Maggie Gyllenhaal is my imaginary BFF

Last night my sweet man surprised me as part of our Valentine’s celebrations with tickets to see the Chekhov play ‘Three Sisters’. MaggieGyllenhaal-Because I love Chekhov, and this is my favorite of his big plays, I was over the moon. More so when we walked into the tiny theatre of the off Broadway Classic Stage Company, and our front row seats were literally on the stage! The theatre is so small that it creates a very intimate experience, with no separation between stage and audience.

 

And then Maggie Gyllenhaal walks onstage literally two feet away from me. I’m so unfazed seeing celebs in NY because it’s just so normal, so common, but there’s always that moment when I’m like wait a sec, I know that person, they’re so familiar, and then you remember uhm no, you just know their face and mannerisms from the screen. They’re total strangers. Maggie rocks. I’ve always liked her and think she’s possibly the coolest actress alive. She was super in Dark Knight, and amazing in Crazy Heart. She’s married to the brilliant actor, squinty twinkle eyed Peter Sarsgaard who’s also in the play as her love interest.

 

Maggie plays Masha, my Russian namesake and one of my fave characters. The whole cast of Three Sisters was really great, basically it was my favorite foreign (ie non Russian) Chekhov productions ever. Well directed & produced, it felt emotionally Russian, which they usually don’t, and I was just transfixed, sitting in the set, the actors inches away from me feeling like family members. I was on the verge of tears from the moment it started until the end three hours later, the play is the epitome of nostalgia and sehnsucht, and the Sarsgaard/Gyllenhaal combo is knockout, they’re both fine actors, plus they just seem like such a great couple, and they live in Brooklyn, and they seem so un-Hollywood, so un-fake and intelligent.

 

After the play, the actors came out for a talk, and Maggie was just like this natural, unpretentious bohemian gypsy goddess, seriously I have a girl crush on her. She seems so comfortable in her own skin, so effortlessly cool, she was wearing some baggy floral print black and red trousers tucked into tall vintage-y boots, topped off a loose red top and scarf, and her hair is this 20s bob. I love it. She’s not trying to be sexy, not needing to wear anything tight or revealing, she just floated onto that stage and smiled at me (ok maybe she wasn’t smiling at me, but she was smiling, and like we could be BFFs and go for brunch together and walk around some vintage boutiques in Brooklyn, better yet, just drink tea and philosophize, discuss LivLuna and politics by her fireplace (I’m sure they have a fireplace in their brownstone which must be cool central). Ok so they are thespian hipsters, but she is also an outspoken political activist, and has supported eco fashion- hellooo, I mean we’re basically BFF soulmates! In my mind we are anyway ๐Ÿ˜‰

Similar Posts

2 Comments

  1. Hilarious…and lovely! I can not say that I KNOW her, but she was at my last place of employment often and she really was quite lovely! Normal, grounded and…lovely. I think you might need to become BFF’s so that I can come hang out with both of you!

  2. This is cracking me up! She was sitting at the table next to us at dinner last year in the Slope. I walked away saying the same thing! “MC I KNOW Maggie wants to be my friend. I just felt it when she was looking at me. She really needs a friend, I can tell…” Haha, love this.

Leave a Reply to Michelle Weber Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *