Jake Gyllenhaal Says It Was ‘Torture’ Filming Sex Scenes With Jennifer Aniston
Actors crushing on their co-stars is nothing new. But what happens when you have to perform an intimate scene with them?
Jake Gyllenhaal recently reminisced about the sex scenes he filmed with his crush, Jennifer Aniston, during the production of 2002's The Good Girl.
"It was torture, yes it was, but it was not torture. I mean, come on," Gyllenhaal said on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show. "It was a mix of both."
Aniston was married to Brad Pitt at the time, but that wasn't necessarily the reason why it was difficult to shoot their steamy scenes together: Between the choreography and the amount of people on set during the intimate scenes, things were less than romantic.
"Weirdly, love scenes are awkward because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching it," he said. "Maybe if you have a closed set, it's less. That doesn't turn me on. Most of the time, it's oddly mechanical... you're choreographing for a camera. You could get in it, but it's like a fight scene."
To prepare for the scenes, Gyllenhaal revealed that Aniston had a specific technique that helped them.
"I do remember a pillow, yeah, the pillow technique was used. That was just preemptive and generally always used when actually in a horizontal place in that movie," he shared. "I think that was actually Jennifer's suggestion. I think she was actually very kind to suggest that before we began. She was like, 'I'm putting a pillow here.'"
So, what does Aniston think of her co-star's crush on her? Entertainment Tonight asked the actress about it in 2016.
"What do I do with this now? What good is it now?" she said jokingly.