Jake Gyllenhaal Was Forced To Use ‘Pillow Technique’ In Sex Scene With Jennifer Aniston Because It Was ‘Torture’ For Him

While many lined up to work with the wonderfully talented Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal was not comfortable filming their intimate scenes together.

The Zodiac the actor was so weird during the filming of their 2002 movie, good girl that he had to immerse himself in an unorthodox method in order not to be so tortured.

That’s right, he called it extreme “torture” to film with friendship alum.

The 42-year-old Hollywood actor claimed that while looking back at the decades-old film, he was extremely uncomfortable.

The film follows 30-year-old Justine Last (Aniston), who lives in a small Texas town with husband Phil (John C. Reilly) and works at a local store called Retail Radio.

Here he meets the much younger Holden (Gyllenhaal), who soon falls in love with his co-worker, despite the eight-year age difference – and the fact that Justine is married, of course.

The two characters eventually end up having sex at a motel, which was understandably “awkward” to film.

Maybe because she was married to Brad Pitt at the time, and that detail alone made him agree to meet the actor after the scene.

Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal in The Good Girl. (Fox Searchlight Images)

Fortunately, the pair remained on good terms, which would be strange if they didn’t consider it just acting and their jobs.

However, Gyllenhaal explained that any intimate scenes are quite awkward to shoot because everything is choreographed in front of an entire crew.

It’s even worse if the person you’re filming is your passive.

Little did anyone know that this was the exact scenario he was in when he was very much crushing on our girl Aniston.

That’s probably why he took drastic measures to keep his cushiony distance.

Gyllenhaal explained that Aniston was extremely cooperative and even suggested that he use the “pillow technique.”

Here you place a pillow between people while filming the scenes so that there is no close contact with their bodies.

Gyllenhaal admitted he was in love with Aniston when they shot the movie together. (J. Vespa/WireImage)

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, the star agreed that filming the intimate scenes with Aniston was “torture” and explained that it “wasn’t torture either.” I mean, come on, it was like a mix of both.’

He added: “Weirdly, the love scenes are awkward because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching them? Maybe if you have a closed set it’s less? That doesn’t turn me on.”

He said: “I remember a pillow… the pillow technique was used.

“This was just preventative and generally always used when in a horizontal spot in that film. Everything else was whatever it was.”

“The pillow saved you,” Howard joked. “Who taught you that?”

Gyllenhaal responded, “I think that was actually Jennifer’s suggestion. I think she was actually very kind to suggest it before we started. She said, “I’m putting a pillow here.” That’s all she said, I think I remember. that.”

However, he finds being steamed in front of a camera to be ‘weirdly mechanical’, adding: ‘It’s a dance, you’re choreographing for a camera.

“You can go into it, but it’s like a fight scene, you have to choreograph those scenes.”

As awkward as it was, the performance was highly praised, with one critic calling Aniston’s performance “fresh” and another saying it had “depth”.

After working on her hit show while filming the movie, maybe that’s what made her become a mega movie star?