Jake Gyllenhaal On Why He Wanted To Premiere ‘Demolition’ At TIFF

The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off Thursdaywith Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Demolition” and the leading man didn’t disappoint.

He is no stranger to TIFF. He’s been to the fest before with “Brokeback Mountain”, and he’s been at the festival the last three years with “Nightcrawler”, “Prisoners”, “Enemy” and “End Of Watch”.

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“There’s an energy here”, Gyllenhaal told ET Canada. “I think there’s a sense of supporting an artistic vision, not like many other cities in the world, but Toronto, in particular, there’s very little judgement in artistic expression here.”

https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsIn “Demolition”, Gyllenhaal plays Davis, a banker, whose wife dies in a car crash. He struggles to move on with his life and things start to unravel. What starts as a complaint letter to a vending machine company turns into a series of letters revealing startling personal admissions. They attract the attention of a customer service rep, Karen (Naomi Watts), and the two form an unlikely friendship.

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After Gyllenhaal worked with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve in “Enemy” and “Prisoners”, he’s now teamed up with another Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee for “Demolition”. “They’re both very loving guys,” the actor explained. “They definitely know what they want.” But Gyllenhaal thinks both directors lack of ego goes back to them being Canadian. “There’s really a sense of expression here that’s unlike anywhere else,” he said. Vallee said Gyllenhaal was “the person for this role. There was no one else. He’s the man. You put the camera on his face, and there’s something where you go, you’re curious.” “And then comes the acting,” the director added that Gyllenhaal would always surprise him in what he would do in each take. “It’s always interesting,” Vallee explains. “It provokes me sometimes.”

Gyllenhaal’s character in “Demolition” gets a little destructive when letting out his anger, but the actor has an easy answer for how he lets off some steam himself: “Have you not seen the last four or five movies I’ve done?” Yeah, with intense roles in “Southpaw”, “Nightcrawler”, “Prisoners” and “End Of Watch”, we’d say Gyllenhaal has managed to get in touch with his anger.

Watch below.