(Just watch their fraternal,affectionate teasingin this video.)
Jeff is an easy guy to love, says Gyllenhaal.
Ahead, Gyllenhaal, 36, discusses his friendship with Bauman and his evolution as a producer.
Tara Ziemba/WireImage
How is he holding up out on the press tour?JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Hes doing extraordinarily well.
He says its hard to look back sometimes.
The attention is something he has learned to embrace in the past years.
I think he can now see what an inspiration he can be even though he resists that idea.
He always says, No, its the first responders.
And he believes that.
Hes the first to ask if theyre okay.
I dont know if those words even accurately reflect what I really felt.
I felt like a bit of a fraud.
Wepretend, you know?
Thats what I do.
That kind of thinking gets overwhelming and, frankly, freaks me out.Totally, me too.
Ive sat there a couple of times, freaking out.
You cant understand it because its so mixed with so many other peoples feelings.
When you meet him you just can tell hes an open-hearted guy from a complicated background.
Thats a conversation we always tried to have do we want to know who this person is?
We always said, if people loved him for his legs wed be in big trouble.
So that was sort of the first thing.
I said, I know how to do that.
I just did that withEnd of Watch.
I understood about shooting in downtown L.A. locations and I said, I want to produce this with you.
And now you have the producing bug.I do.
I like it all.
For me, its never been like that.
Were from a family of people who make movies and Ive alwayslovedfilmmakers.
It seems like a likely progression that feelssogood.
And you have some good things coming up as well.I do.
I just worked with Jacques Audiard [on the upcomingThe Sisters Brothers].
I was like,uh I dont need to read it.
Ill do it.And he turned out to be everything I expected and more.
You held the U.S. premiere ofStrongerin Boston at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where Jeff worked on his recovery.
That must have been amazing.It was extraordinary.
Its so beautiful there all the light and views and healing and respect.
Its really an incredible place.
And to think about Jeff being there and somehow four years later theres this movie about him?
Strongeris in theaters this Friday.
