Jake Gyllenhaal: Walruses, EW in full, naked truths, texting, botanic gardens, FINCA, turning 30, stories, love, Spencer Tracy - and so much more

This post comes with a warning - this is the River Nile of all posts - it is so long that I do not advise that you tackle it without sugary snacks and/or liquid refreshment. I am going to start with a fine example of GyllenSpeak, something that we have been relatively short of lately despite all of the Love and Other Drugs publicity. Here is Jake Gyllenhaal in USA Weekend talking about how he'd like to commemorate his 30th birthday: 'I'd love to go swimming with the walruses and the whales in the freezing cold water... Seems like it could be a rite of passage.'


But... before we get on with the rest of this interview, here are the scans for EW, with enormous thanks to BBMISwear! What a fantastic interview. Click on them and they shall be embiggened.







And now back to the wonderful USA Weekend interview, conducted in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, with Jake arriving and leaving on a bike (and with his big beard). It includes a description of Jake by Anne Hathaway: '"His humor has the ability to repulse and charm simultaneously," says the actress, adding: "For a young male celebrity who's one of the most beautiful men on the planet, no caveats, he's super-duper grounded. He's a terrible texter, though. Awful."'


Jake talks about families, Ramona, love and concludes in admirable Gyllenhaal fashion: "People find their way toward loving like water. Sometimes two rocks are set up in the wrong way and the water has to part and go, and I've seen that happen recently. As my family's broken apart into different pieces, I can also see that there's more love as a result." Then, breaking from the serious mood, he jokes, "We should have been in the Japanese Garden for this conversation!" Before hopping back on his bike, he ponders his life one more time, and he realizes how good it is for him right now, despite the heartbreaks. "It's Wednesday, the middle of the day, we're sitting in the botanical gardens, I rode up here on my bike. Life ain't so bad."'

You can read the full interview here.


There is another extract from what I believe to be the same interview here. In this, Jake discusses all the generations of his family and what he's learnt about acting.

Q: 'You’re almost 20 years into your career at this point. Most people who start their careers at 21, they reach that point after they’re 40. Do you feel like you’re on the path you’ve always wanted to be on?


JG: With this movie I do. I finished the script and I was like, “I want this, I want to do this, I’m going to do whatever I have to get this.” And if I didn’t get it, I would have been brokenhearted. In a strange way, when you say that, it’s funny because this really does feel like the beginning. There are definitely things I regret – not even talking about career, just because I’ve been working professionally for so long, there are those things. But there are things that are extraordinary that I’ve experienced, people I’ve worked with. I’m starting to shred so much insecurity and all that stuff. Maybe it’s just turning 30 and maybe it’s just the time I am in my life. It’s a hard question. Unfortunately, it’s hard for me not to be really thoughtful about things. People ask me what my favorite color is and it takes me like 15 minutes. [Laughs] It’s really unfortunate. So when you ask me that, I could wax on poetic for a long time about it.


Q: What kind of mindset did you have during the October Sky and Bubble Boy years when you were around 19, 20? Did you have a career path, or were you thinking, “This is fun, but maybe I’ll do something else after a while.”

JG: For me, it was like, yeah, this is fun, I can’t believe I’m doing this. And opportunities came from it and it was like, how could I not take these opportunities? They were amazing. I love acting. There is more that I want to do, yeah. I love making movies. I think movies are incredible and I was just thinking about this the other day: We’re all just storytellers. I just wasn’t aware of that when I was a lot younger. I didn’t realize how much I loved telling stories, the puzzles of it, the mistakes that come up, these incredible epiphanies you have when you’re doing it. A part of me didn’t totally know what I was getting into.

***INTERMISSION ***

Time out for tea and cake and a few stretching exercises

Q: Sometimes naivete is a good thing.

JG: Yeah, but it’s not until right now. Maybe I wasn’t so clear about which street to take, but I think I’m in the right area. And now I know I want to be more adventurous. And it’s not just choosing different types of roles. A lot of people have said to me in the past, “You’ve chosen very risky things. You’ve been very courageous in the roles you’ve chosen.” Ultimately, courage isn’t really a word that should be synonymous with acting I don’t think. There are other things in my life where I’d really like to test that courage.


Q:Like what?

JG: Just on a creative level, I would love to be making movies – I would love to be directing movies, be involved with the process of producing and writing and directing movies. That’s what I witnessed when I grew up, and I believe that’s really difficult. You gotta see what skin fits you. I’ve had a great amount of success with acting, and I hopefully will continue to. But it fits into the storyteller thing. My niece will ask for a story, and I’ll make up a story for her. I’ll realize three-quarters of the time how horrible the stories I’ve told are. They’re just bad stories. Badly told, bad structure, no real resolution. [Laughs]


Q: But does she know that?

JG: Yeah, she knows when it’s good. [Laughs] She always wants it again when it’s good. We’re no different than a 4-year-old: When it’s good, we want to see it again. When it’s not, we’re like, “Meh. OK, good try.”

Q: Most people think about settling down, having kids, that sort of thing when they turn 30. How do you feel?


JG: When you’re in your 20s, you’re feeling your way. But you know what, I meet some 20 year olds and I think they’re highly intelligent and wise, and I’ve met 70-year-olds who are not as wise as them. So I don’t really know. [Laughs] I feel really excited about it. I don’t feel pressure. I think I felt more pressure when I was younger. I feel approaching 30 has given me the permission to feel freer than I ever have. So that need to do whatever the convention tells you to, I feel I’ve cast it off more. I know people say, “OK, now’s the time to do this, now’s the time for that, to get married and have kids.” I certainly want a family of my own, but just because I’m turning 30 doesn’t mean I’m going to do it. Particularly when I talk to my 95-year-old aunt. She’s aware and awake and alive. I do feel that time, but it just makes me love my family and want to be with my family more and spend time with the children I know.


Q: You mentioned Spencer Tracy before, and you have joined the likes of him in the annals of Hollywood’s leading men.

JG: Yeah. Me and Spencer Tracy. “Listen, sweetheart…” If only I had a hat, it would be perfect. [Laughs]

Q:Do you like being a part of that history?

JG: There have been a lot of people besides Spencer Tracy that have been a part of that history. Good and bad. Yeah, I do feel honored to be a part of that. You look at those movies between Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, you look at certain scenes, and they could be today. You could be watching it and just flip it to black and white. There’s something about them that’s absolutely extraordinary. To be a part of making movies, if I’m going to steal my way into that somehow and say I’m a part of that, it’s great. It might be the Dark Ages for that history, but I’m still a part of the history! [Laughs]



There is also an interview in the LA Times. It's a goodie. And it harks back to Brokeback and that car scene... 'ake had touched me everywhere except my boob," says Hathaway, patting her chest as the pair sits together to discuss their new film, the upcoming romantic dramedy "Love & Other Drugs," which opens in theaters Wednesday. "We did it very methodically: I would cover, they'd bring me a towel, I'd get out of the car, go behind a screen and get redressed. All of a sudden I hear a throat clear from behind the screen. It's Jake. 'Ah, Annie, so the thing is, in this scene, if it was really you and me in the car, I just think that, you know, ah, can I touch your boob?'" "And ... I don't think you asked me this time," says Hathaway, turning to her screen partner to tease him about his behavior during the many love scenes they shot for their new project and laughing uproariously. "I already asked. Your offer was still good," Gyllenhaal says with a shrug.'


On the LAOD nudity: "We wanted to push it," Gyllenhaal says. "One of those avenues was when the sheets come off, you don't cover your breast, you don't cover a part of your body after you've slept with someone you're falling in love with five or six times."


Interestingly, jake talks about the change from Prince of Persia: '"I was desperate for character interaction, for scenes that were intimate, where I could spend a lot of time talking," Gyllenhaal says. "I loved the action and jumping around, but I get a different kind of action in this one." You can read the rest here. There is also an interview with Anne here.

Here is an interview Jake and Anne did with MTV. You can read more about it here.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

As for what's going on in the here and now-ish, Jake was out last night at the 25th Anniversary Gala for Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) with another co-star, Natalie Portman, and a singer that Jake has raved about, Florence (and the Machines). There are pictures from the event scattered through the post.



And finally

Unnamed Moon Project Update! And I quote: 'Meanwhile, the director Doug Liman (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) has long been working on his own movie about lunar colonization. Although the project has been in development for several years, Liman said recently he’d still like to make it, and one person familiar with the film said that line producers had just been hired, suggesting that a launch may not be far off.' That doesn't sound like much, but I'm grabbing it.

Sources for pictures include 3am, links, IHJ and many thanks to BBMISwear!