MR.NICE GUY

HE'S KNOWN FOR HIS QUIET INTENSITYOFTEN PLAYING DARK CHARACTERS - BUT OFFSCREEN THE ACTOR IS A FUN-LOVING DAD AND HUSBAND 

- GILLIAN TELLING

Throughout his 30-year career, Peter Sarsgaard has played an array of characters, including villainous turns as a transphobic murderer in Boys Don’t Cry, a convict on death row on The Killing and an evil baron in The Magnificent Seven. But don’t be fooled by how expertly he tackles dark roles. Sarsgaard, 52, is a total softie who loves hanging out with his wife (actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal, 46), their daughters and their dog, as well as tinkering in the garden, which is where he keeps his bees.

While sipping a coffee at a cafe near his Brooklyn home in late November, the actor, who has worked with A-listers from Tom Cruise to Jodie Foster and starred in blockbusters like 2023’s The Batman, says it’s the smaller films, like his new movie Memory, costarring Jessica Chastain, that are his favorites. “Smaller movies are important,” he says. In