'Where's the relaxing chilling out in the wild?' - Jake Gyllenhaal on Man Vs Wild plus a WDW Interlude

Jake Gyllenhaal's appearance alongside Bear Grylls as Men Vs Wild has attracted some attention. I'm amused to see that some sites are comparing Jake's epic two-day stint with Will Farrell's comparative walk in the park which saw him eat his emergency rations within a minute or two of the chopper landing. And that's nothing against Will, it just says a lot for Jake and his intrepid heart. Now that we've seen the show, it's good to hear something from Bear about it. Thanks to Mermon for the heads up.

Here are some excerpts from Bear's interview with the LA Times: 'Shara, my wife, saw him on some chat show, and he was asked what it is like to be famous. He said, "It's great, and if the paparazzi get to me, I just ring up my buddy Bear Grylls." And I go, I don't even know him! So I emailed him and we started talking about going on a proper adventure. He was a fan of the show, and once we made the schedule work, we did it quite spontaneously.'

'I thought Iceland would be good because there's lots to do. I was like, "The weather will be cool and it should be pretty mellow. We'll do a bit of climbing, and we'll just kind of jump into it." But he was thrown right in on the deep end. We did have some crazy conditions -- some of the worst weather I've seen for years. The wind was so strong that they literally had a jumbo jet blown sideways at the airport. And there we were, 5,000 feet up on a mountain trying to get our backsides out of there in one piece. Jake was saying, "Where's the relaxing chilling out in the wild?"'

The spare rope over the gorge: 'That wouldn't have held him. That wasn't a safety line -- that was a helping line for him to balance. And if he ran out of puff, I could have helped him across with that. But I was pretty confident that he'd be OK. We worked out afterwards that it was the equivalent of doing 180 pull-ups.'

'I always have to have kind of a weird conversation with these people's insurance guys, where they ask me, "Can you guarantee us that these actors will be safe?" And I go, "Well, no. I can't." Then there's a long pause on the other end of the telephone. But you can't predict what's going to happen in the wild -- that's what makes the show edgy. There's a significant element of unpredictability out there, and I can look after him to my utmost ability, and my ability is OK.'

'You've gotta admire somebody when they step out of their comfort zone and put their life in somebody else's hands. I was very clear with him and said, 'Come on your own and trust me.' He did incredible. What I like about the wild is when you're squeezed, you see what people are made of.'

Many thanks to IHJ for the caps.

WDW Interlude - Festival of History part 1

Never mind Iceland storms, today I aquaplaned my way through the drenched English countryside to the first day of English Heritage's immense Festival of History in Northamptonshire. Thank heavens the sun did come out and so there was plenty of time to ogle at jousting knights, battling gladiators, charging British guards, a tortoise of Roman soldiers - and then there were the World War 1 trenches. An excellent day -way too much to see. One minute you could be watching a reenactment of the Battle of Bosworth, the next you could be marvelling at a frenzy of Jacobite gunmen and horses at full charge while General Patton ambles by. Here are some pictures from today. I'll be back there tomorrow so I have no doubt there'll be more. And did I mention the real ale tent?

There is also a historical fiction literary festival taking place there, which I'll be reporting on elsewhere. I'll put a link here.

Not everyone enjoyed it...

Pictures from WDW.

My review of Adjustment Bureau is now up at MB.

Here's my report on the Festival of Historical Writing that also took place this weekend.