Happy Birthday David - Jake Gyllenhaal and David Fincher on how to paint a picture

Today is the birthday of David Fincher and, as someone who has justifiably been descibed on more than one occasion as a Fincher Fangirl, I cannot let the day pass without a Zodiac post. The UK and Europe - or at least those parts of it without multi-region DVD layers - have still to wait until the end of September before they get their Director's Cut edition of Zodiac and this is yet another indication of the way in which Paramount has (not) promoted this fine film. Nevertheless, despite or because of his well-publicised foibles - such as the take fetish and microscopic attention to detail - Zodiac is a film Jake Gyllenhaal et al should be rightly proud of.



David Fincher's compulsion to have every scene perfectly realised has been reflected upon and groaned about by more cast members than Jake and this was exemplified in the DVD extra in which Jake is shown repeatedly throwing down a book in his car until, after about 40 takes, he got the angle just right. It did make me happy that Lisa discussed this outtake with Jake during the Ted and Lisa lunch with Jake back in April - it's a favourite moment of mine, amongst many.


Chloe Sevigny reflected that Jake grew frustrated by David's attention to background details until Jake began to do what comes naturally to him but surely is an abhorrence to David Fincher - he improvised (or made up his lines), thereby prolonging the process even more for himself and everyone else.


Most famously, Jake was quoted as saying that David 'paints with people' and 'It’s tough to be a color.' Elsewhere: '"There are two very difficult dreams that you learn a lot from as an actor," Gyllenhaal says. "One is a Shakespeare and the other is a David Fincher. Someone said to me, 'He paints with people.' The word 'perfectionist' is oversimplifying it."'


Robert Downey Jr, in the commentary to Zodiac, shared the joke with Jake about the takes they endured and also said: 'I just decided, aside from several times I wanted to garrote him, that I was going to give him what he wanted. I think I’m a perfect person to work for him, because I understand gulags.'


And again: 'We promise you that in the course of filming Zodiac no animals were hurt," Downey says with a laugh. "That's where the humane behavior ended. No ego was left untarnished. We're doing a scene and I realized after we'd done it about 40 times, I was tied to the mast. Dave's like, 'Everything that Downey has just spent the last six hours doing? Let's delete that, go to lunch, and start over.' But that's the shit, dude. It's — Fincher.'


Nevertheless, despite all that, despite the extra long shoot, Jake's fondness for his Zodiac director, who got out of him such a performance, was very evident by the time Cannes came along and there was chemistry: 'The screening of the 158-minute film was full and well received, with star Jake Gyllenhaal the main attraction at the light-hearted briefing afterwards. The star may have bridled on the set at the perfectionist director's demand for take after take, but whatever their past differences, they were all mutual admiration.'


'One two-part question posed asked Fincher if he felt Gyllenhaal was one of the best acting talents of his generation -- Fincher said he was -- with a follow-up to Gyllenhaal about working with co-star Robert Downey, Jr. Gyllenhaal at first deflected the question: "I'm sorry," he said. "I was still thinking about being one of the best talents of my generation."'


Not all directors are the same and no two films are the same - thank heavens - and so Jake must have expected to learn a great deal from a director who pushes technology to its limit and knows exactly what he wants and will fight studios to be allowed to express that: 'But as we’ve worked together I feel like he really does like actors, and he knows what’s really good in acting, too. I have a real, real growing fondness for David and his relationship to actors. To work with, though, we do on average 30 takes, and we do have up to 80. But I also think that’s great, too. Every director seems to have a different, especially when they’re really great, a real personality and style of making their film. And they’ve all been so different and so wonderful in all these different ways. I just hope that I’ve taken in as much as I can from them because who knows when the opportunity will come again to work with people like that. I don’t know, it’s kind of amazing.'



Fincher, in turn, wanted Jake for the role right from the very beginning. He enjoyed Jake as Donnie Darko ('I really liked him in Donnie Darko... and I thought, He's an interesting double-sided coin. He can do that naive thing but he can also do possessed.') but he was also encouraged to hire Jake by Jennifer Aniston, who, at the time, was married to one of David's most favourite actors, Brad Pitt.


In the UK MTV Zodiac special, David and Jake shared an exchange, beginning with David: 'Jennifer Aniston cast this movie because she was saying 'Oh my God! Jake! You'll love him. he's fantastic! He's so charming, he's so great!' Jake: 'She can be one hell of an influence.' David: 'I had seen Jake in Donnie Darko and I'd seen Jake in The Good Girl and I liked that he could be part of something that was dark without having to play dark.'





Of course, back in October 2007, David interviewed Jake for Interview magazine and the interview, conducted over the phone, revealed much about both. At this site, you cah hear a snippet from it.


David Fincher never stood much of a chance of awards success with Zodiac - the release date was pushed from pillar to post due to David's fight to keep everything in the film. Let's hope that 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, fares better and has the fates behind it (not to mention the studios).



Happy birthday, David - you're truly a gem and thanks for the Cannes smile. Includes pictures from IHJ and Just Jared.