Photograph By: Jennifer Cooper

Jake Gyllenhaal
Jack Twist, Brokeback Mountain
Age: 25
Birthplace: Los Angeles
Essential Filmography: October Sky (1999), Donnie Darko (2001), The Good Girl (2002), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Jarhead (2005)

PREMIERE:Who are your idols?
Wow. Oh my God. Anthony Quinn. Paul Newman. Sean Penn, obviously. Bruce Springsteen. Bono.

What was your first acting job?
City Slickers with Billy Crystal. I played his son.

What was the hardest scene to play in Brokeback?
A lot of the love scenes are very physical, and very much like a fight scene, so there was something I could relate to. And it was a comfort place for me to go. But then there was one scene in the tent where I have to draw him in, and I really have to be the one who leads it, and I had absolutely no experience in any of that. I was very uncomfortable with that. I’m very proud of [the love scenes], and I know that they will bother a lot of people, and I know that they will comfort a lot of people. It bothers me and comforts me to see the scene, but that was the hardest thing for me to get, to take the lead there and pretend like I was the person who really knew what he was doing.

What’s your best piece of acting advice?
Chris Cooper once told me to never have any regrets. After Chris said that to me, I [now] walk into every scene thinking, “Exhaust every possibility.” Once you get to a certain place, it’s like you just deliver everything you’ve got. Don’t have any regrets. It pops up in my mind over and over and over again.

If you could have starred in any movie ever, what would it have been? Only one?
Oh, man. I’m trying to think of the beautiful women that I would have loved to have a sex scene with, or I’m trying to think of the great actors I wanted to work with. Searching for Bobby Fischer.