Jake Gyllenhaal Explains Why It Was 'Torture' Filming a Romance With Jennifer Aniston

The pair starred together in the 2002 film 'The Good Girl.'

Jake Gyllenhaal struggled to overcome his crush on Jennifer Aniston when they were playing love interests in the 2002 film The Good Girl. The 40-year-old actor spoke about the experience on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show, calling the filming "torture." 

"It was torture, yes it was, but it was not torture, I mean, come on," Gyllenhaal said of working with Aniston, who was married to Brad Pitt at the time. "It was a mix of both." 

Despite the tension, Gyllenhaal said he didn't struggle with their love scenes. 

"Weirdly, love scenes are awkward because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching it," he explained. "Maybe if you have a closed set, it's less. That doesn't turn me on. Most of the time, it's oddly mechanical... you're choreographing for a camera. You could get in it, but it's like a fight scene." 

Despite not being overly excited, Gyllenhaal said that his co-star took some preemptive measures. 

"I do remember a pillow, yeah, the pillow technique was used. That was just preemptive and generally always used when actually in a horizontal place in that movie," he said. "I think that was actually Jennifer's suggestion. I think she was actually very kind to suggest that before we began. She was like, 'I'm putting a pillow here.'"

ET spoke with Aniston about Gyllenhaal's public crush back in 2016 when she was married to Justin Theroux. 

"What do I do with that information now? What good does that do me now?" she jokingly asked at the time. "I love that boy." 

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