Jake Gyllenhaal - putting the x into mathematics

With Oxford being a University town of some note, and the new academic year beginning today, it seems inevitable that the play of Proof - or should that be {Proof} - should hit the boards of one of the city's theatres. And sure enough - just as e=mc2 and pie= 3.something - this is the year. From October 24, audiences will be able to relive the story of Robert, Catherine, Claire and Hal every night for a week.



Now that Oxford has more students than ants, it seems a good time to look at Jake Gyllenhaal's role as the mathematically-gifted Hal, who had the misfortune to fall for the recently bereaved and mathematically-inscrutable Catherine. Gwyneth Paltrow was never quite so sure that Jake was the right choice: '"Of course, it's a little far-fetched that Jake Gyllenhaal is ..." A friendless weirdo too? "Yeah. But it's a movie. Harvey Weinstein was very keen that Jake be the guy. He was not really up for the quirky thing. And he was paying, so."' But there were perks to having Jake as a co-star.



Reviews also pointed out that Jake may be too much of a hunk to be a believable mathematical genius ('Jake Gyllenhaal seems a little too hunky for a math geek — but he is, after all, Jake Gyllenhaal; what're you gonna do?'). As Jake himself said: 'I play a mathematician, which is ridiculous because I am horrible at math'.



Jake had nothing but praise for Gwyneth: 'When you work with certain actors, when you work with Heath, you don't always really know what he's going to deliver. With Gwyneth it's funny. She'll do three or four takes and they'll all be brilliant and will be done with her coverage. And I've never really worked with an actor like that before, ever. And I just saw her recently after not seeing her for a year... and she's just so sweet... For a person who has been bombarded with so much at such a young age, she's such a classy person.' Before going on to say: 'My math teacher would be, and I think is, devastated and hurt that I played that role in a movie.' Just how bad was Jake at mathematics?


Jake impressed director John Madden from the beginning: He 'recalls that Madden "had auditioned a lot of people for Proof and he told me, ‘I’m trying to find someone like you, but older. And now, I realize—I think you can do it. Will you fly to London and audition? I said, ‘Sure.’ In London, Paltrow and Madden gave him his “sides” from a crucial scene and, as Madden recalls, “he nailed it. He was free with us, and as soon as we finished reading one very long scene he wanted to go back and read it again—and different things came out. So his passport into the movie was already assured.”'


'“I always felt a little behind,” recalls Gyllenhaal. “Because they had done it onstage, and I was somewhat in awe of the talent—which worked perfectly in the role. And I’m trying to dust off things that they had already dusted off, then passed by or refined. I’m still trying to dust them off, and they’re going, ‘No, there’s no dust on that,’ you know?” Madden was impressed that the young actor came to the shoot with his part, as a young mathematician who’s trying to rescue the legacy of Paltrow’s brilliantly deranged mathematician father, flawlessly memorized, and apparently no longer entirely in awe. “Jake fought his own—um, he took me to task over some of the writing and some of the beats in a very good, very assured way that was particular to his character’s point of view.”'


Here you can see a video showing clips from the making of Proof, as well as an interview with Gwyneth in which she discusses the not altogether pleasant experience of filming Proof (sorry {Proof}). But when all's said and done, it's not everyday that a young actor has the opportunity to work with an actor such as Sir Antony Hopkins.



Includes pictures from IHJ.