‘The Deuce’: Why Maggie Gyllenhaal Asked For Producing Credit On HBO Series

Maggie Gyllenhaal opened up about why she asked for a producing credit on the HBO series “The Deuce.”

In a sit-down interview with Deadline, Gyllenhaal said that she didn’t think she could play the role of sex worker Candy on the period drama if creators George Pelecanos and David Simon didn’t make her a producer on the show.

“I’ve never done episodic television before. They’d come to me with three scripts and asked me to play a sex worker, and I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t know how to make that decision,’” Gyllenhaal recalled of her initial reaction when she was first approached for the job. “I was like, ‘I believe in David Simon and George Pelecanos. I’d seen ‘The Wire,’ … but I never said yes to anything without seeing the script before, let alone to play a sex worker, which I think is a sensitive and complicated thing.’ Plus, it’s gonna require my whole body. And I wanted to be sure that I was gonna be included as a collaborator, artistically, that they’re gonna use and want to use my mind as well as my body. And I didn’t know any other way to get that guarantee, except to ask for a producing credit.”

“For me, in my heart, in my mind, it was a deal-breaker,” continued the Oscar-nominated actress, who then shared that a lot of people never actually thought that she’d get a producing credit on the series. “To be honest, everybody in my life, my friends, my agents, my managers, they were all like, ‘You’d never gonna get that on an HBO show that you didn’t develop, and that’s like a huge massive production,’” Gyllenhaal said. “And I was like, ‘I really really really want to do this job, but I can’t do the job without the producing credit.”

Gyllenhaal said that since Simon and Pelecanos granted her the producing credit she wished for, their working relationship has become a “real collaboration.”

As for how she accomplishes her responsibilities as a producer and as an actress on the show, Gyllenhaal said during a Hollywood Reporter-sponsored panel last October that she meets with Simon and Pelecanos to discuss her notes prior to filming. But when it comes time to film, she “had to take the producer’s hat off.”

As a producer, Gyllenhaal also makes sure that everything is well with her fellow cast members. “It’s awesome to have Maggie around on set because she can look at you and know if something is going on,” Dominique Fishback, who portrays Darlene, told Hidden Remote. “It takes the pressure off because she can mention something and stand up. It’s great to know that she’s around and she’s watching out for us. She’s not just all about Candy. She’s thinking about it all.”

In addition to “The Deuce,” Gyllenhaal’s other producing credits include the 2018 drama film “The Kindergarten Teacher.”

“The Deuce” Season 2 is expected to premiere on HBO later this year.