, who can be heroic, who can change things. I think that is exactly what the movie is about.
HW: How important is that in films? Especially one of this size?
MG: I was so glad when I saw it that this film, which was made for millions and millions of dollars, so many peoples minds and hearts and so much effort put into it that it ended up being about something. So I guess its PG-13, so if 13 and 14 year old boys who want to see the Bat motorcycle – I completely understand – are also going to come out of the movie after two and a half hours watching something that is also about being an honorable courageous man and that is what I mean when I say, I don’t want to make movies for the hundred who believe just the same exact thing I believe I want to effect these kids. I want to help change the world and make it better and encourage people to help make the world around them a better place.
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HW: Now that you are a mom, what kind of challenges do you face balancing your career and a child?
MG: Well, it’s not something that I have done by any means. I’ve barely worked since my daughter has been born. I did this and I made a movie with Sam Mendes in the spring (Farlanders), but mostly I’ve been with her. It changes everything, being a mother and I don’t feel like it will – some people have asked me whether I’ll choose things that are safe, that have a more sort of child appropriate content and I don’t think so. I think I’ll choose what’s interesting to me. But I do think that it’s really difficult to get me away from her…It’s difficult to find a script that’s good enough for me to think, “Okay, I really need to do this instead of being with my daughter.”
HW: What’s the most unexpected pleasure of being a mom?
MG: It really does crack you open in everyway. I never knew that I could be so tired. I never knew that I could work so hard. I never knew that I could love so much or be so patient or be so excited by the tiniest, tiniest little thing. It’s really that everything about it has surprised me.
The Dark Knight opens in theaters July 18, 2008
