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 just part of what makes his marriage to Maggie Gyllenhaal work.

While Sarsgaard, 53, spoke with PEOPLE recently about his new movie September 5, the actor noted that he thinks married life with someone who is not also an actor and filmmaker could prove challenging.

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

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

“There’s great value in that,” he says. “I think at one point I used to think that I would work more if I could. But I think that’s wrong. I think I would’ve done a lot more things that I was not proud of. So when I say yes to do something, it’s some type of sacrifice for me. Not a big one. Everyone else has got bigger sacrifices in the world, but just talking like artistically — I can’t work constantly. I have a whole other life. I have a family.”

Sarsgaard portrays the late ABC News executive and broadcaster Roone Arledge in September 5, which depicts the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics in Germany from the perspective of the ABC Sports broadcast team that covered the attack and subsequent hostage crisis live. The movie also costars John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem and Georgina Rich among an ensemble cast.

“I pick and choose and I think it makes it so that I take meetings seriously,” Sarsgaard says of balancing family time with finding new movies to act in. “I am not shy about kicking the tires and making sure [September 5 director Tim Fehlbaum] is as serious as I am about making this thing the best thing it can be.”

September 5 is in limited theaters now; it expands to theaters everywhere Jan. 17.