Jake Gyllenhaal, changing his life with movies

Update: My first report from the UK premiere of Cowboys and ALiens is here.

The release of Source Code on DVD has led to more interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal. I particularly like this one with Digital Journal. In it, Jake talks about far more than Source Code, mentioning politics, love and sex. Here are some extracts accompanied by photographs of Jake and Michael Pena on the End of Watch set on 8 August, courtesy of IHJ. Many thanks to Mermon for the heads up!


'Well, the making of any movie is always full of its own odd moments. When you do a serious scene where no one can't stop laughing or there is an intense moment and you are supposed to break tables and chairs, and can't get it right and you have to go and put everything back in -- that's what I love about making movies. So that's just the great fun and irony of movies -- that people are made to look like idiots! But who are extraordinary at their jobs? And you have like, these two actors in this movie, who are taking themselves way too seriously. I just wanted to give a great performance.'


'I think romance coincides with effort, so you can fall flat on your face as long as you’re making great effort in romance. Effort always comes off as romantic. If you’re someone who doesn’t cook, you make a meal. You can do anything that has a bit of vulnerability about it... Well, I’m a little bit of a workaholic, so there was a time when I was working hard in another country with just one day off. I flew back from that country to see someone for just an hour and then I flew back. I thought it was a really romantic gesture and I ended up with a whole bunch of frequent flier miles for my show of love.'


'Like if you see a man in uniform, then the movie is about war, And the movie is about a man getting to get back to the things he loves, in my opinion. I've made movies about war. So I feel like I can say that. And I've answered many, many questions about that before, you know? And how do I feel about what's happening? I still have great faith in our president. And I believe that he'll make the right choices. Look, it's complicated. We are human beings. And soldiers are human beings. They have lives. And for me, I didn't approach it like that. Because I didn't play that part. I played a guy who's in jail at the beginning of the movie. And to me, that's an interesting aspect, politically. Which is actually a domestic issue. And I didn't know that much about it, until I did research for the movie [Brothers]. I went to jails all around California, and juvenile halls. And I got involved in a writing program, as a result of doing research for this movie, with these young juveniles who write. I have relationships with some of them, and some of them have actually gone on to serve life sentences in some cases, And all of them, strangely, regardless of what has happened to them and their fate, are incredible kids. And to me, that's also an important aspect of this movie. That here's this guy who comes out of jail after he holds up a bank. And then he ultimately turns his life around. To care for two children, and to love, you know? And so it is with the thing about war, is that it outshines everything else. But to meet these kids that were in this system, where it seems impossible to redeem themselves -- my life changed, making this movie, Because of that, because of meeting those kids.'


'I mean, you make movies, and so much is about this process now. You know, selling a movie. Or making it look good for an audience, or whatever. And the special moments that happen in movies, are the lessons that every movie has. Like for everybody involved in it. And I went through a journey in the prison system. But look, I don't know how it can't change your life when you meet a kid, who the day before was sentenced to life. And whose girlfriend had to testify against him. So I don't know how you could be breathing, and not have something like that change your life. Like they get one hour outside a week, and they're fourteen years old. It's now changed to an hour a day, but it was an hour a week when I got there. That is not to say that they've done perfect things. But it is to say that it can't not change my life. And another kid with the LA Conservation Corps started telling us all these stories, And they were unreal. To me. Like hiding meth in the back of a lamp of a four wheel drive vehicle, driving over the border. And he was sixteen years old. And he told these stories like he was Homer. They were literally like tales. But he's changed his life. He's actually working now in the governor's office in Sacramento. So it's those things. It's like you look at a movie and go, yeah. It's a movie. But that's the stuff that I care about. So anyway. that's all!'


There is much more at Digital Journal.

And finally...

I'm off to London tomorrow for the start of a few days of movie glory, beginning with Cowboys and Aliens and its press conference and premiere. We're talking Harrison Ford here! I'm then going on to the Empire Big Screen event at the O2 venue. I will have internet along the way and so I'll keep in touch! There are wonders on the way...