Naomi's gift to Jake - 'I thrive on the process of getting this stuff right'

Yesterday was the birthday of screenwriter and Gyllenhaal matriarch Naomi Foner. I was unable to do a birthday post yesterday - or indeed do much of a post about anything - so, to make amends, here are a couple of articles about Naomi, from which it is clear that Jake's questioning of the gifts and challenges life throws at him, as well as the depth behind the roles he wears as close-fitting suits, have wise roots. I hope Naomi had a wonderful day.


In this article, from the end of 2005 in the LA Times, the signpost to Naomi's house is a Jarhead billboard. Naomi here discusses the conflict that she felt between being a mother and wife - unfashionable roles at that time and in that circle - and putting her creative energy into her career. Her family won and, as such, Naomi has had to deal with some unfavourable reviews and difficult projects while at the same time raising two children who are among the best in their profession and are reaping rewards.



The feature discloses: 'But like every mother she worries, about whether the environment she and her husband created funneled the children in to the acting world, about whether her own feelings of frustration with the industry made the kids feel they somehow had to make it big for Mom... "I made a lot of mistakes... believe me, I was not a perfect mother, as they will tell you. But I do think that a gift I can give them is the idea that it's never too late to do the work. Because life doesn't only go in one direction."'

As for Jake: 'From the time he could talk, Foner says, Jake didn't have a chance. "We knew he was going to be an actor since the time he was tiny," she says. "We figured he would just run away and join Saturday Night Live".'


In this quote from IMDb, in the aftermath of The Day After Tomorrow, Jake revealed that having a screenwriter as a mother, with the high standards she demanded and had impressed on her son, had led Jake to be a bit of a troublemaker on set: 'The Donnie Darko actor, 23, loved starring in the big-budget disaster movie, but on several occasions refused to say some of the lines in the script and suggested new ones. Gyllenhaal says, "There were a couple of instances where I said, 'No way am I saying that line!' and they rewrote it.' There won't be any subtitle saying, 'Sorry, these guys don't sound like real human beings, but they just didn't have the balls to say the dialogue sucked." And Gyllenhaal knows more about screenwriting than most actors - his mother Naomi Foner is a writer. Gyllenhaal continues, "Coming from a family where my mom is a writer, I just respond to how people speak. I thrive on the process of getting this stuff right. It drove them crazy, but it was fun. You have to entertain yourself when you're spending seven months in Montreal."'


In November 2005, IGN asked Naomi 10 Questions, and from this I learned that Naomi had been a content producer for Sesame Street! The ten questions are all about Naomi's favourites - music, books, TV, film and much more. I was delighted to see that Naomi's favourite programme is West Wing and interested that her favourite book is Salinger's Franny and Zooey.


The eleventh (for luck) question is which of her kids' films does Naomi love the most: 'Jarhead is just fabulous, isn't it? But, well, why don't we just say this: All my kid's movies are my favorite films. Everything they do is pretty great to me, because I'm their mother.'


Jarhead isn't just a favourite of Jake's mother - it's a favourite here too. There have been posts in recent weeks about the selection of locations for Jake's most recent film - Brothers - and for his potential next film Nailed. In this video interview for Arizona Family, Jake and director Sam Mendes discuss what it was like filming in the dunes outside Yuma, Arizona, and in the far more remote regions of Baja, Mexico.


As Sam says: 'Yuma was one of the places that was close to civilisation - a party venue compared to Mexico!... We shot in a lot of places that looked the same and in Mexico we were a 75-minute drive from the nearest electricity.'


Jake continues: 'We shot in Mexico, we shot on this dry lake bed for two and a half weeks in Mexico, and mirage all around you for 360 degrees, and I just remember kind of after about a week and a haf thinking, none of us were talking to each other, we were all.... and we just couldn't.... I remember thinking to myself being in this for months and months on end, having to stay together, having to fight, having to save people's lives, thinking of killing people, I mean just all those other aspects involved. I was just - I was there shooting a movie and it was hard!'


You can find many more details about the locations for Jarhead, including others in California, and the big problem that rain posed in the desert, here.



Includes pictures from IHJ and Just Jared.