Monday, 31 January 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal on the coming together of 'incredible' Duncan Jones' and the 'crazy guy who did Donnie Darko' - and much, much more

Source Code has a doublespread in the March issue of Total Film. It includes a brief interview with Jake Gyllenhaal in which he shows yet again how eager he was to work with Duncan Jones, a director hailed as one of the most promising of his generation. When Jake is asked if he's a fan of Duncan Jones' debut film, Moon, Jake replies: 'Yes, I was a huge fan. That was what made me want to work with him. He rightfully holds the badge of one of Britain's new talents, because he is incredible.'


Did Jake get a grip on the plot when he first read the script? 'It's a hard one to explain. Ultimately the story is about a soldier who wakes up in somebody else's body, and has to relive eight minutes on this train over and over and over again, until he solves a problem that's going on.'

'So this is you in Jarhead mode? Jake: 'I'm more the person in that body than I am the soldier. But the personality of the soldier is there. The point of view of the audience is my point of view, as I see myself. But ultimately the other people on this train, and in this scenario, don't see me this way.'


More of a head-spin than Donnie Darko? 'It sort of it! But ultimately, it answers a couple more questions than Donnie Darko did. I think Donnie Darko posed more questions than it answered. And this poses questions and answers them. And also, there's this sort of hum to most of Duncan's work so far, and it carries this incessant hum that really gets into your brain after a while. And he really puts his touch on it. Duncan mixed with the crazy guy who did Donnie Darko!'

Here is what Duncan himself has to say: 'It has been a seismic shift on how I would normally work, but I think I have adjusted... Source Code is very different than Moon.. It's quite a bit different from a lot of films, to be honest, and I hope that when we are ready to show people, the patience will pay off.'


Cary Grant

Natalie Portman is continuing to pick up every award going, almost, for her compelling performance as Nina in Black Swan. Last night she picked up a SAG award and used the red carpet to repay Jake for his Palm Springs compliment, when he described Natalie as the Audrey Hepburn of her generation. Natalie told Access Hollywood: 'Well, he’s the Cary Grant of our generation. He’s so charismatic, and so dapper and smart. He’s wonderful.' You can see the interview in the right hand corner at the end of that link.


Talking of red carpets, a stylist for Kansas City has named Jake as someone to follow: 'If you like to take your style cues from celebrities, she recommends Jake Gyllenhaal — “he’s down-to-earth, athletic but knows how to get dressed up and put it together” — and Jessica Alba. “She’s eclectic, and she’ll play around with anything. I think Jennifer Aniston is always an icon, too.”' I know these pictures below aren't very red carpetty but I didn't want to leave out some of the new pictures from Jake and Atticus' walk on 29 January (thanks IHJ!)



Making more than fluff

I'm still catching up on Love and Other Drugs publicity and here are three video interviews from Australia. In the first one, in response to being teased as usual by his co-star Anne Hathaway, Jake describes the responsibility of being not only an actor but a movie star. 'I feel a responsibility, I definitely do, I think somewhere to make movies that I think are not just fluff and I feel a responsibility to make movies where I was brought up, to entertain and also to say something that I think I believe in and have some balls to be honest. Your work is your voice and so I consider whatever it is that I have to be an opportunity to say something.'

This draws a great response from Anne: 'A conscientious movie star, but a movie star nonetheless.'


The second video includes a discussion by Jake of what Anne brought to the role while at the end of this video, Jake is interviewed on the Sydney red carpet and admits that when it comes to partying, the Australians are hard to beat! Thanks to BBMISwear for the heads up!

And finally...

Many thanks to Eureka from sending in this photograph of a sign for Love and Other Drugs from a theatre in Madrid. But this is no ordinary poster. As befitting a very old cinema, this poster is hand painted and beautiful. One hopes films don't swap over too often.


Includes pictures from IHJ, Eureka and scans by WDW.

9 comments:

  1. Wow, Duncan Jones mixed with the crazy guy who did Donnie Darko! If I knew nothing more at all about Source Code, I would insist on seeing it based solely on that description.

    Natalie Portman certainly got it right, referring to Jake as the Cary Grant of his generation. A charismatic, handsome "leading man" who can take on comedic, dramatic, or mind-blowing roles with equal ease - I just hope Jake continues to enjoy making movies for a very long time.

    It's nice to see Jake and Atticus out together enjoying a walk in the sunshine with friends. And thanks, Eureka, for that great photo of the hand-painted LAOD poster. That's so cool!

    Susan

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  2. Hi Susan! They should put that on the poster :D I totally agree about Jake - he really does have that leading man potential. Smart and sexy.

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  3. Hi! Thank you for that post WDW:)
    It so nice of Natalie to say those words about Jake - "dapper" - new word for me and goes well with Jake. I remember Cary Grant and I must say that in my eyes Jake is so much more ... everything!
    The interviews with Jake and Anne are so cute as always. They could make the movie from all their interviews and it would be an interesting one :)
    Source Code seems to be so cool. Another movie Jake is proud of and liking it very much. It very promising. I'm so happy we don't have to wait too long. And all that promotion time is coming. My second one with Jake :)

    Lovely pics with Jake, guy and two dogs. Look like those dogs follow their masters. It's almost funny. Happy Atticus having his busy Jake at last.

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  4. My pleasure, Mermon! I love the word 'dapper' and it does a good job of describing Jake the movie star. I'm really looking forward to the promotion too - not long at all - it was good to see SC in TF today.

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  5. I maybe the only one here, but I don't understand the DD connection with SC. They both have a sci-fi feel but other than that I don't see that SC is anything like DD, so I'm confused as to why the media brings up DD a lot with SC (not that it's a bad thing, I thought DD was a genius film and I think SC will be highly entertaining yet thought provoking).

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  6. Mermon said "The interviews with Jake and Anne are so cute as always. They could make the movie from all their interviews and it would be an interesting one :)"

    I agree completely! I really enjoyed Jake & Anne while promoting LaOD - the interviews were so much fun to watch! Thanks for adding even more interviews, WDW.

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  7. Great stuff from Total Film! It's funny how this SC promo stuff is sneaking up on us...it seems the LAOD promo stuff went on and on and on (which I loved - no complaints here!) but with that just coming to an end and the SC stuff starting up I feel like we are having a nice crossover. But I'm thinking we're going to have a bit of a slow period and that's making me a bit antsy already. So, as many of us have been saying lately, we really need that new project to start ASAP! (Demanding fans aren't we)?!

    Shout out to Paul: Are you ready for more? Heavier north of us but a horrible snow/rain mix equaling sleet - ugh! More scenes from TDAT I'm afraid (without Sam unfortunately).

    :-)

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  8. Morning everyone!

    Hi Margot! The connection between SC and DD has been made because both play with the idea of time travel and bending time (as did PoP!). Also, I suppose it's inevitable comparisons will be made between Jake's scifi movies. I'm so glad you liked the videos :D

    Morning BBMISwear :-) It's a lovely crossover. I love the continuity. But we just need to urge Jake on to get cracking in the filmmaking department... More snow? Not good. We're due a few days of rain but I'm so glad it's February now :)

    Have a good day everyone!

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  9. BBMISwear, I am looking at it snow now. We were supposed to get 4 to 8 inches of it today, but I think we have the 8 already. I put together my snow rake and pulled some snow off my roof. The rake is *literally* held together with string, and the string breaks every ten minutes. :-( This could be the worst of the awful storms we get this winter.

    I'm trying to concentrate on movies, while admitting that it's unlikely I'll be able to get to a *real* movie before Thursday evening. And why didn't Jake do any movies in tropical rainforests or on beaches with pink sand and swaying palm trees? Okay, he did a couple in the desert ("Jarhead," and "Prince of Persia"), but that would be sunstroke, the exact opposite of snowmageddon.

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