Jake Gyllenhaal On How Playing Mysterio Changed His Approach To Acting

gamerant.com:

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the most recognized names in Hollywood, whether you know him best from Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko, or even his most recent work, Ambulance. However, it was playing Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home that actually changed his perspective on acting.

Almost three years after playing the well-known Spider-Man baddy and master of deception, Gyllenhaal reflected on what it was like to be involved in a movie genre he wasn't all too familiar with. Because the majority of films he has starred in play it straight as far as tones go, Gyllenhaal was in relatively new territory by being in a Spider-Man film with a much lighter tone and much more family-friendly story.

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«I'm pretty sure I was taking myself too seriously,» Gyllenhaal said to Vanty Fair. «I think I had really lost that sense of play and fun that I am… It was such a cathartic thing to throw out away all that seriousness and really become that actor that I think I've always wanted to be in a lot of ways. And find the play and the fun and that gratitude that I'm here and I get to do this.» Gyllenhaal went on to say how the role of Mysterio put him on a journey to experience the more fun side of acting. «I think that we go through journeys in life where we're finding ourselves and, in the case of Spider-Man, I think I realized, 'Hey, you know, acting is really fun. Enjoy it.'»

Ironically enough, Gyllenhaal almost replaced Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2 and nearly landed the part of Batman in the Christopher Nolan trilogy roughly two decades ago. Who knows what his perspective on acting may have been if he had played one of the most popular superheroes ever created when he