Making sacrifices and the intensity of Jake

Bedhead Hair - not everyone can pull it off, but Jake Gyllenhaal has it mastered. Whether due to a lost comb and an alarm clock without batteries or due to hours spent carefully teasing hair whisps with expensive product made from the biproducts of Hawaiian bees, Jake's hair doesn't fail to delight (most of the time). It's preoccupied us, it's possibly preoccupied Jake, it's certainly preoccupied members of the press.


Jake's hair has been dyed, twisted, twirled, flattened, extended, cut (massacred), stretched, tweaked, fluffed for his movies - can any other actor's head of hair have received such treatment during his career? But Jake is a lead in these films and his hair is all part of creating the character. For other actors, it's more of a matter of whether the hair gets in the way.


Take Calgary teacher, band-member and part-time actor Dan McDougall for example. Despite being given the wrong script in his audition, Dan was lucky enough to get selected to play the part of the toughie bartender in Brokeback Mountain - the one who advises Jack Twist to rope calves instead. But Dan's 'musician's hair' was an impediment - it blocked out Jake. 'The day he arrived on set, the costume and make-up people started shaking their heads. "I wear my hair long for our band and they felt it was all wrong for the look. They wanted to cut most of it off." It was Lee who came to the rescue. He overheard the discussion and suggested the make-up people braid McDougall's hair and hide it under a wig. That worked until they decided to shoot scenes of Jake over my shoulder.'


'"Ang came up and asked if I'd let them cut my hair. Of course, I said yes. I told him being in his movie was more important than my hair. Besides, hair grows." A year later when Lee flew into Calgary for the special crew and cast screening of Brokeback, he singled McDougall out at the party. "He thanked me for making such a sacrifice for his movie. That's the kind of amazing guy Ang Lee is." McDougall was also impressed by Gyllenhaal: "He's incredibly professional for someone so young. He can turn on his character the instant cameras role and he's so convincing. The first time I delivered my line he barked back at me with such intensity that he frightened me. Ang came running over to explain I was supposed to be the toughest one in that scene. I just hadn't expected such intensity from Jake." McDougall says once cameras stopped rolling Gyllenhaal could turn into a real prankster.'


Talking of Brokeback Mountain. I may be crossing Will Ferrell off my Christmas card list. During the run up to the Oscars in 2006...


Big thanks to IHJ for new old pictures from TRL (USA), where Jake demonstrates so well that, even having a famously hat-defyingly large head and perfect hair, he can wear a cap with attitude.


Includes pictures from IHJ. Scans from WDW.