(Updated update) Jake Gyllenhaal talks Damn Yankees and (in a hot wig) talks Top Gun, Prince of Persia death traps, Source Code and that 2% of Nailed

Updated update! Jake talks to MTV about Damn Yankees and his (sublime) singing ability.

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There is a great new interview tonight with Jake Gyllenhaal - not from WonderCon but from a day a few weeks ago when Jake had to don a wig (and full costume) to get back into character for a Prince of Persia press day. It's a fun phone interview (Jake has always been so good at these) and you can read the full interview at UGO. But here are some snippets of loveliness.


'Jordan Hoffman: So what do they have you doing right now? Are you in costume? Jake Gyllenhaal: I am. It’s strangely embarrassing. [I’m not 100% sure he was joking here.] They made me put my costume back on. Jordan Hoffman: Really? Are you in leather straps right now on the telephone? Jake Gyllenhaal: Leather straps, and this wig that’s very hot. But I never wore a wig in the movie; but since my hair is short they’re forcing me to wear a wig today.'


'Jordan Hoffman: What’s your favorite scene from Top Gun? Jake Gyllenhaal: When the dude [James Tolkan] is like, “You jokers are goin’ to Top Gun!” You know that scene where he’s like “Damn you Maverick!” Jordan Hoffman: You know what I love about that, is that he says the name of the movie in that scene. Jake Gyllenhaal: He does, it’s the best. He’s like...what does he say? What are the other names, the craziest names of the characters? Jordan Hoffman: Uh, you mean Ice Man? Or Goose? Jake Gyllenhaal: No, not them, but Goose and Ice Man are awesome. They’re like Green Leaf and Dirt Man, or something [Cougar and Merlin, actually.] Like, “Daisy fell off so you two jokers are goin’ to Top Gun!” That’s my favorite.'


'Jordan Hoffman: Sands of Time is pretty damned addictive and aggravating. Did you ever finish? Jake Gyllenhaal: No, I never finished it. But you know that section, the water section? Where you have to run from wall to wall, to get over the water? My God, that took me days and days and days. Jordan Hoffman: You could make a call, though, you can call them up and be like hey I’m going to be in this damn thing let’s give me some ways out; but you stuck with it, I like that. Jake Gyllenhaal: I stuck with it...but I would you know, bring in the stuntman to my trailer when I was playing and I’d be like, “guys can we do this? Can we figure out how to do this move?”'


'Jake Gyllenhaal: I trained with David Belle, the inventor of Parkour and a lot of different acrobats. I had a few doubles on the movie, one named is Mark Fichera. And he was extraordinary; and we did – I did training with acrobats in Los Angeles before I went to London for a month of preproduction and prep. And I learned all the basic moves of parkour, which surprisingly were much harder than I’d expected them to be; and since then I have not really applied those skills to the rooftops of the cities I live in but don['t] put it past me.'


And on Source Code: 'The movie is called Source Code. Duncan is directing it, and the character I play is a character named Coulter Stevens and he’s a helicopter pilot who flies helicopters for the Air Force in Afghanistan and all of a sudden – well you learn that, but he wakes up on a train in the middle of Chicago and he has no idea how he got there or where he is. And uhm, there’s a woman talking to him across from him who seems like she knows him but he doesn’t know who she is and when he sees his reflection in the mirror of the train – as another train passes the opposite way, he sees it’s not his face. And he doesn’t recognize this face.'


And some not so good news about Nailed: 'Jake Gyllenhaal: The financing for the movie, uh, we had one last scene to shoot of the movie. We were pretty much, I would say 98% done and uh, the financing fell through. So that movie is yet to be finished. Jordan Hoffman: So this is something that’s 98% done and we’re waiting for somebody’s uncle to put up some dough to finish this thing? Is that basically the story? Jake Gyllenhaal: Yeah, talk to the financer. Jordan Hoffman: Wow. Well, I hope it comes out. Jake Gyllenhaal: You never know. You never know. Jordan Hoffman: Would you ever endorse sort of an unfinished version or something? If your schedule and his schedule can’t get back together once the financing does come back through? Jake Gyllenhaal: Well my role is done. I shot all my roll in the movie but, uhm, yeah I would without a doubt. I think David is like, an extraordinary filmmaker and I always think there’s a way around it. It’s just, you know all those contracts you gotta get through.'


Great stuff! I never thought I'd hear Jake talk about Top Gun but here he has and so I am happy... One thing about a Jerry Bruckheimer movie - you know it'll come out and with a tidal wave of publicity behind it. And the more I learn about Source Code, the more I want to know.

I would like to update the post with this from GeekSugar...



Pictures from the Visual Guide to Prince of Persia, via IHJ.