Hollywood heavyweight and Cartier ambassador Jake Gyllenhaal on the magic of irreverence

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“I do love reading history books! You’ve done your research!” exclaims Jake Gyllenhaal, smiling broadly in that good-natured, perennially boyish manner of his. The 37-year-old actor has taken off his sunglasses and is looking at me with intense blue eyes. I’ve just asked who he’d most like to play in a biopic, but he’s in no hurry to answer. The habit is rather unnerving, but during the course of the interview it becomes clear that this is just Gyllenhaal in thought. He pauses, a lot, either to consider his answers or to stop himself from veering off topic.

We’re sitting in a trendy but low-key restaurant in Silver Lake, a hip area east of Hollywood that is everything Beverly Hills isn’t: bohemian, arty and unpretentious. It’s the kind of place where no one bats an eyelid when you’re having a tête-à-tête with one of the biggest actors in Hollywood today; or maybe the lack of prying eyes is down to the fact this particular star, dressed in a plain crew-neck T-shirt, blue chinos and lace-up white trainers, looks every bit the Silver Lake local. Gyllenhaal is in a cheerful Sunday mood. “The sunshine is good,” he says kicking back a little before revealing that he’s currently shooting Netflix movie Velvet Buzzsaw, a thriller from his Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy, set in the art world. It is one of seven movies the New York-based actor has in the pipeline, three of which are scheduled for release later this year.

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