Jake's Blockbuster lesson No 1 - Have a personal trainer

It's cold outside. In fact, it's very cold outside. Seems very appropriate to thank IHJ for the new/old pics of Jake Gyllenhaal (with Zooey Deschanel) messing about in the snow in not nearly enough layers. But at least from this we can tell that if ever we need to build an emergency igloo, Jake is the sexgod, sorry man, for the job.


It is very likely that Jake will be heading back to the unreasonably and unfairly sunny climes of Los Angeles any day now, in which case, it's only fair that he should be reminded of what he will be missing. But, Californian or not, Jake has experience of big snow and Arctic seas thanks to Roland Emmerich and The Day After Tomorrow. Back in the days when Jake filmed this first big taste of a blockbuster, it was all a bit of a mystery about what he had let himself in for.


The lovely Emmy Rossum recounted: 'During filming, "we were in that tank, wet and cold and shivery, so much of the time and trying to keep our spirits up," the 17-year-old actress tells us, adding that their showbiz naivete didn't help. "There was one point (when) we were so exhausted we both collapsed," she said. "Jake said, 'So this is why those big movie stars ask for personal trainers. We should ask for those.' I said, 'Yeah, next time.'"' No wonder, then, that for PoP Jake should have trained his body to be capable of withstanding everything thrown at it, and why he had a trainer ensuring he was running up hills, in a flak jacket, every morning at the crack of dawn.


The Day After Tomorrow set does sound like it had its dangers: '"It looks like I'm running really slowly in the water, but it wasn't dangerous," he said. "I was in a dry suit for 50 takes. The only dangerous thing I did was almost smack my head on a crane."' (Chicago Sun-Times 2004). That would not have been good.


Elsewhere: 'Though he admits Montreal proved to be "one of the coldest places on Earth that winter," Gyllenhaal says he would gladly have traded the real snow on the Montreal streets for the fake snow in the studios. "The snow was made of the same stuff inside baby diapers. When you mix it with water, it expands immediately and you can squeeze it through your hands like jello, which is pretty much what happened inside our lungs."'


'The fake snow was also slippery. "I was supposed to run up this steep hill made of wood that was covered with the snow," recalls Gyllenhaal. "I turned down a stunt double because it seemed like such an easy stunt -- until I kept falling flat on my face." Eventually, Emmerich called for the stunt double who also ended up face first in the diaper padding. "They had to rethink the whole scene," says Gyllenhaal. When he was running down the flooded streets of New York, he was wearing boots and a dry-suit that filled with water. "It's why I'm running so slowly. I could barely move. We shot the sequence about 50 times. It almost did me in." Gyllenhaal says he likes The Day After Tomorrow because "there are no superheroes, just ordinary people. No one saves the world. People just have to learn how to live in the new world that the global warming creates."'


More trouble for Torso?

And it looks like David Fincher's Torso may be running into yet more trouble. According to this report, paramount are still holding back and there is still no decision on whether filming can take place in Cleveland. Interestingly, IGH gives the cast as Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams - not a Jake in sight.


Includes pictures from IHJ.