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.