Update! Jake on Conan. Jake Gyllenhaal talks about the role that has changed his life and much, much more!

** Updated! Jake on Conan **

Jake Gyllenhaal - Conan (Part 1) by Orlandita02

Jake Gyllenhaal - Conan (Part 2) by Orlandita02

On with the post...

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Jake Gyllenhaal may turn next to Prisoners with Hugh Jackman (see previous post), and the news that End of Watch did win the top prize at the weekend US box office, is a fantastic new interview in USA today. It's one of those classic interviews that comes along, once or twice a movie. And as with each film, Jake likes to tell us why he chose the role of Officer Taylor in End of Watch, a role that he says he fought for.

'" I woke up and I said, 'I've had the privilege of being able to do this for 15 years.' I got so far away from the idea of acting as a real craft to master. I didn't want to skirt the surface in it. I wanted to learn about myself," says Gyllenhaal, who earned a supporting-actor Oscar nomination for 2005's Brokeback Mountain. "I wanted to interact with people doing real stuff and have it enrich my life. I wanted to have my work enrich my life and have a life that I was proud of. Not to say I wasn't proud of it before. There were a lot of things. Many things dominoed into that moment."'

His End of Watch co-star Michael Pena has some wonderful things to say about Jake and about working with him: '"He's a complicated dude, to be honest. He's really, really smart. He can be goofy at times, but his mind is always going, going, going," says Pena. "He goes on these epic jogs. He called me up and said, 'Let's go for a run.' And there's paparazzi shots of us. He's running all stealth and all you see is me dying. Meanwhile, Jake is like, 'Whatever.' "... During the Watch shoot, Pena recalls how Gyllenhaal would step in and help him navigate difficult scenes. "Good things happen to those who are in movies with Jake. He's proud of that fact. He's pretty selfless in that regard, and he wants you to kill it," says Pena. "There were a couple of times I wasn't doing very well, he'd pull me aside and tell me, 'Dude, do you remember that thing you did in rehearsal? Do that.' His motivation comes from a good place."'

The play: '"Honestly, I love waking up in the morning knowing that I'll be on stage and feel like you're part of this history of storytelling. I walk home every night," he says with a smile.'

Clearly, there is nothing more important in Jake's life than his family: '"We have a new generation. My sister and I aren't the youngest ones anymore. All those things came together in my life," Gyllenhaal says. "It's really cool to see my niece now because she really helps out. There's this video that Peter sent me the other day. My older niece was playing with my younger niece. She would turn around and surprise her, and my younger niece was so in love with her. It gave me a perspective on how much I probably felt the same way about my sister, and I do still. That stuff never goes away."''

'Gyllenhaal babysits, but not as much as he probably should. " I was in L.A. for the premiere, and they were all together here last night. My niece is a little sick right now because she just started school again. I felt really torn -- maybe I'm a bit of a mess, but there's this family in this movie that I didn't want to leave and I was talking to my family on the phone and thinking how much I missed them and loved them and wanted to be with them. I watched Brave on the plane on my way to Los Angeles, and all I could think about was my niece because that's her favorite movie," he says.'

"I did this movie October Sky with Chris Cooper. When I asked him for his actorly advice, he said, 'Just don't have any regrets.' I don't think I had any understanding of what that meant until very recently.This is one of the very first movies where I can say that I have very little regret. I've combed every corner. And that was for me," he says.'

There is much more so do take a look.

The lovely Anna Kendrick has also been speaking to IGN about acting with Jake and the 'day in the life' aspect of the filming: 'It certainly created one of the most interesting atmospheres on set that I’ve ever experienced. One in which you were never really sure if you were being filmed or not, so it was weirdly liberating and challenging at the same time, in this wonderful way where you were in character for 12 hours a day. The only time we weren’t holding hands, snuggling or whatever the scene called for was at lunch. If there was ever a point that we realized that every other camera was re-loading then Jake or Michael would grab the handheld and we would just film something. Jake would pull me aside and he would grab the handheld camera and start doing something, and then David would notice that we were in the corner and come over and start filming, and we wouldn’t have noticed for a solid 5 minutes that they’d been filming us, until Dave yells out ‘kiss her!’'

'It was interesting for me because it was one of those weird life imitating art situations where all of my rehearsals were with just Jake. So I’ve met Mike (Peña) and I’ve met Natalie (Martinez), but I didn’t know them well at all, so when I came to set it really felt like my new boyfriend introducing me to his good friends. And the three of them were already really close so I really had that feeling of wanting to prove that I was strong enough to be a part of this family, but then also being overwhelmed by the bond that they had. In a healthy way, I was a little envious of the relationship Jake had with Mike, and the relationship that he has with everybody on the police force. Realizing again and again, and again through every scene just what it means to be a police officer, what it means to be a police officers wife.'

On achieving the believable intimacy with Jake: 'I really followed his lead on that. I’m really glad that he was so open and giving on that end, just like somebody who wants to reach inside you and rip you open in this really incredible way. He was so deep in the shit by the time that I got there that he was completely mentally there all day every day. So when I showed up and he was holding my hand the entire time I was like ‘this is weird right?’; but I think that’s exactly why that relationship is believable in such a short amount of screen time.' Much more here.

Thanks so much to BBMISwear for the scans and to IHJ for the End of Watch pics.