Jake Gyllenhaal Gushes Over Uncle Life: ‘Really Fun’ (Exclusive)

Jake Gyllenhaal is co-starring alongside his sister Maggie’s husband Peter Saarsgard on “Presumed Innocent,” which is Jake’s first-ever TV series!

“Extra’s” Jenny Taft spoke with Jake and Peter about the show, in which they play prosecutors who are at odds with each other.

While they share some intense scenes in the show, it is all love in real-life, with Jake being an uncle to Peter and Maggie’s daughters.

Peter sang praises about Jake as an uncle, saying, “I’m more like envious of being an uncle and the way he’s presented it. I mean, I’m sure... I only have an experience of one uncle in our lives and I have no brothers and sisters so I can never be an uncle… He makes it look like the job you want, and I think that's the highest praise I can give.”

Jake noted, “Peter and my sister have raised two incredible girls. You know, they're easy to be an uncle too because I just enjoy them. They’re brilliant, they’re thoughtful, they’re inquisitive, they’re curious, they’re unique, both in their own ways. They follow and they beat to their own drum. They are just, they’re great. You kinda couldn't really wish for better nieces, and it’s really them that make you into the uncle, like it’s them that probably make you into the parent, but you have made them into incredible humans and so it really makes it easier. They're just really fun to be around.”

Peter joked, “So, everybody... go out and have those babies.”

Since Jake makes being an uncle seem so easy, can we see Jake have kids of his own with girlfriend Jeanne Cadieu?

He answered, “So easy? I don’t know if it’s so easy…”

“You’re not gonna get from us, things aren’t that things aren’t without their profound complications in terms of the material we pick and the things we like as actors, but I do think that like, I do think it makes it really fun, because they're just wonderful,” Jake added about his nieces. “They’re just wonderful people.”

“Presumed Innocent” is based on the best-selling book but “very different” from Harrison Ford’s hit movie.

While they didn’t connect with Harrison about the show, Peter quipped, “It would be fun to ask Harrison about it.”

On the show, Jake is playing a prosecutor whose world is shattered when he becomes a prime suspect in the murder of one of his colleagues.

Gyllenhaal explained why he waited so long to do TV, saying, “I wanted to know what it felt like to try this long form of telling stories over eight episodes, you know? Working in a form I’ve never worked in before. I like that. I like trying a new piece of a medium or a new idea, you know, different genres.”

It wasn’t the first time that Jake and Peter have worked together since they have co-starred in “Jarhead,” “Rendition,” and “The Guilty.”

Peter said, “When he called, and told me about it, I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ I liked the idea that all of my stuff would be with him, that all my focus would be on him. We’ve done like ‘Rendition’ together, where we’re not even in the same scene, you know? And it felt toe to toe in a lot of places. It felt like it was gonna be fun.”

Jake added, “It’s exciting as an actor — you can try different things if you're lucky enough.”