The reality of finding your doppelganger or a mirror
image or yourself is the intriguing premise of the upcoming psychosexual
thriller “ENEMY”, released by Solar Pictures.
Based on the novel “The Double” by José Saramago, ENEMY
tells the story of a university lecturer named Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is
nearing the end of a relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent).
One night, while watching a film, Adam spots a minor actor who looks just like
him. Consumed by the desire to meet his double, Adam tracks down Anthony (Jake
Gyllenhaal), an actor living with his pregnant wife Helen (Sarah Gadon) and
engages him in a complex and dangerous struggle.
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| Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam/Anthony in "ENEMY" |
“In terms of
finding a lead actor for these dual parts, I was looking for someone who I
would be able to share creativity and collaborate with,” notes Academy
Award Nominated director Denis Villeneuve (INCENDIES, PRISONERS).
“In Jake I found
someone that was highly intelligent and creative. He had a beautiful vision for
the characters. It’s always fantastic for a director when your lead actor is so
good that you can just follow him instead of telling him where to go. I love
that.”
“When Jake's name
was first put on the table we immediately realized we needed him,” recalls
ENEMY Spanish producer Miguel A. Faura. “Not
only is he an extremely gifted actor capable of delivering the wide range of
subtleties needed for these two roles, but he has always showcased his taste
and love for art and cinema in each role he has taken on. When he said yes, we
felt not only lucky, but reaffirmed about the inner quality of our project.”
“First and foremost
I wanted to make this movie because I think Denis is an incredible filmmaker,”
says Gyllenhaal. “I was really drawn to
the incredible script which offered an interesting blueprint for what Denis
wanted to do with this idea. When I first met with Denis and talked about the
film, his idea of what it was and what he wanted it to be far surpassed what
the script was saying.” Gyllenhaal had the unique task of playing two
different characters that become entwined in each other’s lives. As can be expected,
there was a delicate dance involved in creating the similarities and
differences between the two characters. Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal agreed early
on that the differences between Adam and Anthony should lie in subtleties.
“There are so many
ways that you can go with this movie and I think probably the hardest one, the
most interesting one, was making Adam and Anthony as close to each other as
possible,” notes Gyllenhaal. “There’s
the world in which one character has a beard and the other one doesn't and one
talks with a funny accent and the other one doesn't. That would have been an
incredibly vain way of going about it and I think, in a way, that's exactly
what this movie isn't about.”
“I made choices
early on about the characters and, as a result, Adam and Anthony started to
separate from each other. I knew that I had to fall in love with both of them
and that there couldn't be any judgment for either of the characters even while
being in the scene with the other one,” explains Gyllenhaal. “What’s interesting about playing two
characters in the same scene is the literal comparison of what you’re doing. I
actually created the character of Adam before Anthony even showed up on the
scene and the first time I worked as Anthony was when he was right across from
Adam.”
The film centers on Adam’s psychological struggle and, as
Gyllenhaal notes, the notion of struggle is very apparent in both Adam and
Anthony. “These two characters are
struggling with the same thing in a different way but inevitably one of them
has to let go and give up in order for the other to survive. The question of
which one it’s going to be is ultimately what the movie is about,” states
Gyllenhaal.
Movie Trailer
Distributed by
Solar Pictures, “ENEMY” opens in cinemas on July 30, 2014.
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