Jake Gyllenhaal and BBM: 'I walked out embracing him as a great actor and a brave soul' - and WDW goes on the road!

Hard as it is to believe, it's coming up to five years since the release of Brokeback Mountain - a film that stopped moviegoers, including many journalists, dead in their tracks. But you didn't need to be a filmwriter to discover that you would took away far more from those two hours in a theatre than you ever could have expected. It's great, then, to read today the reminiscences of writer Nicholas Snow as he recalls the night of the Hollywood premiere on 11 November 2005 and how everyone was in agreement - writer, screenwriter, director, composer, actor - that Brokeback Mountain worked. A night that completely transformed Snow's opinion of Jake Gyllenhaal. This post includes photographs from the Hollywood premiere.



I want to quote from the introduction: 'I don’t believe any of us covering the red carpet arrivals for the "Brokeback Mountain" premiere in Hollywood on Nov. 11, 2005, had a clue that we would truly be a part of history, helping launch a movie that would transform the lives of countless people around the world because of its profound capturing of the cost of the closet. I had not yet seen the movie that I now hold as one of the most important ever made, conveying the deep, undeniable humanity of authentic love, as well as the justifications and costs of locking that love in the dark.'


Do read the comments of Ang Lee, Annie Proulx, Diana Ossana and Gustavo Santaolalla about the impact of this story and film on their careers and lives - as well as on the lives of others. Heath Ledger wasn't at the premiere as Michelle Williams was heavily pregnant, but Jake Gyllenhaal was there to represent the cast - and now, almost five years on, one realises that Jake was such a young man during the making of, and the publicity for, Brokeback Mountain. It's easy to forget that. And as time moves on, and we gain a little perspective of this film and its creation, my admiration for the young cast soars.


Here is the section on Jake which includes, I'm glad to say, a fine example of GyllenSpeak. Michael Snow continues: 'In a red carpet interview there are often several reporters speaking with a single star at one time. My interview with Jake Gyllenhaal was en masse, and one reporter asked the star what message he wanted audiences to take away from "Brokeback Mountain." “If that were my job, then I would be the director of the movie,” said Gyllenhaal. “I just showed up to work every day. What do I want people to take away from it? I hope that they walk in with an idea, and they leave with a different one.”'


'They will and I did. I walked in believing Gyllenhaal was a pretty boy creation of the Hollywood star machine. I walked out embracing him as a great actor and a brave soul, although he initially turned the movie down—not because of homophobia, but because of the two-dimensional sound of a movie that is said to be about “two gay cowboys.”'


'“… They said, ‘uh, we have this gay cowboy script.’ And I said, ‘absolutely not. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.’ And when I learned Ang Lee was going to direct it…and the kind of passion he approaches all of his projects with, I immediately wanted to do it. And I knew that it would be about so much more than the simplification that people can kind of throw out there and laugh at…”'


'“You know, that’s only a suit that I think both Heath and I have been told we’ve donned later,” Gyllenhaal said when I asked him how he felt about the fact that his character in "Brokeback Mountain" would be a significant role model for gay youth. “It’s flattering you know. I think that it’s important that whatever somebody is, however they are, that they be accepted.”'


'One reporter said to Jake, “In a recent interview you said it was a compliment to be called bisexual, so you’re fine with playing gay and playing bi and all that?” “What I think I meant to say with that,” explained Jake, “I think that this movie in particular is about kind of trying to shatter the sense of duality or this idea of, you know, an idea of good and bad or black and white. It works within a gray area and I think that you know, sexually, I think people consider bisexuality that kind of gray area and so, I just would like — yea, whatever. It’s a very interesting place. I’m flattered to be called anything, even if it’s somebody coming up to the street and being like, ‘f**k you,’ you know, because if it bothers people or if people like it, that’s what I’m in the business of doing.” Okay, now would someone please translate Jake’s answer for me?'

An enigma and a delight - that's Jake Gyllenhaal for you. And a great actor and a brave soul.


Your starter for ten

Talking of Jake Gyllenhaal as an enigma, a good source tells me (ie, my mother) that there was a questions about Jake on Mastermind this week, a sure sign that even the British Establishment - even the BBC - recognises that Jake has now 'arrived'. The question, admittedly, was a tricky one: 'Who played the lead in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time?' I'm relieved to report that the contestant did get the question right (fortunately, they didn't have to spell it).

And while we're on about questions - what on earth has Jake got on his head here? I don't think even he would have specs this big! Thanks to IHJ for the new old Sundance 2002 picture.


WDW Interlude

Drop what you're doing! Dig out your bucket and spade, pack those walking boots and sealegs and get ready for some clotted cream, pasties, fish pie and spingo (I'm unreliably informed that's a real ale)! Yes - WDW is off on its holidays. Martha's Vineyard is so last year, so for 2010 we're heading (a bit less) west - to the land of cream teas, cliffs, big skies and bigger seas, rocks and surfers, dolphins, seals and basking sharks, spooky Celtic fougous, castles and forts, unauthenticated accounts of big cats prowling across the moors, fish and chips, and fog. Yep, Cornwall it is. There's more than a 100% chance that some WDW Interludes will follow during the week as I set off on my roadtrip, just me, Percy the Peugeot and a bunch of guillemots - and, I hope, you.


Speaking of holidays it sounds like Jake is back in LA!

My review of Knight and Day is now up on MovieBrit.

Includes pictures from IHJ.