Jake Gyllenhaal - I love your shirt. The awkwardness of Cannes

Judging by the number of short, and often repetitive, interviews that have emerged over the last few days, it is clear that there is a lot more to being an actor at Cannes than simply walking the red carpet and sitting through your film for the umpteenth time.


An article on the BBC news website paints a very pleasing picture of Jake Gyllenhaal at Cannes, sitting by the Mediterranean at his luxury hotel, maybe sipping on a drink with umbrellas, while he answers the same old questions. 'As Jake Gyllenhaal sits giving interviews about his new film Zodiac, in competition in Cannes, a speedboat full of paparazzi bobs up and down in the Mediterranean behind him. "Don't know what they're looking for," says the relaxed actor - but he is aware this is his life now.' And what a life it is.

Jakes, a Cannes Virgin, compares this experience to his previous festival experience of Venice, where famoulsly Brokeback Mountain took the prize. "When we came to Venice with Brokeback Mountain, we were sort of blown away by the response. This is bigger, and more glamorous, and yet really focused on the film-maker... Venice is beautiful, but I never got to do my interviews by the ocean. This is great - it's beautiful."


Meanwhile, a short article by Reuters discusses just what it is about Cannes that gives its press conferences 'their special, slightly awkward, feeling'. The stage-management and the adoration of the press - normally so hard to impress - for the Hollywood beauties before them combine to make the conferences all about 'mood' rather than about conveying information.

An example given is the Zodiac press confereence, during which David Fincher was asked:'“Do you think that Jake is considered one of the most promising actors of his generation?” Gyllenhaal, sitting alongside, responded with a creditable show of self- mockery and he had fulsome, if impenetrable, praise for his co-star Robert Downey Jr. “Working with Robert is like working in the eighth dimension,” he said. He tells a Chinese journalist: “I love your shirt”.'


French TV showed a brief film about Zodiac which is of particular interest because it shows the real-life Toschi and a younger Graysmith. It also features behind the scenes shots from the lakeside killing sequence and the oddity (for UK audiences) of Jake Gyllenhaal as Graysmith, dubbed into French. However, the glory of this short video is that it opens with moments from that glamorous red carpet event of 18 May, in which Jake couldn't look happier nor his smile broader. Further footage from the red carpet can also be seen in this brief film, from Italian TV this time.

Pictures from JustJared.