Jake: 'Write whatever you like but spell my name right'

I just returned home from seeing Rendition again - a kind of therapy after the Rome Film Festival. I'm pleased to hear that the film was number 3 in the UK box office for the week, which is no poor showing considering it's half-term school holidays here. Far more disappointing has been the reaction in the US. Possibly the subject matter is too close to home, or perhaps audiences are too tired of films on war or terrorism. Whatever the reason, it's a shame and I'm just pleased that the UK, despite a real mix of reviews that can only confuse a potential audience, has given it a chance.


Some excellent news is that the very influential Guardian has given Rendition a great review today in an article that reminds us, angrily, that we should not tolerate the type of behaviour revealed by this film. Peter Tatchell urges everyone to see it for what it is telling us about how our world is run:


'As a thriller, Rendition is good entertainment. But it is much more significant than a good night out at the cinema. It dramatises what has happened in real life to hundreds of families - many of them families of entirely innocent men who strayed into the wrong place at the wrong time, or who were victims of identification mix-ups. See this film. I hope it will make you angry enough to protest to your MP, and to prime minister Gordon Brown, at the way the British government is complicit with the criminality of US rendition policy.'


When Jake Gyllenhaal left London a week or so ago, he left behind some interesting interviews in the UK press - the Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

Both interviewers, not surprisingly, fell victim to an abundance of Gyllencharm and he responded with statements about everything from not thinking himself attractive (remembering - as so many of us do - what it was like to wear glasses in school as a child) to women peeing louder than men.


Jake admits that he was competitive with Maggie for a time and that he also had to compete for his parents' attention, something we've heard before. He also had to deal with periods of gloom when there was a 'bad project'. The Telegraph interviewer notes that it can't be easy to have more success than anyone else in your family, especially your parents. 'I do get taken down a lot at home. Put in my place. I'm the little brother.' I was amused to read that Jake's parents were terrified of him when he returned from the Jarhead bootcamp.

As for Rendition and what Jake thinks about America's role in this practice: 'Back off: 'I don't think audiences need to know my political beliefs to appreciate this film. Nor do they need to know who I am dating. It's not important.' Modestly, Jake tells his interviewer to 'Say I tried to torture you during the interview. Say Jake was torturing me with his boring comments.'


In the Telgraph, Jake also discusses his previous statements about how he is not afraid of homosexuality and how this has opened himself up to a level of ambiguity about his sexuality which, like it or not, has existed ever since Brokeback Mountain. 'Nothing like that has ever happened to me. I live in a different world. What I was trying to say was why leave out possibilities in my life? It wasn't meant to be provocative... It was meant as a way of saying it was important for Heath and I to have the movie exist as the movie, but also to have people know it was two straight actors playing those parts... Here are these two lonely people who find themselves through love. Love has no bounds and these two people found a connection in this massive, lonely landscape of Wyoming.'


In The Daily Mail Jake tells us that his best advice came from the pen of Eminem of all people. 'He didn't give it to me personally, but it's on one of his records and he says: 'When you're in it and you've got it, you've got to get as much s*** as you can, cos you never know when you're never going to get it again.' So who knows which track this is from as I don't recognise it? What Jake wants to give up the most is thinking too much: 'No, really. I would like to quit thinking. I tend to over-analyze things and decisions, although I end up going with my gut feeling. I was once told by a director to take a year off from thinking. That made me really laugh - and really think.'

It's not a surprise to hear Jake say that making movies is a turn on for him: 'I love being involved in the story and I love being involved in how the story moves. It's like, so hot! It's almost sexual. When it works right, it's such a turn on.'


'I think as an actor you have to be open to your emotions - that's how you tap into other characters. Besides, by being so open I've come to terms with how screwed I am!'

Jake knew he was famous because of the 'screaming girls' but he also knows that a Gyllenhaalic is no ordinary fan: 'It's sort of nice, because most of the people who come up to talk to me are pretty interesting. I pride myself on making interesting films, as opposed to the type that just draws a huge audience of teenagers, so I think they are pretty smart fans. They always have questions for me, something that hasn't been answered by the movie. They'll scream: 'What's the ending of Donnie Darco[sic]? I don't understand it!' That is so nice.'


And Jake's ideal woman: 'Well, probably just an innate quality of being comfortable. That is sort of the biggest thing. Beauty is not always bad. For me, I think it's the comfortable factor. How does she feel about herself? Is she happy? That is so powerful and sexy to me.'

The politics of making a film like this

Jake told the Telegraph that he has no intention of becoming professionally involved in politics but 'I am an active member of the Civil Liberties Union. I believe in the First Amendment. I believe the right to free speech is inalienable and that we put that freedom in jeopardy when we throw out due process with rendition. Personally, I would say extraordinary rendition is not morally ambiguous. It is wrong...'


Rendition has received support from Amnesty International, in this video Gavin Hood is interviewed by Ben Wizner, an attourney for ACLU, who represents victims of rendition. Wizner argues that the depiction of torture and the process of rendition in the film demonstrates why 'art is important'. An audience can respond viscerally to a film's drama, more than to a victim's true account of his suffering. This may be the very thing that has put some people of. It's not easy to watch but I know I've learned something.

I also learned today that Rosie Malek-Yonan, who plays Nuru El-Ibrahimi (Isabella's mother-in-law), is in real life an Assyrian activist and author, who has campaigned to have the world recognise that the Assyrian Genocide took place. This article reveals that 'on the suggestion of famed Oscar winning director, Terrence Malick, in 2006 Malek-Yonan testified on Capitol Hill about the plight of the Assyrian Christians in Iraq.'

The Rome press conference

Hopefully, more will emerge from the press conference in Rome but this ITN video has a little snippet from a very serious looking event, although the language barrier may have contributed to this impression. Unfortunately, as seems the norm, one first has to sit through 'The Gossip'.



The picture

Who would have thought that the freebie London paper Lite would have been among the first to publish pictures of Jake and Reese walking arm in arm around Rome on Saturday. Thanks to a poster at IHJ, this is what the fuss will be about. There were other photos of Jake and Reese holding hands at LAX yesterday but these have now disappeared from Just Jared and from OK! (they have been bought by People) and so are a little too toasty to post here.


And Jake wasn't the only one walking round Rome to see the sights. I warned you that the occasional ruin would turn up!


Includes pictures from IHJ and Lite.