Jake: 'The truth sucks most of the time but it's the only way to get anywhere good'

A bit of a treat this evening as I think we deserve it now that the nights are fair drawing in and there's a bit of a chill in the air - so get warm, put your feet up, maybe get a glass, and watch some Jake. Yesterday, we had a radio interview that Jake Gyllenhaal recorded when he was in the UK. Today we have a video recording, also from that British visit, of Jake being interviewed by the marvellous Grant Lauchlan for the Scots TV station STV.


As ever, when Jake has a good interviewer, he responds in kind and Grant's affection for Jake is contagious, concluding with Jake showing how to pronounce his surname for the office at STV. Jake also feels comfortable enough to swear in this one and I know some of us will enjoy that...


Grant asks Jake a very interesting question - whether Jake feels responsibility as an actor to get a message out there; whether celebrity brings with it responsibility? Jake's answer is fascinating. 'I don't feel a responsibility. I really don't. I feel like I'm moved by certain stories. I was moved by this story. I've said it before a couple of times, I feel like it's true. It's kind of a sad time when actors are politicians and politicians are actors. I think the reponsibility's on the politicians and it's the responsibility of artists and anyone to shed light on the world and what is honest and true. And call people out on - I'm gonna swear now - but on their bullshit. So it's hard when you're an actor and you're kind of full of shit too, so it's a hard thing. But I don't feel a responsibility, I feel, maybe I should say, it's a necessity.' To me, this reads as if Jake isn't aware of a conscious responsibility that he carries around with him on his shoulders - instead, it is innate in him and part of that social conscience which it is all our responsibility to bear.


And on the question of whether people prefer ignorance: 'I'll speak for myself and I'll say yeah. I would prefer not to know. I think the truth is hard. The truth sucks most of the time but it's the only way to get anywhere good.'


The music of Rendition

I know that many of us have been bewitched and calmed by the music that plays on the official Rendition website. I know that I have and I have it playing in the background now. Jake seems to have always been a part of movies with a soundtrack to match the quality of the writing and acting. The Rendition soundtrack is different entirely from that of Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac, Donnie Darko, Moonlight Mile and Jarhead (all of which had phenomenal scores and song soundtracks), but it is an integral part of the film and the story. The site SoundtrackNet this week featured an interview with the two composers of Rendition's sounds, the South African Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian, who previously worked on Gavin Hood's Tsotsi.


The composers discuss both the film and the long relationship they have enjoyed with fellow South African Gavin: '...there is a sense of things that Gavin can show us and talk to us about, and filter through us before he necessarily moves it to the wider sphere of people working together on the film. There's kind of a little bit of a trust, in a circle of trust, which is great. He really includes us in a lot of decisions, and makes space for stuff that we choose to do if we need more space in a scene, he was very open to working with us.' South American and Moroccan musicians were used as well as the South African band Just Jinjer who are now settled in LA and who are playing London this month.


As for the sound of Rendition: 'It's not a traditional single line melody with a certain phrasing going on over a bed of harmonic development. The theme could be the texture, the theme could be the rhythm, it's a lot more of the subtle approach. I think the film in every respect really called for a subtle approach in the cinematography, and every way really. I think that's where that came from for us.'


Video of Jake and Robert Downey Jr

Last week, we enjoyed the pictures of Jake with Robert Downey Jr and Trudie Styler leaving the Key Club on Sunset Boulevard where they had seen Robert's son and his band performing. Here is a video of Jake leaving and there are Gyllensmiles all over the place, as there usually are when Jake's with Robert. I was amused to see that, like many of us no doubt, as soon as Jake was in the car his attention seemed to go straight to its stereo. Click on the Watch Flash Preview link here.



Includes pictures from IHJ.