Jake's Eiffel Tower adventure: 'I'm a little freaked out by heights'

It's been a day of chaos (and some rather ugly snowmen) in southern England due to rather a lot of snow and, even though Jake Gyllenhaal is enjoying the relatively balmy climes of Los Angeles, I'm sure he is with us wintry folk in spirit and is no doubt reliving his Montreal TDAT experiences. By all accounts, The Big Freeze forecast in The Day After Tomorrow was as nothing compared to the reality outside on the streets of the Canadian city. As an antidote, this post has Hot Pics.



'During his lunch break on one of the final days of shooting last spring, Emmerich said making The Day After Tomorrow has been a tough slog and it would've been even harder if they'd been shooting on the streets of Montreal at well-below-zero temperatures. "With really low temperatures and the wind machines going, the actors would've had frost-bite after one scene", Emmerich said.'


'Most of Day After was shot in freezing temperatures in Montreal. "It was cold inside the stages, it was cold outside, it was cold as hell at night," said Quaid. "We couldn't escape from it. It got to the point where we learned to recognize people not by their faces but by the color of their parkas." Of course, with all the special effects, the actors were often called upon to react to fake wind, rain and waves. "I enjoyed it, but it does get to you after awhile," said Gyllenhaal. In any case, the cast and crew have all had enough of the cold to last them awhile. So if there should be an instant ice age, Emmerich said you can look for him in Mexico, while Quaid said he'll be holed up somewhere with the book Survival for Dummies.' Jake has yet to reveal his Ice Age plans.


Jake has however talked about his stuntman capabilities and confirmed his vertigo issues: 'Um (long pause) I'm a little freaked out by heights. I never thought I was but I am. I remember I went to the Eiffel Tower when I was little with my parents. I thought I would like going up, but when I got to the second level I was crying and I didn't want to go up - I was eight years old or something. My dad was like, "He's coming to the top! That's my boy!" Yeah, and he stayed down on the second level. [So you won't be jumping off any buildings then?] That's for Jackie Chan and for stuntmen - I'll leave that to the professionals. But if they called for it I would do it. In this movie I did some moves up on the Russian ship. There's one moment – it's not in the movie anymore – where I nearly fall and grab with one hand, and they said did I want to wear a harness but I was like naah, I don't really want to wear a harness, I'm fine.'



'[But did you feel threatened by the wolves?] They didn't actually exist then. You could take that scene out of the movie and put that in Donnie Darko and it looks like a schizophrenic kid running away from nothing. [You've been linked with lots of superhero roles – are you tempted?] I think that the metaphor of the superhero is a really amazing one. When you play those roles you get in the suit and the suit plays itself, so if I were to play one of those roles I would be interesting in bringing myself to it. But then the fear is that then you become that thing and you're stuck with it. I would love to if it was great and I really believed in it and I felt like I could spend many months of my life devoted to it and then talking about it.'


Arjay Smith also remembered Jake's stunt exploits but his memory had wire in it: 'Jake had to do a couple of stunts. They had to put him on a wire because he’s walking across a boat – a ship, actually – and so he was about 20’ high. He had to just get wired up, just for safety reasons.'


It seems that the world benefited in other ways from Wet Sam - through trees: 'I decided I had to get involved with something,’ [Jake] says. ‘something that would help the environmental cause. I’d much rather talk about the environment than some gigantic action movie. Global warming is a hugely important issue.’ ...He has chosen to support a forest in Mozambique and talks enthusiastically of how he has ‘bought mango trees, fruit trees, nut trees’. He adds: ‘they also give jobs and food. People can get an income from them, which is important for sustainable development’.' Of course, Jake didn't realise at the time that I have a violent mango allergy, or he would've resisted putting more of the blasted things on the planet.


As we've mentioned before here, at the NYC premiere of The Day After Tomorrow, Jake took advantage of the fake snow and wind machines to lob snowballs down the red carpet - but this didn't mean he still couldn't flirt the feet from under the reporters: ''Incoming!' hollers JAKE GYLLENHAAL, who plays the scientist's son, as he lobs a snowball down the aisle. 'What do you think about being a hunk?' a reporter from US Weekly asks him. 'The real question is, a hunk of what?'' Mr. Gyllenhaal says, as he reaches forward and gently touches her face. 'You have a little soap on your chin,'' he says.' Talk about melting...


Includes hot summery pictures from IHJ.