Filming With Jennifer Aniston Was 'Torture' for Jake Gyllenhaal

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 9 April 2025

Some comments Jake Gyllenhaal previously made about filming with Jennifer Aniston have resurfaced and it's not surprising, because they're pretty hilarious.

In the past, Jake has opened up about having an ongoing "crush" on Jen An, and that making it really tricky to play her love interest in the 2002 film The Good Girl.

So when Jake appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2021, the radio host couldn't resist bringing up how this must have been "torture" for the Brokeback Mountain actor.

"Oh yeah, it was torture, yes it was, yes," Jake agreed. "But it was also NOT torture, I mean come on. It was like a mix of both."

He went on to talk about how filming the sex scenes played out.

"Weirdly, love scenes are awkward, because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching it, you know. Maybe if you have a closed set, it's less. That doesn't turn me on, so most of the time it's oddly mechanical, right," he explained.

"And also it's a dance, right? Like, it's a dance. Like, you really do have to — you're choreographing for a camera."

He went on: "I do remember a pillow. The pillow technique was used. That was just preemptive, and used generally always when actually in a horizontal place in that movie.

"I think [the pillow] was actually Jennifer's suggestion. I think she was actually very kind to suggest it before we began.

"She was like, I'm putting a pillow here. That was all she said."

Jake Gyllenhaal on Filming Love Scenes With Jennifer Aniston - YouTube

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This line of questioning probably originated with a 2016 People interview Jake gave. At the time, he was asked how he felt about costarring with Jennifer Aniston in 2002, and he joked: "She's a rough one. Not likeable, so hard to compliment. I will say — have had a crush on her for years, and working with her was... not easy."

He then amended: "It was... lovely. It wasn't hard."

He also explained that his crush started with "her personality, from afar, and some of the movies she was in" rather than from watching Friends.

Jake Gyllenhaal Dish About His Crush on Jennifer Aniston | People - YouTube

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Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.

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