Rabbit-centred movies - making sense on some level

Jake is not the only Gyllenhaal to have recorded the narrative for an animated tale - you can also listen to Maggie tell the tale of the Voyage to the Bunny Planet. This describes the spacefaring adventures of three young bunnies (and is told in a manner that is unsuitable for under 6 year olds). As I get ready to leave the magical world of Walt Disney, which features a whole array of big and floppy eared creatures, it doesn't take much to make the leap to Jake's own experience of rabbits, the six-footed kind.


It has become clear to me over the years that Donnie Darko is not about rabbits, or about many other things that one can relate to from everyday life. You have to look at it in a certain way... Jake agrees '"I'm a firm believer of the unconscious being the teller of some truth, and I feel Richard wrote the script very unconsciously," Gyllenhaal said. The issues that Donnie Darko confronts are "metaphors for things in [Kelly's] life .... They obviously resonate with him in a pretty intense way .... I mean, there must be some stuff going on in Richard Kelly's mind."' There must indeed.


The film is a special one, not least because noone can understand it. Pieces of it speak to pieces in us all, leading to hours of discussion over a pint in the pub or to letters to filmmakers or questions to actors in the street: '"Drew [Barrymore] and I consider 'Donnie Darko' our most satisfying producing experience not because of what it did at the box office, but because of the personal letters and words people have shared with us regarding how much the film has meant to them. Knowing how affecting an experience is to the individual filmgoer makes it a true accomplishment," said Nancy Juvonen of Flower Films."' The cult film became such a success it was reworked and reissued (although don't get me started on what they did to the soundtrack...).


Seth Rogen had a part in Donnie Darko. He was proud of it, he just didn't get it: 'So I was there a lot. And I really had no idea what the movie was about! I didn’t get it at all! And I remember being at a party with the director (Richard Kelly) about halfway through shooting, and I was really drunk, and so was he, and I was just, like, “Dude, I don’t get it, man!” And he was, like, “I don’t think anyone’s gonna get it, man! I’m really scared!” It turned out great; I think it was just beyond me...and still is, to some degree! But it definitely makes sense on a much greater level now. It’s amazing. I knew it seemed good; I just didn’t understand why it was good. It just seemed like something interesting. It’s really funny to me that that turned into this huge cult thing, and that people in England are grafitti-ing “Donnie Darko” on walls. It’s great. I couldn’t be happier for Jake (Gyllenhaal) and Richard Kelly; those guys are great guys. I’m glad I was there to watch it, even though I had no clue what I was watching at the time!'


Being at the heart of the movie, as he was, it's best to leave it to Jake to describe what the film meant: 'When I read the script I was in college studying eastern religions - Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, basically - and the issues in the movie were metaphysically similar to things I was thinking about at the time.. That half-conscious state when dreams feel completely real is fascinating to me. At the end of the film, you ask: is it a dream or isn't it? Is this a dream that we're living now? Those questions are really interesting because the unconscious hasn't really been explored yet. People think there's not much more to discover, but there is - there's this fourth dimension, or whatever it is.'


'When people ask me, 'What does the rabbit mean?' I say, don't ask me, and don't ask anyone else involved, because we have no fucking idea. It's something out of the director Richard Kelly's unconscious and even he has no explanation for it. To me, the film is about that initial entry into what could be adulthood, when everything loses its context and all of a sudden nothing feels solid. The rabbit and the spears coming out of people's chests are almost literal manifestations of those questions everyone asks at a certain point: am I crazy? Does God exist? I was asking myself those questions when I was growing up.'


Glad that's sorted that out.

Jake did give another, more farmyard, reason for taking on the role: 'Since I was a little kid I always wanted to act, and because of family friends such as Billy Crystal, I started acting in small parts in movies like "City Slickers" in 5th grade. I was the cow... That's what drew me to a rabbit-centered movie like Donnie.'



I was very interested to read of director Richard Kelly's future collaborative dreams: 'I would love to write something for David Fincher. I’m angered that he hasn’t won an Oscar yet. My goal is to somehow help David Fincher win an Oscar before he turns 45. I would love to collaborate with him, I would love to collaborate with Terry Gilliam, and I would love to collaborate with Peter Weir. The list goes on and on and on and on.'


Includes pictures from IHJ and links.