Jake Gyllenhaal playing real lives - 'He looks like how I looked in my dreams'

Great actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal have the power to transport us into alternate universes of experiences, as varied as medieval Persian fantasy and the rodeos of 1960s' Texas, but imagine what it is like to have Jake play you - to transpose your story onto the screen and to reproduce your mannerisms, affectations, failings and strengths. Homer Hickam, Tony Swofford and Robert Graysmith have all experienced just that - they looked into the mirror and saw Jake.


Rocketeer

When Jake took on the part of Homer Hickam, he recalled that Homer had given Chris Cooper (Jake's father in the film) his own father's jewellery to wear, making it more real for him and for Jake. Jake reflected, though, that what drew him closer to Homer was not the touch of familiar things but the thought of aspiration and dreams (This video works but you need the patience of a saint): 'But I think in terms of the character of Homer there are two things. And there's one the character that I create, drawing from myself and from my own experiences, and then trying to adopt the characteristics of Homer, the real Homer, and do service to him as a character, as a human being really. But I think that the connection between the two of us are the rockets and learning about the rockets, it's really what helped me to develop the character besides the accent and besides asking him.'


''And specific situations when I wanted specifics about a scene, especially actually emotional scenes. I knew they were emotional for him in real life - I wanted to do these scenes service, so I would talk with him about different aspects of what was going on, how was he feeling for a ... or I would just let him talk and I didn't even want to ask too many questions. I felt like I just wanted to know what he was going through.'


'And so, then also, friends of his came to the set and I would ask them questions and I kept a notebook so I had notes from what they had told me. And even lists of personality traits. I heard from one of his friends that he used to carry like a transistor radio everywhere he went to listen to the latest news, and even on his bike. He was the guy with the transistor radio. And I thought to myself 'What kind of person carries a transistor radio with them all the time?' So that added to it and just different things.'

In the documentary that accompanies the DVD, Laura Dern, who plays the inspirational teacher Miss Riley, reflects that this was a special time for Jake and that he was "in constant discovery. He has a passion and interest, which I think is paralleled in Homer, so it's really fun and moving to watch." The real Homer muses about Jake that "He looks like how I looked in my high school days in my dreams! He's a great kid. I only wish I'd been that sharp.'


Homer himself also said: 'if he had been as good looking as the actor (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the movie, he might have got more material and retitled his book Rocket Boys and Girls.'

Sniper

Although Jake was greatly impressed by Tony Swofford's account of his Gulf War experiences, he was also intimidated enough to have a lunch with Swoff and Mendes and not say a word (as Sam described in the video below) and then sit next to Swoff at a screening, during which he would scrutinise Swoff's face for every flicker of interest. This was a man Jake did not want to let down.


But Swoff was happy: 'I like Jake's acting; he does a fantastic job... It's easy to be out there for this film. It's odd for me, I'm watching it as the book's author... as my life up on the screen... But everyone I was talking to on the film knew the material, so it seemed right. And it is.'



 Variety Screening Series 2005 - Jarhead
Tony also said: 'I'd loved Donnie Darko and The Good Girl, and I felt that his onscreen presence was such that he would capture the controversial bloodlust and existential angst of the young jarhead going to war. I visited the set during the last week of rehearsal and met Jake. He was committed to playing the role authentically and intensely.'


Here, Swoff describes the first time he saw Jarhead: 'Oh yeah, it was bizarre. The first time I saw the film was here in New York and Sam and Walter Murch (editor) were sitting behind me and it was truly bizarre to hear Jake called 'Swofford' and 'Swoff' and see him get his head shoved into a chalk board, but very quickly I fell into watching the story telling. It was like there were three versions of me sitting there in that seat, there was the writer of the work, the person who had that past, and who I am now. I'm aware that now that I'm exposed in a different way, that it's harsh and it's not always attractive. But it's always honest.'


The obsessed cartoonist

Jake had a healthy respect of entering the head of cartoonist serial killer hunter Robert Graysmith - this was a man who would scrutinise Jake, relentlessly summing him up. When Robert was asked at the LA premiere what he thought of Jake's performance: 'I love Jake's performance! Am I the luckiest man in the entire universe?'


In fact, Graysmith was full of admiration: ''I don't think you have to walk Jake through anything. I was just talking with Mark [Ruffalo] outside the hall. My best friend is Inspector Toschi. We go and have lemon meringue pie and french fries in San Francisco and we talk about the case maybe once every week. But Mark Ruffalo came back as [young] Dave Toschi. He's got the Toschi hair, the voice, and he's really annoying after a while because he follows you around. Jake, he just watches me. I never told a person on this Earth that when I was living in Japan, I was in the boy scouts. But by God, he got that. How he got that I don't know. He got that apparently I was very obsessed about this case. (laughs) I did not know this until I saw Jake's performance and then I thought maybe I was two-fisted like Mark Ruffalo. Everyone went, "No, Jake has got it."'


They don't have to be real to breathe

But as Jake told Aboutfilm, a character does not have to have breathed real fresh air for Jake to consider them living people: 'I've considered characters I've played that aren't real people to be people that are still living out there, or have lived, who have struggled with the same things. I think Jack Twist is just as much of a real person as Tony Swofford. I approached both in the same way. They're aspects of every person, everybody's personality. With Jack Twist, I met with a lot of different cowboy and rode horses and learned how to pack mules, and all those things. That became a big part of that character for me.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.