Jake Gyllenhaal and the SAG Foundation plus a new Enemy poster

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I also hope that you managed to avoid spending most of it bedbound with flu, unlike yours truly.... But as one year draws its curtains and another one peeps around the corner, Jake Gyllenhaal has a message for you about the work of the SAG Foundation. It's good to see Jake's charity work continuing unabated. Please note, though, how I'm not mentioning the hair...



Thanks so much to IHJ for the video and for the accompanying portraits.

From Canada we have a new Enemy poster - and I like it a lot..

As a reminder, this was the earlier version:

There is also a new video from Hitfix of Jake talking about Prisoners.



Enjoy the chocolate!

Happy birthday, Jake! And the perfect Christmas gift across the pond

Today is that day when Jake Gyllenhaal will wake up in bed and sit up and remember that this was the day he came into the world 33 years ago:

*** Happy birthday, Jake! ***

It's just as well then that a certain film came out on DVD in the US this week - the perfect birthday (or Christmas) present for anyone, I'm sure you'd agree. The special features, even on the blu ray, are a little thin on the ground with just two features 'Every Moment Matters: Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal explore the tense relationship between Keller and Loki' and 'Powerful Performances: Get up close and personal with this all-star cast'. In the UK we must wait until 3 February.

Jake Gyllenhaal appears on the Ellen Show again at last and a WDW Tuscany Interlude

Well, what do you now... I go away for a week and Jake Gyllenhaal appears on the Ellen Show, the show that I've been looking forward to more than any other for a Jake reappearance. It's with thanks to IHJ that I'm able to watch it on my return.







Otherwise, Jake has been moving between LA and New York City, fitting in a bit of househunting and looking like he's put back on some of the Nightcrawler weight. He also has been seen wearing The Jumper - it's been quite a while since we've seen it!

Jake has also reaffirmed his work with the New Eyes for the Needy charity, revealing he is driven by making his 96-year old grandfather proud. There is also an interesting new interview here.

WDW Tuscany Interlude

I have just got back from a wonderful trip to sunny and beautiful Tuscany, taking in Pisa, Florence, the stunning Cinque Terre seaside ports to the north of Pisa and the walled city of Lucca. I thought I'd post a few photos.

I hope you all had a good week!

Jake Gyllenhaal to be part of Canada's Top 10 Film Festival and an award nomination

Jake Gyllenhaal is heading back to Toronto. On January 5 Jake and Denis Villeneuve (director of Prisoners and Enemy) will be appearing in conversation with Cameron Bailey (TIFF Artistic Director) as part of Canada's Top 10 Film Festival. You can read the details here and, if you're lucky, buy tickets to watch Jake in conversation for 90 minutes! I've had the privilege of watching something similar and I can guarantee that it would be unforgettable. And funny.

This does, of course, mean that the Toronto International Film Festival is rather chuffed by Jake's work with Denis and it is a huge honour for Enemy that it has been listed in its top ten for the year.



The other good news this week is that Jake has been nominated for an award by the International Press Academy! The award nomination is for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and is for Prisoners. While we know only to well how unreliable and tipsy the awards season can be, this can only bode well. It also continues the acclaim that Jake has received for Prisoners and Enemy this year.



Thanks to Sonja for a link to this great interview with Jake in Movie.com. It would seem that blockbusters aren't on Jake's mind right now. Jake also admits to being rather intense when he's at work: 'But I am focused when I work on something, and I think my tendency of late has been to move towards darker material.' It's good to see a mention of Bubble Boy but it looks like a comedy could be a way off still.

Thanks to IHJ for this photo of the cast and crew of Nightcrawler on set in LA. Love this. There are some great new photos up from Elle Man China (one is above) so do take a look.

I'm off to Florence and Tuscany in the wee hours of Saturday so I will see you soon!

A catch up in words, videos and images - Jake Gyllenhaal honours casting directors, talks Prisoners and Nightcrawler and The Hand

Jake Gyllenhaal and his hand have been busy over the last few days moving between Los Angeles and New York City, attending more honorary events and screenings of Prisoners.

Firstly, here's a great video of Jake discussing Prisoners and much, much more with Gold Derby editor Tom O'Neil.



This week we also heard a little bit more about the mirror attack and Nightcrawler thanks to Movie.com:

"We were working a scene and it was an intense scene, and I just went for it," he told us. "It's going to be in the movie, too, which is pretty awesome. The feeling that you left it all out on the field, ya know? That you even put a little of your own blood into a project." In the film Gyllenhaal plays a young man caught up in the seedy, underground world of freelance crime journalism, and while his mirror-punching exploits will indeed make it into the film, he added that you may not see his character punch the mirror in the shot, but you will see it shatter.'

"It's so hard to explain this character," Gyllenhaal said. "He's all over the map in this way that is so fun to play. We were experimenting a lot because it's such a brilliant screenplay -- probably one of the best I've ever read. Dan Gilroy wrote it, and [the character] is sort of a modern version of a real entrepreneur. This sort of personification of this idea that success is the ultimate goal regardless of anything. He's charming, and at the same time calculating. Why he is all these things is definitely underneath that [mirror-punching] moment in a way, but he's just so complex. It was real fun to play as an actor."

Thanks to IHJ for the photos from last Monday's Casting Society of Artios Awards which honoured casting directors. Jake clearly enjoyed his speech:

“It’s really nice to see casting directors get up here and be more nervous than I’ve ever seen them before,” Gyllenhaal told the packed International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton. “Now you know how it feels! It’s perversely wonderful to watch you shake. I’m actually kind of getting off on it.”

Jake also said: 'On behalf of me, my sister (actress Maggie Gyllenhaal), my brother-in-law, who's an actor (Peter Sarsgaard), my mother and my father. We could not have done it without you.'

On 22 November, Jake took part in a special showing of Prisoners for the Envelope Screening Series. You can watch the video here. At the screening, Jake talked a little about Loki's characteristic blinking tic: "I get these strange instincts when I'm reading something," Gyllenhaal said. "And one of those things in this movie, when I read the script … I had this feeling of this blinking. I don't know really where it came from. I try a lot of things with Denis. He allows that. It is why he's so extraordinary. He creates a space that's safe, which is why I think he got such incredible actors to be a part of this process." Gyllenhaal added: "His love of actors and his ability to say, 'I'm going to give you the space to create in there; I'm not going to manipulate you in the wrong way,' I think made us all come along." When Gyllenhaal pitched the idea of Loki's tic to Villeneuve at a diner, "[Villeneuve] said, 'If we use it enough and it has a reason, if we find a reason for this, then I love it.' And we did."'

And finally

We've had this before but IMDb has released the trailer for Enemy on YouTube this week and so it seems like a good time to show it again:

Here is a brief clip of Jake at the recent Oscars' Governors Awards:

Jake Gyllenhaal attacked by a mirror but it doesn't get in the way of a full weekend! Plus an Everest update

What a week! It started off with all the sirens going off when Jake Gyllenhaal got into a scrap with a mirror which decided to attack him and his left hand on the set of Nightcrawler. Luckily a few stitches were required but that was it. I would like to have words with all of those news reports that put 'hospitalised' into their attention grabbing, panicky headlines without due care and attention. There are a few more details here.

But Jake and his hand both appeared at the Variety screening of Prisoners at the Arclight Hollywood on Friday. You can read more here at the Mail.

Jake also made an appearance at the Academy Governors Awards on Saturday to watch Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Angelina Jolie collect honorary Oscars.

At the Awards Jake had the honour of sitting next to no less a personage than Harrison Ford! This does make me feel a little weak at the knees.

You can spot Jake (and Mr Ford) at the end of this video. Many thanks to Eureka for passing on the link.



Everest update

Since the news that Everest had run into some financial problems (the movei not the mountain), there has been an update from Deadline. Financial backing is now in place and filming will start on 13 January in Italy before moving on to Nepal and Iceland. This might be the one Christmas when Jake does hope for some extra thick woolly socks.

Thanks to IHJ for the pics! There are more there including photos of Jake visiting the Medical Center in Beverly Hills. For once, one can guess what it might have been about! Hope you mend soon, Jake.

Updated update: Jake Gyllenhaal on Ben Kingsley for BAFTA in LA, a Nailed update and Nightcrawler talk

There's no denying that it's with a heavy heart that I pick up WDW and Jake again after the last few sad days. But it was Jake who brought Mermon into our lives and I am sure she would want the community to continue to enjoy his work. I hope so. So here's a post recapping a little of what Jake Gyllenhaal has been up to.

Updated update: When the set fights back.... Thankfully, it sounds like Jake's all right (unlike the mirror).

Update: Here's some news on Everest.

Jake made a little video to praise PoP co-star Ben Kingsley for the BAFTA Britannia awards in LA and you can watch that here, if the embedded link below won't work for you. You can read a full report of the rather salubrious event here.

Britannia Gyllenhaal from BAFTA LA on Vimeo.

Jake has been hard at work (and being thin) for Nightcrawler. There's an audio interview on the NPR site that you can listen to and download. Among other things, Jake discusses the schedule of Nightcrawler. It sounds punishing and (quite probably) soon to be over:

'Well, this movie in particular ... it's a smaller-budget film. And we're shooting this movie in 28 days, which is a short amount of time to make a film. The only shorter film I've made is 22 days, which was this film called End of Watch ... [where] we spent most of our waking and non-waking time making the movie. You know, it was sort of like a bender the whole time. This movie's very similar. So we push as the week goes on. We start at 6 a.m. on Monday. [Now it's] a Thursday night, and we'll probably go until 3 or 4 a.m. to finish it off.'

This week we've had the rather surprising news that the MPAA have given Nailed a certificate - an even more surprising PG13. Reports that this film might be revived have been as regular as buses over the last few years and I greet each one with a curious mix of a smile and grimace. But the evidence is building that the  project might be released in some form at some time, even if it won't be quite the end result we were expecting. If it's a PG13 then it certainly won't be what I was expecting. But, as I have said repeatedly, time will tell.

This post contains photos of Jake Watching the LA Lakers take on the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Staples Center in LA on Sunday night. Thanks so much to IHJ for these lovely smiley pictures.

An announcement - Mermon

As some of you may now be aware, Marzena (known to so many of us as Mermon) died suddenly last week, the news reaching us yesterday evening.

I've been trying to think what to write here but nothing is adequate. Mermon was only 40 years old, with a daughter, and with everything to live for. She had a love of life that was infectious and she cared deeply for friends here and had been a vital member of the wonderful WDW community for years. Personally, she was my friend and I will miss her terribly. She was the kindest, most generous and loving of people and someone like that cannot fail to leave a hole behind them so large that you know it can never be filled.

Obviously, our thoughts and hearts must be with Marzena's daughter and parents at this awful time.

Sasha is kindly gathering details and posting them in the GyllenPub - it's a freely accessible area, you don't need to log on. Thank you, Sasha.

If you would like to post a message in the comments here, please do. I know many of us will be affected by Mermon's loss. We will gather the messages up and send them on to Mermon's family.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Salma Hayek at the LACMA Art and Film Gala and an attachment to Southpaw

Quite a bit of news this week. Firstly, Jake Gyllenhaal attended Saturday's LACMA Art and Film Gala in LA which celebrated the work of two masters - Martin Scorsese and David Hockney. Thanks very much to IHJ for the photo.

The movie news is that Jake has been attached to Southpaw, a boxing drama to be directed by Training Day's Anthony Fuqua. The Wrap tells us:

'If the deal gets signed, Gyllenhaal will play a left-handed prizefighter who wins a title but suffers a tragedy soon after and must put his life back together to earn the respect of his young daughter. While the film is set against the backdrop of the boxing ring, Fuqua previously told the Los Angeles Times that “the heart of the movie is about a man learning to be a father.”... “Southpaw” is expected to start production next year.'

Any thoughts? I enjoy watching boxing movies - including those about ex-boxers having to put their lives back together - almost as much as I enjoy Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. I'll be interested to see what happens to this.

Jake Gyllenhaal, Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, Josh Brolin, Michael B. Jordan around the table

What do you get if you combine Jake Gyllenhaal, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto? A very happy WDW, that's what. This week Jake appeared on an Actors Awards Roundtable alongside Matt, Jared (just think Highway), Forest Whitaker, Josh Brolin (will appear in Everest with Jake) and Michael B. Jordan. This treat is courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. The stars had auditions on their minds and you can read part of the transcript here as well as watch the video if the embedded player below doesn't work for you.

We hear in this interview about Jake's audition experience for Frodo in Lord of the Rings. Some things are not meant to be and for that I am truly grateful.

Thanks so much to IHJ for images from the Roundtable. There are scans there too so do go and take a peek.

Updated with new videos! Jake Gyllenhaal honoured by Monday's Hollywood Film Awards!

Update!

With thanks to Mermon for the heads up, here is a wonderful 30 minute interview with Jake:



Here is Jake's acceptance speech from the Hollywood Film Awards



There is more here on Jake's dramatic weight loss.

On with the post!
Last night, the 17th Hollywood Film Awards honoured Jake Gyllenhaal with its Supporting Actor Award for Prisoners, hopefully, the first in a long string of gongs that will adorn Jake's mantelpiece over the coming Silly Season. The award was presented to Jake by Viola Davis, one of Jake's Prisoners co-stars

Jake bedecks the cover of November's Australian GQ magazine and it's a great interview. For instance: 'I really, really love listening to really poppy music. I play a lot of intense characters and going the other way can help. Sometimes if you listen to something that’s the complete opposite of the feeling you’re having, you can dive even deeper. Somehow you’re not thinking so much. And then bam, you’re in it. I’m obsessed with food. I love eating in general, but if I’m somewhere on location, I tend to find one restaurant and weirdly will eat one or two things that I love. Then I’ll know I’m going there at the end of the day to eat that thing. It’s like a strange catharsis to me. I don’t know what it does… but it kind of breaks the boundaries of something that’s different to what my character would eat.'

And on how Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain and End of Watch changed his life: '"These movies are markers on my path and life. We all have them in different ways,” he says. “Mine are a little absurd and happen to be movies, but all I have is the experience of those movies and they’ve all been extraordinary in their own way.” It’s clear he loves what he does, but is under no illusions that he’s performing brain surgery. He likes a laugh, and tries to keep things light on set, even when the material is dark. “I’m devoted to what I do and I take it seriously,” he says, “but I have a sense of humour, too.”'

Here is Hugh Jackman's summary of Jake: '“Oh, Jake’s hilarious, he’s a cheeky bugger,” says Jackman. “We became good friends, and he’s a good mate to have.”' I like that.

Here are some videos from last night's red carpet at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Last week some rather intriguing images of Jake on the Nightcrawler set emerged.  Seeing the bottom image, I'm rather reminded of Bubble Boy. I rather like the top knot in the photo above...

Thanks so much to IHJ for the photos!

Meet Lou from Nightcrawler - Jake Gyllenhaal on set in LA

We have our first proper look at Lou, Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Nightcrawler, which is now filming in Los Angeles. Jake did seem rather gaunt when I was lucky enough to speak to him last month but he didn't look this thin - I'm hoping much of this is due to the role, ie posture, dress and hair. As for that hair..... Dan Gilroy and I may be having words.... So, what do you think? Thanks very much to IHJ for the new pics!

Meet the FIlmmakers

I am so happy to see this! Thanks very much to IHJ for showing us the London Apple Store Meet the Filmmakers, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman and Denis Villeneuve. (I'm on the front row towards the right.)

Jake Gyllenhaal in the movies - Prisoners, Enemy, Nightcrawler and The Good Girl

Jake Gyllenhaal is a man of three films and in today's post there's a little bit from all three - and a fourth. Firstly, there are some new stills from Enemy, both in front of and behind the camera.

There are also some new images from Prisoners, including a wonderful on set photo of Jake with little Erin Gerasimovich, the talented young actress who plays Anna Dover. Incidentally, Prisoners topped the UK box office not only for the first weekend of its release but also its second!

Jake is currently filming Nightcrawler in LA with first-time director Dan Gilroy. Variety has this from its producer: “We really had no choice but to shoot this in Los Angeles, because it’s set in L.A and it’s a quintessentially Los Angeles kind of project in that the city is very much a character in the movie,” said producer David Lancaster. “It’s a similar situation to ‘Drive,’ where it’s essential to set the movie in L.A. And we also got the tax credit.” Thanks to a very fortunate spectator we have our first view of Jake (in pink) in character - a currently unnamed character.

I'm still waiting for the the podcast of Jake and Hugh's London Apple event but iPlayer has captured their interview with Edith Bowman for her BBC Radio 6 show. Their bit of the show begins at about the 2 hour and 37 minute mark. Jake and Hugh also appeared on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2 and you can listen to some of that here. They also appeared on the Lorraine Show and that is here.

Jake recorded an interview with Neil Fox and that's available to listen to in two parts here.

Apologies if any of the links don't work for you due to region. This is a most annoying irritation.

Thanks so much to IHJ for the wonderful photos. Do take a look at the gallery as it is overflowing with scans of recent interviews in the media.

And now for the fourth film. This wonderful interview from 2002 when Jake was promotion The Good Girl alongside one of my very favourite of Jake's co-stars, Jennifer Aniston, is now available to watch again. Marvellous.