As of this Friday, Jake Gyllenhaal will have played three characters in the past two films directed by Denis Villeneuve. It doesn’t seem possible, but since the idea of duplicity lies at the heart of his latest feature, Enemy, he required star Jake Gyllenhaal to play two parts. Two identical men that become hopelessly twisted in each other’s lives.
“First and foremost I wanted to make this movie because I think Denis Villeneuve is an incredible filmmaker,” says Gyllenhaal. “I was really drawn to the incredible script which offered an interesting blueprint for what Denis wanted to do with this idea. When I first met with Denis and talked about the film, his idea of what it was and what he wanted it to be far surpassed what the script was saying.”
Of course, the burden of playing two parts in the same film means having to maintain the divide between all of his separate personalities during the filming process. Typically an actor will interpret a script from their character’s angle, but the problem with Enemy is that it forces Gyllenhaal to essentially play chess with himself and see every choice from every possible angle.
“What’s interesting about playing two characters in the same scene is the literal comparison of what you’re doing. I actually created the character of Adam before Anthony even showed up on the scene and the first time I worked as Anthony was when he was right across from Adam.”
Creating different characters means setting up different goals inside of the script. Both of the men have intentions that they are working toward and it’s Gyllenhaal’s burden to keep them all in line, and yet separate.
“These two characters are struggling with the same thing in a different way but inevitably one of them has to let go and give up in order for the other to survive. The question of which one it’s going to be is ultimately what the movie is about,” says Gyllenhaal.
For all the challenges that Gyllenhaal must face as an actor, production met an equal amount of trouble trying to get Gyllenhaal in two places at once inside the frame and make it look convincing.
Cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc recalls; “When I read the script I remember thinking, how the hell are we going to do the duplicity scenes? How are these characters going to be in the same scene at the same time? How is that going to feel? When we talked about doing the duplicity, our main concern was making it feel real.”
The production utilized the Mo-Sys system, a special motion control device that was created to recreate specific camera motions multiple times. Doing this makes it possible to film a scene with Gyllenhaal playing one character, and then re-film the scene with him playing the other.
In some scenes, Bolduc would stand in as Gyllenhaal’s other character to get the frame just right. “Everything went really well with the use of the Mo-Sys but we realized that the most important part of Jake acting with himself was his eye line – he needed to appear as if he were looking right at the character opposite him,” recalls Bolduc.
“With the duplicity scenes, there was always this strange sense of disorientation,” says Gyllenhaal. “I knew that I’d have to be prepared to pretty much do anything or play either one of the characters at any point. I really enjoyed that mindset and being able to play both characters. I’m fascinated with stories about duality because I don’t think we necessarily exist as one all the time. To explore that idea in a character or in a movie is exciting to me.”
We’re currently running a contest that may allow you to win a poster signed by Jake Gyllenhaal. The deadline to enter is 11:59 EST, March 13, 2014. You could also win the soundtrack to the film! Enemy hits theaters tomorrow, Friday March 14.