The Big Picture
Jake Gyllenhaal started his acting career in the 1991 film
City Slickers
at just 11 years old, showcasing his early talent.
Gyllenhaal played the role of Danny Robbins, the son of Billy Crystal’s character, in the heartwarming Western comedy.
Despite limited screen time in
City Slickers
, Gyllenhaal made a memorable impact with his performance, setting the stage for his future success.
Jake Gyllenhaal is amid a meteoric rise to the very top of A-list actors in Hollywood. Over the last 10 years, he has been in a slew of dramatic roles, including Prisoners, Nightcrawler, Southpaw, Nocturnal Animals, Stronger, Life, Guy Ritchie’s: The Covenant, and, most recently, this year’s remake of the Patrick Swayze thriller Road House. These action-heavy roles have expanded his range as an actor and displayed some serious leading man bona fides. He is near or at the top of the shortlist of almost every casting agent and director working in the industry. But all great film careers have to start somewhere, and for Gyllenhaal, that place was in the 1991 Billy CrystalWestern buddy comedy City Slickers. He was just 11 years old and had never appeared on television either, so City Slickers was his maiden foray into the entertainment business.
City Slickers
On the verge of turning 40, an unhappy Manhattan yuppie is roped into joining his two friends on a cattle drive in the southwest.
Release Date June 7, 1991
Director Ron Underwood
Runtime 113 minutes
Studio Columbia Pictures
Writers Lowell Ganz , Babaloo Mandel
Tagline Yesterday They Were Businessmen. Today They’re Cowboys. Tomorrow They’ll Be Walking Funny.
The Story Behind How Jake Gyllenhaal Got His First Role in ‘City Slickers’
The Gyllenhaal name was already well established in Tinseltown circles when Jake decided it was time to get into the family business. His father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, was a director, and his mother, Naomi Foner, was an established screenwriter, so he had a history of the dramatic arts in his genes. When the opportunity to play a small role in a notable studio film with one of the biggest stars of the time arose, it was a no-brainer for Jake. He and his dad hopped on a plane and flew out to Montana, where director Ron Underwood (Tremors) was conducting auditions for the role of Danny, the son of Mitch Robbins, who Crystal plays.
They got a room for two days, and the young and completely inexperienced Gyllenhaal went and read for the part. Just as they were packing up to head back to California, he got the call from Underwood that he had landed the part. He commented in an interview for People Magazine on Yahoo News about the experience, “There’s a lot from my childhood that I don’t remember, and I remember everything from that. It was an interesting, very complicated time. When you ask an actor who’s a kid why they get into it, I think it’s filled with a lot of very interesting and very complicated reasons. Regardless of the whole exciting, shiny quality of the whole thing … I think there was something about being able to express it, and feeling comfortable expressing myself that was always there, and I always loved.” So the allure of being on the big screen has been with him from his early years.
Who Does Jake Gyllenhaal Play in ‘City Slickers’?
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the part of Danny Robbins, the preteen son of Billy Crystal’s main character, Mitch Robbins. At only 11, Gyllenhaal is almost unrecognizable in the role with his high and tightly-cropped haircut. Even at such a young age, his unassuming, laid-back nature comes through in his first few scenes ever captured on film. Gyllenhaal doesn’t get a lot of screen time in City Slickers, appearing in only a handful of scenes at the beginning and the end of the film, so he is challenged to make the most of his takes while staying within character.
It is not an easy thing for such a young actor to do. Playing the young son of one of the most gifted comedic actors of the generation can be intimidating, especially when it is your first time out of the gate as a film performer. With the movie being mostly about Crystal’s role as a 40-something man going through a midlife crisis on a cattle herding trip with a couple of close buddies, Underwood doesn’t need to put too much pressure on a boy who has no professional experience in front of a camera, but Gyllenhaal still makes the most of it.
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Jake Gyllenhaal Makes the Most of His Minimal Screen Time in ‘City Slickers’?
The most memorable scene of the young Jake Gyllenhaal in City Slickers comes at the beginning of the film as the embarrassed son of Mitch Robbins on “Bring Your Dad to School Day.” After a rousing speech with some colorful language by a classmate’s blue-collar father, Mr. Morelli (Robert Costanzo), and how he mustered super-human strength to lift a crane off a lady’s legs, Danny is asked to introduce his dad. He coyly stands, and his voice is so high-pitched that it doesn’t sound anything like the commanding dulcet he projects in film now. Mr. Morelli was such a hit; all the kids laughed and were amazed. Danny is so embarrassed that his dad has such a boring job selling ads at a local radio station that he introduces Mitch as a submarine commander.
A few minutes later, the precocious Danny is hamming it up and making funny faces at the adult guests at his parents’ cocktail party, where he also manages to embarrass his mother Barbara (Patricia Wettig) in front of some of the guests. Little Jake Gyllenhaal, as Danny, doesn’t appear again until he spills out of the family minivan at the airport with his older sister and runs into his dad’s arms, missing him during his trip to the vacation cattle drive. “I love you!” he says with a new appreciation for his dad, and the family loads their new calf, “Norman,” into the van and heads home.
City Slickers is available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.
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