I have a problem with even the word remake - I had to dissociate myself from the fact we were remaking anything 
After playing catch-up to little brother Jake post Donnie Darko, Maggie Gyllenhaal bagged her breakthrough role in the gleefully sadomasochistic Secretary. Now one of the most sought-after young actresses around, she gives her latest offbeat performance in the con caper Criminal.
After Secretary you're in a position where you can chose your roles. What attracted you to do Criminal?
It's funny the shift from going, 'I need a job' and taking any movie that's vaguely interesting, to the time after Secretary came out and everything changed for me. When I chose to do this movie it was at the beginning of having that choice. I just thought there's something interesting about this; I shoot it in a week and a half, and I'm going to try it. I've just shot three movies back-to-back and I can tell you what interested me about them, and how I was discerning, but this one was [picked] on a whim. This one was more: 'Yeah, ok'.
Did you know of the original Argentinean film Nine Queens?
I did not. I did this weird thing in my head about it. Maybe theoretically I have a problem with even the word remake - I had to dissociate myself from the fact we were remaking anything. I think normally the only way to remake something is to have almost no reference to what came before it.
The director Gregory Jacobs says your character is a cool film noir kind of gal - is that something that you could identify with?
When I first read the script I thought my character was the typical femme fatale. But then I found she's just a girl who works at a hotel who can't communicate with her brother, and she's performing at being that femme fatale person. She doesn't always do a good job at it. There were times I was shooting that I got too upset or too angry to keep that femme fatale fa莽ade up. The way I work is whatever I'm feeling I let that be ok. So there were times my high heel shoes were killing me and the lipstick was bleeding - and I let that flow. I actually got more interested in the way she was failing at it.
You're in the most competitive bracket in the acting industry - a 'young actress', who's pressured into being a model and fashion icon as well as actor...
It's funny, I'm at real ease with all the fashion stuff. I've always been interested in fashion - not in terms of what's the most fashionable thing, but in terms of dressing up. It doesn't make me nervous, it just gives me something fun to do. I think actresses that have to be skinny and beautiful in a very typical kind of way is really changing.
How is it changing?
Most of the actresses that are successful as actresses - as opposed to flash-in-the-pan celebrities - look really interesting. They're beautiful because they're interesting, and a normal body now is sexy. I used to get told all the time before Secretary I wasn't beautiful enough. I had to dress sexier when I went to auditions, and it effected me because I was 21 years old, and that's a time that as a woman you're working out who you are. Now, I don't feel pressure to get skinny.
Criminal is released in UK cinemas on Friday 18th February 2005.
