Dark Knight puts Gyllenhaal in the spotlight

This weekend one of the most anticipated movies of the summer makes its debut in theaters as Christian Bale once again puts on the cape and cowl as Gotham’s Caped Crusader in The Dark Knight.

And while a lot of early buzz has centered on Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, the spotlight is expected to fall on all the cast members, including normally reclusive actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhall takes over the role of Rachel Dawes, played by Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.

“I really didn’t know if I wanted to do a huge blockbuster,” Gyllenhaal told USA Today. “And I don’t think I realized how big it was going to be. I’m really proud of the movie, to be a part of something really great. When you see Dark Knight, you see that it’s in no way a compromise.”

Dark Knight is the actress’s first “blockbuster” film. In the past, Gyllenhaal has taken roles in small productions such as World Trade Center, Stranger Than Fiction, and Sherrybaby. Gyllenhaal also won critical praise for one of her earliest starring roles in Secretary.

To get the role as Rachel in Dark Knight, Gyllenhall was very active in her research and pursuit of the high-profile part. She met with director Christopher Nolan in Los Angeles to discuss what made the character tick. They swapped ideas, and she talked about how she saw Rachel. And then she landed the holy grail: an actual copy of the script.

“It was a big deal. This guy sat in my driveway the entire day. I was a new mom and it was a really long script, and I was trying to do other things while reading it,” she says.

“I had a lot of ideas,” she adds. And when talking it over with Nolan, “I was very clear that I didn’t want to be arm candy. He was so receptive, so interested.”

Nolan says that Gyllenhaal was a natural choice “because she has the kind of natural drive that I thought the character needed. She isn’t the type to show up and read lines. She has specific ideas about her character, and isn’t afraid to bring them up.”

Gyllenhaal recently saw Dark Knight for the first time, but she isn’t one to share any intimate memories of working with Ledger and has been critical of the circus-like coverage of his death and funeral. But she does say that watching him on screen left her “really emotional.”

“In the middle,” she says, “you sort of get lost in him being the Joker. … I felt like someone could hate this or love this, or think it’s a wrong choice or a right choice, but really there’s no way to qualify it. Sometimes in my work, you’re just alive and being the person you’re playing. It’s unusual. It’s difficult to get there. And I think Heath did. Nothing Heath could do was wrong.”

Audiences will be able to check out Gyllenhall’s, Ledger’s and the rest of the Dark Knight’s cast performances this weekend.