Peter Sarsgaard Says He Can't 'Imagine' Married Life with a Non-Actor: 'Would Be a Lot More Difficult' (Exclusive) 

For Peter Sarsgaard, the acting lifestyle is only part of what makes his marriage to Maggie Gyllenhaal work.

While Sarsgaard, 53, recently spoke with PEOPLE about his new film September 5the actor pointed out that he thinks that married life with someone who is not an actor and a director could be challenging.

“I don’t know if I have advice for couples. I think every couple is as unique as every person,” he says, describing how he and The lost daughter director Gyllenhaal, 47, “take turns” with their work. “I can’t imagine—I think it would be a lot harder to be married to someone who has a more consistent type of employment in one place.”

Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal first met at dinner in 2001; the couple began dating in 2002, and their rep told PEOPLE exclusively in 2006 that they were engaged and expecting their first child together. They got married in May 2009 and share two daughters; Ramona, 18, and Gloria Ray, 12. As a result of the couple’s schedule when they find new movies on the horizon, Sarsgaard tells PEOPLE that the couple works for “[letting] someone has their dance and then you dance.”

See Christian Bale as Frankenstein and Jessie Buckley as The Bride in the first look at Maggie Gyllenhaal’s new film

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard September 9, 2023

Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty

“There’s a lot of value in that,” he says. “I think at one point I thought I’d work harder if I could. But I think that’s wrong. I think I’d do a lot more things that I wasn’t proud of. So when I say I’m doing Something, it’s kind of a sacrifice for me. Everyone else has greater sacrifices, but only artistically, I can’t work all my life.”

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Sarsgaard portrays the late ABC News executive and television anchor Roone Arledge September 5which depicts the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre in Germany from the perspective of the ABC Sports television crew who covered the attack and subsequent hostage crisis live. The film also stars John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem and Georgina Rich among the ensemble cast.

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Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard September 7, 2024

Jamie Squire/Getty

“I pick and choose and I think that’s because I take the meetings seriously,” Sarsgaard says of balancing family time with finding new movies to star in. [September 5 director Tim Fehlbaum] he’s as serious as I am about making this thing the best it can be.”

September 5 it’s in limited theaters now; opens in theaters everywhere on January 17th.

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Source: HIS Education