ET caught up with Gyllenhaal Tuesday night at premiere of his new animated film, 'Strange World.'
Jake Gyllenhaal is no stranger to playing a dad on-screen, and he's hoping to be one in real life too!
ET's Will Marfuggi spoke to Gyllenhaal at the premiere of his new Disney animated film, Strange World, where he plays Clade family patriarch, Searcher Clade, about drawing on his relationship with his family for the role and his plans to be a father one day.
"For me, what I relate to -- yes, my relationship with my own father, but also the generation before me right now, my nieces and how incredible they are and how they've changed my life already," Gyllenhaal said when asked if fatherhood is in the cards for him.
He continued, "My oldest is 16, my oldest niece, and over the 16 years she's been here on this Earth, she's done a lot to change me and show me, so, I love my family and I hope to have a bigger one."
Gyllenhaal's a proud uncle to sister Maggie's children, so much so that he wrote a children's book about it -- The Secret Society of Aunts and Uncles out Sept. 2023.
"I wrote a children's book called The Secret Society of Aunts and Uncles," the 41-year-old screen star shared. "Because I would always read books to my nieces when they were kids, and I never had a real book that was about that relationship, which is a really special one and very unique, and so, I decided with my best friend to write a children's book about it."
In Strange World, another special relationship is put to the test as the Clade family of explorers are forced to work through their differences in order to complete their latest and most crucial mission yet. In playing the role of Clade, Gyllenhaal said he looked back on his own family dynamic.
"That's what moved me so much about it when I heard the pitch for the first time, it just hit straight home -- all the complications we have in communicating to the different generations of our family," Gyllenhaal explained. "And ultimately, the thing that I love about this film, is that the youngest generation is the one that helps bridge the gap between all of them, and the idea that it's family first, it starts in your family, and how you treat each other in your family is ultimately how you go out into the world and treat the world, and if we can all resolve some of those things, I think the world would be a different place."
"It is a strange world, but we all have an opportunity to change it," he added.
Strange World hits theaters Nov. 23.
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