Jake Gyllenhaal - Prince of Hollywood

When Jake was in London during February for the BAFTAs, he used the opportunity to do the publicity rounds for Zodiac. This resulted in last month's memorable interview in the Guardian in which we learned, for example, that Jake writes a journal, he still thinks deeply about Buddhism and he became a child actor in order to share more of his parents' world and earn more of their attention. You can read that interview here. It also resulted in an interview published today in the Scotsman.


You get the feeling reading this interview that this was one of those occasions, which happen now and again, when Jake did not warm to the interviewer and the interviewer made no attempt to 'get' their subject. So, yet again, Jake had to hear about being taught to drive by Paul Newman, about having an older sister who is also an actress and being part of Hollywood royalty. This time Jake didn't appear to be in the mood to repeat old stories, and who can blame him? Hasn't Jake earned the right to face a new line of questioning? Ruby Wax and the jellyfish spring to mind. The interviewer sounds disappointed that Jake didn't utter anything profound - maybe he wasn't given the chance. Also, Jake had just been compared to Keanu Reeves...


Despite all this, as with any interview with Jake, there are little treasures.

Badass Jake is back. Speaking of Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake and Derek Luke, Jake says: "There are a group of young male actors that are starting to come up, of my generation, that I really respect. I feel like I'm part of that and it's pretty bad-ass, like we're starting a club.'

The interview is spot on when it says that Jake is perfectly suited to the role of the obsessive. Jake may be good at it, but that doesn't mean he likes it: 'I haven't played the disturbed or the obsessive character for a while so when I went back to it, there was a resistance to that dark side of myself. David really made me look at the parts of myself that I don't necessarily like.'


It is also interesting to consider that it's 'the directors that draw him to roles'. Ang Lee, Sam Mendes and David Fincher are the reason why Jake worked on their respective films. But Jake is adamant that film making should be fun - not something that we've learned to associate with the filming of Zodiac. It's good to hear though that Jake rediscovered that fun with Rendition - that's great news and that's what I take away from this interview.


Pictures from IHJ.