WDW Exclusive report of Jake Gyllenhaal at the New Yorker Festival (with video)!

One of the many things I love about doing Wet Dark and Wild is that I get the chance to share in so many wonderful Jake adventures. Today, we have another! With enormous thanks to reader Xanne, who was in the theatre last night along with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ed Zwick, we have an account of some of what Jake talked about, along with two video clips so we can see the furry lips in action for ourselves!



So here is what Xanne has to say: 'I had no idea what they would even talk about, but they basically covered the span of his career. David started out asking questions about growing up in a show business family and Jake mentioned the usual story about Maggie putting on performances like Cats and making him be the lonely cat drinking milk, etc. [WDW: Like to hear Maggie wriggle out of this one now!] Then David asked a question about college and if he regretted dropping out of Columbia to make movies, which Jake answered very quickly that he did have regrets. (One of my favorite parts was right after: David said "Maggie graduated college, didn't she?" and then Jake, in his typical deadpan style said "Yeah. Thanks for rubbing it in.").'



'Then the questions moved on to different points of his career, starting with City Slickers, and touching on films like Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac (they showed clips from all three). Jake discussed how he chooses movies that make him feel something when he reads the script ("At the end of reading Love and Other Drugs, I was crying. At the end of reading Brokeback Mountain, I was crying. At the end of Donnie Darko, I was throwing up.") He discussed how he makes decisions about his character, different parts of the acting process, etc. Then they started talking about Love and Other Drugs, and Ed Zwick came up. Very interesting to hear about the shooting process. They also showed two clips from it. Jake was so charming as usual. When Ed first came up, they didn't have a chair for him and Jake was like "I'll stand!" and leapt to his feet, but of course, they pulled out an extra chair and everything was fine.'


'Then it was time for the audience to ask questions, and then sadly, time to leave. One lucky old man managed to lean across the stage and shake his hand before he left, but that was it... David did mention the mustache in Brokeback and told Jake "When you shave your beard, shave the mustache too" or something along those lines. Then of course, Jake made a joke about how that mustache had won internet awards.'

If anyone has any questions, ask them in the comments and I'll send them along to Xanne.

Updated to add a short account from the New Yorker. I liked this bit about movie snogs: '"There is a weird sense of being watched," [Jake] said. "You can't help but watch yourself, which takes the sexiness out of it."'

Many many thanks to Xanne! Picture from the Huffington Post.