‘Love and Other Drugs’

“Oh, he put a shirt on,” says director Edward Zwick upon seeing the photo at left. “Good for Jake.” Gyllenhaal and costar Anne Hathaway, Zwick says, are frequently naked in the comedic drama, due out November 24. “They spend a certain amount of time having sex in various places,” he explains. The film is set in the late Nineties, and Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall, a womanizing pharmaceuticals salesman whose big break is a new pill called Viagra. Much rides on its success. “Jamie comes from a family of overachievers,” says Zwick. “He never fulfilled his parents’ expectations. Fucking has always been his validation.” Gyllenhaal and Hathaway have explored similar territory before: The two played lovers in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, but they worked together for only a few days. In preparation for their sex scenes in Love and Other Drugs, they spent a lot of time cultivating their chemistry—and it shows. “There’s a moment where Jake’s character test-drives Viagra,” remembers Zwick. With Hathaway’s Maggie? “No—with her, there wasn’t any need for it.”