A WDW report from the Prince of Persia red carpet in London and Jake Gyllenhaal discusses washing his hair to fitness (and ostriches...)

It has actually taken me longer to download and upload videos and photographs this evening from yesterday's astounding world premiere of Prince of Persia in London than it took Shakespeare to write his complete works or for Britain to decide who did win the General Election after all. But, finally, I can present a post - first in a series because there's so much going on I need at least ten more heads, not to mention a dozen more hearts to take the strain of all this Jake! I digress...




Yesterday evening, I was at the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time premiere in London and Jake Gyllenhaal was on a stage a few yards from me and he took notice of my hollering (Jake, I would like you to know that normally I wouldn't say boo to a goose - it's just when - if you pardon the analogy - the goose is Jake Gyllenhaal...) and looked right at me and smiled and told his people he was coming over. I caught the moment. It's not pretty - in camera terms - but it's perfect.




Other pics of mine show a group hug where Mike Newell and Jerry Bruckheimer look like they like to keep a professional distance while, in others, the affection between Jake and Mike and Jake and Gemma and Jake and Gemma and Sir Ben and Jake and Gemma and Sir Ben and Mike is plain to see. Also, when the cameras moved off to focus on a clip from the film, there was some great airpunching from Jake. More photos of all this to come.






Here is my first very shaky video (you'll be delighted to hear there's another to come) and I'm sure very few other people have had such a good and extended view of Gemma's back. But, please excuse my wobbliness - I had nothing to lean on and even when I calmed down, muscle fatigue kicked in.



Interestingly in the upstream red carpet video (which you can now watch again if you go back a couple of posts here), there's a clip of Gemma and in the background there's me with my Flip.


Talking of other videos, here are a bunch of them. My favourite is not from the premiere itself, but from press conference day when Jake and the rest of the cast pronounce and spell that most incredible and formidable of names: Gyllenhaal. As Jake explains, it's top heavy with ls.



And some quotes from an amazing day: '“They would say, ‘Don’t make any noise around the Ostriches. They’ll tear out your eyes and rip out your heart.’ So I was naturally terrified. They look like their innocent, but they’re really not.” Even Jake’s co-star, Gemma Arterton saw the fear in Jake’s eyes… “He ran away, and the look on his face- it’s not acting. It’s real” she said.'



Gemma on Jake: 'We didn’t have time to socialise. He was too busy in the gym – although we did go to dinner. It was all very civilized. But he’s so much fun. He’s gorgeous.' Hmmm... I recognise more than one person from this video below!



Co-star Richard Coyle (one of the 'ugly' brothers) on Jake: 'You know… he was really good. He was lovely, brilliant. He had a lot to do and he did it well. He was brilliant. Magnificent.'



Plus a video from Hello. And lots more from HeyUGuys. And more pictures from them than you can shake a Persian cat at.



Jake explains how he got his muscles and I like his reasoning - may I also say it was well worth the effort? 'The secret was his new long locks, he said. ‘It took me six months to grow [long hair], which was the hardest part of it all,.. It was harder to grow the hair than do the accent or to sword-fight. It’s almost harder than acting!... It was shampoo and conditioner – not a two-in-one – because the physique was developed by vigorous scrubbing and rubbing of the scalp with shampoo... That really worked the bicep area and if you really focus on your core while you are doing it, your abs get totally ripped up... A lot of shaping the abs with just a bar of soap while bathing. Over months of vigorous and rigorous scrubbing, I developed a chiselled physique and have become the Prince of Persia... My shoulders got so big that sometimes I couldn’t reach to grab things... I don’t think it’s an American kid’s dream to be Bond... I think it’s more an American kid’s dream to be Indiana Jones.’



Pictures by WDW. I ran out of time and so I'll be back tomorrow with more pictures, videos and with the winners of the little competition!