Jake Gyllenhaal forced to use ‘pillow technique’ in sex scene with Jennifer Aniston because it was ‘torture’ for him

While many would be lining up to work with the beautifully talented Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal wasn’t comfortable filming their intimate scenes together.

The Zodiac actor was so awkward during the filming of their 2002 film, The Good Girl, that he had to dive into an unorthodox method to stop himself from being so tortured.

That’s right, he called it an extreme ‘torture’ to film with the Friends alum.

The 42-year-old Hollywood actor claimed that while looking back at the decades-old film, he was uber uncomfortable.

The movie follows 30-year-old Justine Last (Aniston), who lives in small-town Texas with husband Phil (John C. Reilly), and works at a local big-box store called Retail Radio.

It’s here that she meets the much younger Holden (Gyllenhaal), who soon falls for his co-worker despite their eight-year age gap - and the fact that Justine is married, of course.

The two characters eventually end up having sex at a motel, which was understandably ‘awkward’ to film.

Maybe it was because at the time she was married to Brad Pitt, and that detail alone led him to agree to meet the actor after the scene.

Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal in The Good Girl. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Thankfully, the pair remained on good terms, which would be weird if they didn’t consider it’s literally just acting and their jobs.

Anyway, Gyllenhaal explained that any intimate scene is pretty awkward to shoot as everything is choreographed in front of an entire crew.

It’s even worse if the person you’re filming with is your crush.

Little did anyone know that this was exactly the scenario he was in as he was mega crushing on our girl Aniston.

That’s probably why he took drastic measures to keep his distance in the form of a pillow.

Gyllenhaal explained that Aniston was extremely cooperative, and she suggested even to him about using the ‘pillow technique’.

This is where you place a pillow between the people while filming the scenes so there’s no close contact with their bodies.

Gyllenhaal admitted he had a crush on Aniston when they filmed the movie together. (J. Vespa/WireImage)

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, the star agreed that shooting the intimate scenes with Aniston was ‘torture’ and he explained that ‘it was also not torture. I mean, come on, it was like a mix of both'.

He added: “Weirdly, love scenes are awkward, because there are maybe 30, 50 people watching it? Maybe if you have a closed set, it’s less? That doesn’t turn me on.”

He said: "I do remember a pillow... the pillow technique was used.

“That was just pre-emptive and generally always used when actually in a horizontal place in that movie. Everything else was whatever it was."

"The pillow saved you," Howard joked. "Who taught you that?"

Gyllenhaal replied: "I think that was actually Jennifer's suggestion. I think she was actually very kind to suggest it before we began. She was like, 'I'm putting a pillow here'. That was all she said, I think I remember that."

However, he finds that getting steamy in front of a camera is ‘oddly mechanical’, adding: “It’s a dance, you’re choreographing for a camera.

"You can get in it, but it’s like a fight scene, you have to choreograph those scenes.”

No matter how awkward it was, the performance was highly praised, with one critic calling Aniston’s performance ‘fresh’ and another saying it had ‘depth’.

Having been working on her hit TV show during the filming of the movie, maybe this was what set her up for becoming a mega film star?