Jake Gyllenhaal has admitted making a gaffe during his embarrassing first meeting with Brad Pitt.
The Donnie Darko star recalled being starstruck when he first met fellow Hollywood actor Brad while filming with his then-wife Jennifer Aniston on 2002 film The Good Girl.
Speaking to W magazine, Jake said he accidentally hit a door in a fluster when trying to shake Brad’s hand.
“I was definitely starstruck when I first met Brad Pitt on the set of The Good Girl,” he said. “I was working with Jennifer Aniston, who was his wife at the time, and there were a lot of very racy scenes.
“I remember putting my hand out to shake his, and accidentally hitting the door.
“He said, so confidently and kindly, “Well, you have another one. It’s all right’.
“He was very, very, very sweet to me, and it was actually a really lovely exchange. But, yeah—I was starstruck.”
The Good Girl, which also featured John C Reilly, saw Jennifer receive plaudits for the role in which her character has an affair with a colleague, played by Jake.
Jake recently recalled how Jennifer helped him out when they filmed a sex scene together for the movie.
“I do remember a pillow... the pillow technique was used,” Jake said on The Howard Stern Show. “That was just pre-emptive and generally always used when actually in a horizontal place in that movie. Everything else was whatever it was.
“I think that 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, I think I remember that.”
Jennifer and Brad began dating in 1998 and were married in 2000, but divorced in 2005.
Jennifer recently alluded to her divorce as she spoke of the “jarring” feeling she had while filming the recent Friends reunion, where she was reminded of simpler times in her life.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “It just took me by surprise because it was like, ‘Hi, past, remember me? Remember how that sucked? You thought everything was in front of you and life was going to be just gorgeous and then you went through maybe the hardest time in your life?’”
Revealing she had to walk off set at times, Jennifer continued: “It was all very jarring and, of course, you’ve got cameras everywhere and I’m already a little emotionally accessible, I guess you could say, so I had to walk out at certain points. I don’t know how they cut around it.”
Read the full interview with Jake in W magazine.