Jim Sheridan: 'You look forward to where Jake Gyllenhaal will go as an actor'. And a personal comment

This post takes the form of a little bit of a time out - the hoopla of Prince of Persia is quickening pace and there are wonders on the way (not all of them wearing a shirt). And so, while I figure out what to do with my two PoP sticker books that arrived today and before we get sucked up again into the excitement of it all, this post is intended as a big thank you to Jake Gyllenhaal - for entertaining me, enthralling me for years. My heart has beaten faster, my eyelashes have fluttered (irresistibly), I've cried, I've run down streets, I've stood up and applauded and I've been turned to mush yet inspired to write, all in the same moment. Without doubt, fun has filled my life and much of it is thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal - his talent, his character, his smile and his fans.


So this hug of a post is inspired by a number of things, but part of it is that I watched Brothers again today, on DVD and with Jim Sheridan's commentary. Listening to this, while enjoying Jake's transformation into Tommy Cahill, shows all too well how Jim and Jake succeeded in their aim, which was to make Grace, the little girls and us all fall in love with this ex-con who wants to put things right. I was going to put a lot more into the post tonight but I think I'll leave those for tomorrow.


Here are some of the things that Jim says about Jake and his role in Brothers, beginning with our first sight of Jake and Tobey Maguire together: 'I miscalculated how young Tobey looked in his eyes and how old Jake appears in his eyes - like Tobey seems like a new person to the world and Jake seems like he's been here for millennia so the audience actually had a hard time believing Tobey was the older brother.'


Walking in the prison: 'You see what I mean about Jake? He has a different aspect to Tobey, he has a different DNA structure. It was his idea, actually, to go to the jail and it changes the movie.'


Grace gives Tommy the bad news: 'It's a difficult part for [Jake] in the movie. I think he's really good in this scene. He never does the same thing twice, thanks be to God. I know that would drive a lot of directors crazy, but for me, it's kind of like... I think me and Jake occupied the same kind of space on the set, where we both wanted to be the centre of attention. So early on I was kind of in conflict with him - who's the most anarchic, I suppose.'


'Jake is very smart about what you might need and he would do shots like that or he would ask me if he could do a shot in the prison, or walking along, or in his room, or lying on the bed, whatever. Stuff that seemed so incidental but is very useful when you're editing. If he wants to be paid about a quarter of what he gets paid as an actor, he might end up as a director one day.'


The kiss scene: 'I think when we shot this I stayed on Jake for hours with the camera, like where he wouldn't do anything after Natalie left. And I suppose the mags were ten minutes long and sometimes for four or five minutes nothing would happen until eventually he kind of broke down, crying, and got upset. So you never know what's going to happen.'


Towards the end of Brothers, Jim had to work with the material he had of Jake because 'I don't think he had a moment, Jake, before he went on to the other movie.'


'You kind of look forward, I supppose, to where Jake Gyllenhaal will go as an actor. He seems to have a lot of possibilities.'


Standing up - A personal comment from me

You know that feeling you get when you can see someone you care about getting bullied or lied about by someone who doesn't even deserve to be in the same room as this person that you care for? I have that feeling right now. It's impossible to ignore the cruel lies that have rippled out of Montreal over the last few days, nor is it possible to pretend that Jake's feelings and honour have not been assaulted. A statement from his rep. to E! definitely demonstrates that this has struck deep:

'Our client is taking such strong and immediate action because of the seriousness of the issue behind the allegation. He would never harm a woman, or touch a woman in anger. Such behavior is not only criminal, but personally abhorrent to him.'

The Examiner puts it perfectly and so I suggest you read that because I find it hard to string words together about this - rage and compassion mixed together with a big dollop of fury have a way of stealing your words. But I needed to say something.