Q+A With Maggie Gyllenhaal

By Rebecca Winters

Q&A WITH MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL

In Happy Endings, Maggie Gyllenhaal is the kind of girl you don't take home to Dad.

What's your idea of a happy ending?

Happiness is complicated. What makes you happy is not always what you think should make you happy.

Were you happy when you found out your love interest in the film would be Tom Arnold?

I had no sense of Tom Arnold other than being a kid and hearing about drunken stuff with Roseanne. I guess I was a little wary but curious. We grew this sort of sprout of affection for each other. He was so gentle.

You play a cake designer and a baker in two upcoming movies. Are you getting typecast in confections?

In Stranger than Fiction, everyone around me keeps describing me as an "anarchist baker." But I'm really a radical baker.

When you said recently that the U.S. was responsible in some way for the 9/11 attacks, you upset a lot of people.

It's a time when if you want to say something that's complicated, you have to do it very carefully. I realized the red carpet is not the place to have that conversation. I was surprised and really hurt by the way what I said was misinterpreted.

Do you want to clarify what you meant?

No. I just don't think it's the right place.

If Ikea named a piece of furniture the Gyllenhaal, what would it be?

A really big kitchen island, made of beautiful wood, where you can cook and get dirty.

For your anarchist baking projects?

Yes, though it's important that the baking itself not be too anarchist.