By SARA STEWART
Posted: 2:00 am
July 6, 2008
Batman's new lady friend dishes on the secrets of 'The Dark Knight'
Is Maggie Gyllenhaal the thinking woman's Katie Holmes? Pieces of evidence like her early work ("Donnie Darko" vs. "Dawson's Creek"), racy fare ("Secretary" vs. "The Gift") and choice of partner (Peter Sarsgaard vs. Tom Cruise) suggest so. Not that she would ever say it; the 30-year-old actress has nothing but praise for her "Batman Begins" predecessor. In any case, if anyone had to follow up Holmes' performance as Rachel Dawes, you couldn't do much better than Gyllenhaal, who tears up the screen as the brainy love interest of both Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). The role was good enough to pull the actress out of full-time motherhood; she and Sarsgaard, who live in Brooklyn, have a 1-year-old daughter.
You and Aaron get a lot of snappy dialogue. did you have good chemistry right off the bat?
I loved Aaron; I felt like Rachel and Harvey were kind of one of those old-time movie couples - Hepburn, Spencer Tracy. There was that kind of banter, really smart, where they take each other down but love each other. That was what we liked about it.
Your character goes beyond the typical female roles in action movies this summer. She's very involved in both the courtroom and the interrogation room.
Well, I didn't want to do it if it wasn't going to be fun and meaty. When I read the script, [director] Chris [Nolan] said to me, "In this draft, she's not quite finished." I wanted to make sure she was smart and feisty and awake, a real woman with a mind. And I also wanted to make sure she was just as involved and active in finding justice for Gotham as all these guys were.
what was it like being the only significant female character in the movie?
