Friday 21 March 2008

Jake - 'There are movies that have changed me and the way I’ve looked at the world'

Thanks to IHJ, we now have further pictures from Jake Gyllenhaal's appearance at the LA Conservation Corps Spring Luncheon held on 19 March, including photographs of Jake with Maria Shriver. It's interesting to hear that Jake has been visiting the Corps recently and getting to know one of the young people (one of the two Jake gave an award to) for research for a future film role. I am completely intrigued by this and wonder what film role Jake has in store for us. It doesn't sound like the kind of research one would carry out for Nailed.




Jake's interest in the Corps set me off on this windy holiday Friday thinking about the involvement of Jake and his whole family in another cause, ACLU, and the influences that Jake's parents have had on his social conscience, which, in turn, has affected Jake's view of the power of movies.

That Jake himself has been put up for auction (well, for dinner) by ACLU on more than one occasion is well known and almost seems like a regular means for the organisation to raise funds. What I didn't realise was that back in the early days of 2003, Jake and Kirsten Dunst were ready to set themselves up as the leaders of a political forum for young celebrities: '"Spiderman" star Kirsten Dunst is heading up a new group of young Hollywood stars who will meet to discuss political issues and try and encourage their peers to take world issues more seriously. The actress and boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal will front the celebrity forum, which plans to highlight the need for youths to get involved in politics to help make change possible.'


It sounds as if Jake may have been a major political influence on Kirsten who admits to not even having voted in the 2000 election. 'I didn't even vote in 2000. I think it was just laziness. I wasn't raised in a family that was real political and I'm just now becoming aware of these issues. I just want to be more informed. This is so important and if we can get anyone to be more political, then that's a good thing.'


By contrast, Jake's parents have been heavily involved with ACLU for a considerable length of time and were honoured by the organisation on 19 May 2003 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel with the Torch of Liberty. 'The ACLU/SC believes that Naomi Foner-Gyllenhaal and Stephen Gyllenhaal have set an incredible example for their children, Maggie and Jake, with their strong support of the ACLU and countless other political organizations. This family is demonstrating what it means to pass the "torch of liberty" from one generation to the next, and we honor them as a family that embodies true American family values. The family's activism has been manifested in so many ways over the years that what is provided here is just a sampling... Maggie's interest in Central American issues was encouraged when her parents helped her make a documentary on the subject, and Jake is an outspoken proponent of the film industry's responsibility in addressing political issues... This is a family that understands the important role films can play in exposing audiences to messages that build support for the principles of liberty and justice. The ACLU Foundation of Southern California is proud to honor the Foner/Gyllenhaal family for making activism a family affair.'


However, although proud, both Maggie and Jake have said that they believe that this award was really to honour their mother. Maggie: 'The award really went to my mother who's been really active with the ACLU in a lot of ways... But I think Jake and I were included because we'd had such explosive years.'



In October 2005, Jake told Out magazine: 'My mom’s been a member of the ACLU for years. Sometimes I was dragged to all the dinners before I even knew what the ACLU was. A few years ago, they honored my family, and they gave us the Torch of Liberty award, which was supposed to represent people who fought for freedom of speech. I think in a way it was more for my mother than for the entire family. We definitely have been taught that movies are a powerful medium and what you say with them can influence people, and I believe that. And people can think that’s pretentious—and even I think it’s a little pretentious—but I think it’s true. There are movies that have changed me and the way I’ve looked at the world...'


In 2003/2004, Jake lent ACLU his face and not-inconsiderable swaying power in an advertisement for the organisation. For this campaign, Jake took part in one of my favourite photoshoots - the Goodlooking Revoluntionaries set of photos - and his two-page glorious advert appeared in the May 2004 issue of Paper magazine (click and it shall be bigger). Where do I sign up?


On 4 October 2004, the ACLU Freedom Concert took place at the Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center in NYC. 'Teen-dream hottie Jake Gyllenhaal, one of a handful of megawatt actors performing spoken-word adaptations of liberal-friendly Supreme Court decisions, was forced to endure the weight of his propped-open PowerBook through several bouts of hoots and hollers.' All this was aimed at 'commie lawyers', as Jake referred to them in this review of the concert. Maggie was another one of the 'megawatt actors'. You can read a fuller account of the event here.


Jake's excitement in being included in the event is clear in this brief interview: 'I’m the youngest among all of them. It’s like Paul Simon and Patti Smith and Lou Reed and Mos Def and Jessica Lange and Robin Williams, and s**t man, just to be amongst them is pretty cool. To be sandwiched in today at rehearsals between Robin Williams and Mos Def and Nanci Griffith, you know, that’s pretty exciting.' Jake also makes it clear he's there 'cause my mom would kick my ass if I didn’t show up tonight. She’s been an ACLU member for like 25 years.' And then there's the famous Gyllenquote: 'Like I think buying porno & smoking cigarettes, as exciting as it may be to kids, I think voting should be just as exciting, if not more exciting.'

You can see more pictures from the concert's after party at the Mandarin Orient here. This picture from the after party includes Anthony Romero, the Executive Director of ACLU.


And finally

Maggie Gyllenhaal has been lined up to feature on the cover of the May issue of Interview magazine. The cover photograph was, apparently, taken in London when Maggie was over filming recently (one assumes for The Dark Knight).


The one sure name attached to Nailed, Jessica Biel, was supposed to have met last night with Nailed's production team in the Clubhouse restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina. This film continues to be very much Jessica's project.

Includes pictures from IHJ.

29 comments:

BirdGirl said...

Of course Maggie’s going to be on Interview, my subscription just ran out. Grrr! I guess I will just have to buy it.

Another great post WDW. I always love to hear about Jakes political side. He has lent his voice to such wonderful causes over the years.

Have a great day.

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hi there Bird Girl - glad you liked the post - this one wore me out! Recovering with Californian vino... I'm looking forward to Maggie's Interview.

The more I learn about Jake the more he fascinates. Amazing.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the updates WDW.

I agree with Jake that movies are a powerful medium, but many people don't want to go to see a movie for a lesson. A problem is that people don't take actors and their messages very seriously, just a few actors are lucky to be taken seriously and maybe can have an impact on people.
I think education and the ability to form your own opinion, hopefully as objectivly as possible, is what should be the main goal. I feel there are just a few movies that can change the way of thinking (when done really well and not preachy) and one of them is BBM.

Again, thanks for the interesting post!

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Thanks for the comment, Anon. Intresting. I think we (and Jake) have seen that it's true, people want more than a message when they go to an expensive theatre to see a film.

But do enough films like Brokeback Muntain and, I would argue, Zodiac and Donnie Darko, people will go and see a film for you. Look at us - many of us were won over by Jake with BBM, and it wasn't all because of the size or colour of his eyes, a lot was to do with the movie itself.

Jake is an interesting man, he's an interesting actor - I am a fan because he gave me something different in the cinema and now I know more about him, I'm fascinated by the way he is motivated to choose films to make people stop for a moment and think about the world and people around them. I fully expect him to do it again. Pressure, certainly, but Jake's up to it.

Thanks for that interesting comment.

Anonymous said...

I agree, he chose some interesting movies in the past and if he continues to do so he'll gain an even bigger following. I'm sure he'll continue to chose wisely. :)

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hi there 20:00 - definitely, I've never had trouble in trusting in Jake's choices - that's why I'm so excited about these coming films, as varied as they are. Thanks for commenting :)

Anonymous said...

Hi WDW,

Another great post - I love hearing about Jake's involvement in causes that are important to him and his family, and as I've said many times, his thoughts on his film roles and things that are meaningful to him. I loved the recent pics of him at the Conservation Corps luncheon too, where he's looking so gorgeous. He's got fabulous legs, among other things. :)

I agree about BBM, it wasn't Jake's considerable beauty that got to me, it was the story itself. I didn't go crazy over Jake's good looks until much later, as I began to look for information about what has become one of my favorite films ever, BBM, and I started seeing more mature pics of Jake, and learning more about him. Of course, he's was wonderful in Zodiac and Rendition too - I'm glad he gave that fan whatfor and told him that his work in Zodiac is some of his best, which it is! :)

Can't wait to read about Maggie in Interview. This is one of my favorite pics of them, where she's hugging her brother.

Thanks again. :)

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hi Bertie - I love finding out about the causes that mean something to Jake too and it seems to me that all this has had a big influence on the way his career is shaping - love that.

I'm just the same - I saw BBM and was captivated by it - and very troubled! - and it was while i was trying to deal with that that I realised Jake was the one. I fell for him with TDAT but his skill as an actor is so great that in BBM it was the love story that got me. Now I realise Jake was a big part of that too. And yes, since BBM, we've had Rendition and, my favourite, Zodiac, and who knows what's to come!

And yeah, in these new pics, Jake has fabulous legs - they go on and on.... Thanks for commenting :D

Anonymous said...

Great post WDW! I am imagining little Jake being drug to all those charity dinners, all whining and curious at the same time... :)

I love those Corps photos... i miss his movie-star look and his smile. And sans sunglasses, so we can look at his baby blues. you're right, WDW, they remind me of the Cannes pics.

haha... ACLU must have many new recruits about that Jake Ad!

I ended up watching Moonlight Mile for the afternoon... and suddenly I remember Jake once said he always have the worst haircut in movies. That got me thinking... he actually only have good haircuts in 4 movies:
- Brokeback Mountain
- Rendition
- TDAT
- Proof (an eye-candy math genius with perfect bedhead hair? yeah, right, that would happen in real life)

I'll cut some slacks for Zodiac because he's playing geek and at least they show his beautiful forehead. Holden in TGG is almost unforgivably bad... thank god for Jen Aniston to point out his "pouty lips" in the movie!

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hey there Winterbird - you just caught me - glad about that :D

I loved that image of jake being dragged around - must have been so dull for a kid but now here he is where he would probably do the same thing himself :D I imagine Jake had some very dull dinners as a child and so you have to smile!

Those Corps pics remind me of Cannes for sure. Jake the movie star - good to see him.

Ooh, like this Jake's hair cuts. Well all bad except for BBM, TDAT, Proof, Zodiac (second half of movie hair gets unkempt and very attractive) and Rendition. So looks like I'm the same as you. In Jarhead, BBoy, GGirl, MMile - terrible. I don't include OSky and Highway as Jake was too young for me to care about his hair in those :) I think that Brothers will have good hair but an awful lot of face fuzz.

Love to see Jake in a film with jen again - just saying. G'night :)

twistedlogic said...

Hey WDW! Not surprised you're knackered after doing that post - so much stuff in there! I don't know how you do it...But yeah, as we've spent the last few days concentrating on Jake's physical qualities,it's good to have a reminder that there's so much more to him than just his stunning looks (and his dodgy clothes of late;) - although I have to say I quite like the black and white plaid shirt he's wearing in these pics).
Like a lot of people, it was BBM that brought Jake to my attention and I fell hopelssly in love with Jack, which made me want to find out more about Jake, and it was stuff like his involvement with causes like ACLU and the fact that's he's politically aware that made me fall for Jake. If he's just been another bland and vacuous celeb I wouldn't have been interested in him beyond his characters. Of course the fact that I share a lot of his opinions helps, if he'd been a rabid right winger I would have gone off him pdq!
And I didn't know Maggie made a documentary about Central America. Does anyone know more about that?

And another thinng that's really bugging me is:why is he holding his laptop on stage, couldn't he have just printed out whatever he was reading???

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hi TL! You raised a good point - Jake's juggling of the laptop on stage. I love, love to see Jake with a laptop and these pics just make me go mushy so a great excuse to post 'em. So why on earth would he print his speech out when he can wave his laptop around as sexily as that, eh? eh?

There have been so many pics lately - not complaining, love em - that I haven't been able to do one of my thinking about why I love JG posts and so today I had some time to do one of them. As yu say, we've spent some time on Jake's obvious physical assets over the last few days so I wanted to spend a little bit of time with his sexy brain :D This is why we love him and that is why he isn't a rabid right winger :)

I vaguely remember reading about Maggie's documentary - I'll have to find out more.

I love how Jake had such a good time at the ACLU concert. Only a little more than three years ago - who'd have thought it?

twistedlogic said...

Hey WDw! I hadn't thought about the laptop waving being sexy (well, to paraphrase The Police, Every little thing he does is sexy) I was more concerned about him hurting his arm but the sexiness is as good a reason as any:)
Love the hair topic! My favourite would have to be BBM(isn't it always?;)) followed by Rendition and then Proof.Jake's hair in TGG and MM is truly dreadful - although it still doesn't stop him from looking gorgeous in both:D I'm pretty indiferent to his hair in TDAT, DD and Zodiac, but I do really like it in L&A. And I'm probably in a minority of one here, but I really like the Jarhead hair(or lack thereof).I prefer him with hair, and I would die happy if I could run my fingers through it just once, but there's something very attractive about the whole tough macho shaved head look. Ok, basically what I'm saying is, as long as it's Jake I'm not fussy:D Btw,speaking of Jarhead hair, according to TL Jr David Beckham is now sporting a "US Marine" cut - trust him to jump on the bandwagon two years later!

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hey TL, when I saw Jarhead the other night, I found Jake as Swoff a lot sexier than I had done before. I could see some of the Jake I love in his expressions and so the hair (or lack of) didn't seem to matter so much. I saw that about Beckham's hair :D I love how the article made it out that Beckkham was copying our Jake - although I tend to doubt that when I wear my sensible head.

Jake's hair is lovely on TDAT (especially when it's wet). I'm hoping that from here on it we have great Jake Hair Movies.

Yes, Jake laptop waving is sexy :D

twistedlogic said...

Funny how we see things differently - I've never seen anything much of Jake in Swoff, but I just find him seriously sexy in his own right*drool* Whatever the reasons, at least we agree on the sexiness:D
I haven't actually seen Beckham's hair or read any articles, TL Jr just mentioned she'd seen a pic at her friend's house. Is there an article saying he copied Jake? How dare he?! Too bad for him he can't copy Jake's charisma, humour and, to get back to the original topic of the post, his intelligence and awareness;)

Anonymous said...

Oh Please -

You had to go down this road. :) My favorite, favorite Jake hair of all time (so far, anyway!) is in Rendition. Can you just imagine running your fingers through it in The Scene? OK, I'm done now. ;)

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Yeah, it's strange but I'd never seen anything at all of Jake in Jarhead before this last time I saw it. Maybe I was going out of my way to look for Jake this time. But sexy all right!

I saw on the net a feature that said in a joking way that Becks had copied Jake - I'll put it in a post tomorrow as it made me chuckle. I used to fancy Becks a bit in the old days - until he opened his mouth. A big difference with Jake. I love to listen to what our guy says.

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hey Bertie :D Yes I can and I have (imagined) running my fingers through that Rendition hair :D

twistedlogic said...

I've never understood the attraction with Becks,even before he opened his mouth or before he hooked up with Wotserface - well,it'd be a dull world if we all liked the same things. The only Becks I like is the liquid sort in a green bottle;)

Hey Bertie!Me toowith the Rendition hair (and not just on his head;)).

Wet Dark and Wild said...

TL, I have a soft spot for Green Bottled Becks myself. On that note, I'm off! Night :D

Anonymous said...

Hey Bertie! Me too with the Rendition hair (and not just on his head;)).

I hear ya, TL! ;) Night, all!

twistedlogic said...

See, we all agree far more often than we ever disagree;) nite all xx

paulh said...

Jake is funny, charming, and intelligent. When he does an interview, and gets intelligent questions, he says some terrifically interesting things.
When the interviewer asks stupid questions, Jake gives Gyllenbabble.

I did not care much for Jake's haircut in "Rendition," but his hair looked gorgeous in
"Zodiac," especially in the rainy scenes. He had a *very* strange haircut in "Moonlight Mile." Where do they dream up these looks for him? :-/

Strangely enough, although I don't like military haircuts, Jake almost seemed to glow in "Jarhead," as if something inside him grew bigger in order to compensate for the loss of hair.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to look for that Interview mag with Maggie on the front. I just bought the April issue that had a tribute to Heath by various people in the business (and Michelle of course)

Trekfan

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Morning everyone :D Flippin freezing out there and I can't believe they're saying snow's on the way :(

Hi TL - true - we agree on the things that matter ;D

Morning Paul - that's very true - Jake gives to an interviewer he respects.

Oh definitely - Jake looked gorgeous in tose Zodiac scenes! MMile certainly not so good. Jake just relished his role in Jarhead and made the suit fit perfectly - this means I can get past the jarhead cut which is just horrid.

Hi there Trekfan - we have a month delay here unfortunately with Interview magazines - in the one shop that stocks it round here it's still the March issue.

Have a good day everyone and wrap up :D

Anonymous said...

It appears that the tale about a fan confronting Jake in the parkade is a made-up story by Defamer. There are three different vids of that day in the parkade out there, and there's no fan confrontation and nothing like what was described in any of them.

So I guess Defamer invented the whole story to go along with the pics of Jake shooing away the paps from interfering with the parkade attendant trying to do his job.

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hi Anon - thanks for the comment. I should have known it was too good to be true - I love the thought of Jake standing up for Zodiac :)

Anonymous said...

So I guess Defamer invented the whole story to go along with the pics of Jake shooing away the paps from interfering with the parkade attendant trying to do his job.

Should have known. :( That vid was shocking too, so many of them in such a small area, the poor parking attendant and Jake! I hate that clicking shutter sound which seemed to be amplified in the parking garage, and flashing everywhere. Looked like Jake grit his teeth and soldiered on! :)

Wet Dark and Wild said...

Hi there Bertie :) I was very impressed by how well Jake dealt with that - you're right, it seems worse in an inclosed space like that.