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.

More End of Watch goodies, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena

Today was to be a rest day for WDW, giving everyone a little time to catch up with all the TIFF goodies, but then these End of Watch portraits were released featuring two stunners: Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena.

A reminder that there are lots of treats in the last few posts so don't let them slip by as we try and keep up with Jake!

A highlight of film promotion is Jake Hamilton, and today we have his interview with Jake and Michael.

This one is also well worth watching:

There are also plenty more videos from Trailer Addict. It's possible some of these have been posted before but sometimes it's hard to keep track of the blighters... Here are a couple: Wedding Dance and Paperwork.

'You've never seen a buddy cop film like this'

Do take a look at this excellent review of End of Watch from ign uk. 

And finally...

Confirmation that the LA premiere of End of Watch is on 17 September comes courtesy of this auction announcement for ACLU from charity buzz. Unfortunately, the auction is now closed.

Many thanks to IHJ for the pictures and BBMISwear for help with the links!

End of Watch premieres at TIFF to a standing ovation! And Jake Gyllenhaal did make it back to Toronto after all

It gets better and better. End of Watch received a standing ovation last night as it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Well-received by critics and film-goers alike, the film is collecting some excellent reviews and the buzz builds... Jake Gyllenhaal was also there in the flesh. A rush break from If There Is... to attend the pre-show party with the rest of the End of Watch cast before the screening itself. Jake signed autographs and created some memories and then joined in with the others for a 30-minute Q&A on stage. Much tweeting ensued, many photos were taken. A great evening and what a success for the film!

Many thanks to IHJ for these wonderful images! The photo above was taken at the Grey Goose Vodka Party - to attend a Vodka Party would be a wondrous thing in itself, but a Vodka Party with Jake?

Anna Kendrick tweeted from TIFF last night: 'End of Watch screening was breathtaking; audience response was INTENSE. Congrats to Jake, Michael, David Ayer. I'm proud to be part of it.'

This post will no doubt be added to later today as more images emerge but this is a bit of a recap - an emergency filler. Journalists were tweeting that today they'll be interviewing Jake so it looks as if they'll be more of those interviews we love to watch.

Picture sources: JJ, twitter, twitter, twitter, twitter.

Reviews

As with all reviews, please be aware of spoilers! Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Roger Ebert, Very Aware.

Women on Watch

There is a new featurette for End of End of watch, this time with a different perspective.



I particularly loved this screencap, thanks to IHJ.

If There Is...



Jake's appearance on Kelly and Michael (20 September) has been re-recorded, as we can see.

Right! That's it for the moment but one thing is guaranteed, there will be more! Congratulations to Jake, Michael, David and Anna for last night's brilliant success and let's see what today brings.

Thanks to Mermon for her superhuman twitter spotting!

Jake Gyllenhaal Backstage and On stage

What a week! Jake Gyllenhaal has been making the NYC stage his own during this week of previews for If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet. I do recommend you look back over the comments for the last couple of posts. A number of WDW readers have been lucky enough to see the play and they have been filling in some of the details for those of us an ocean or more away.

Jake also appeared on the Late Night with Letterman Show - the video can be seen in the last post - and so we have some photos from that as well as a stunning portrait of Jake to go with the play.

Jake graces quite spectacularly the cover of the Fall issue of Backstage. In the magazine he talks about the importance of doing something for five months which would have his full attention. He also reaffirms his long broken promise to himself to do a play for every three movies. Hopefully, this time, this will happen and in more cities too.



“To feel like you’re a part of a family that is truly relying on each other to stay afloat—that idea is what drew me in,” he says. “I had no real explanation for not doing a play for essentially a decade, but I intend not to make that mistake again. Hopefully, ideally, it will be three plays for every movie.” 

Jake also explains to Backstage about how and why he moved from LA to NYC: '“Somebody was trying to get an angle on why I moved to New York, and I was like, ‘Because my family is here and I love them. And I want to be with them and they mean everything to me.’ This is the best possible place for me to be, to be near my family, doing a show about the mess of a family, and then maybe having my family come watch it.”'

Many thanks to WDW reader Adele for her thorough and brilliant account of seeing If There Is this week. If you're going to see the play yourself then you might want to wait until afterwards before reading it, but for the rest of us it's packed full of the details we want to read - about the set, this water that we keep hearing about and the humour. Here's a quote from the review but I urge you to read it in full. I love the references to Wetherspoons - I heartily approve of their megacheap veggie breakfasts (served with beer if you want it) and I'm delighted to hear its fame is spreading!

'Jake Gyllenhaal plays Terry, who returns from his vague and mysterious travels, presumably attempting to outrun his somewhat troubled past, and lopes into the family home in Adidas shell-suit, slicked back hair and baggy jeans, all rangy physicality and blackly comic one-liners. (His very convincing English accent, if triangulated, places Terry somewhere between Shoreditch High Street, Super Hans, and Ricky Gervais. It’s flawless and hilarious.) His body language swings between self-protective and endearingly casual as he breaks apart the tightly-strung lives of a pre-occupied family and forces them to re-evaluate what is important. Jake masters the comic timing and Terry’s endearing likeability and undermines it with flashes of anger, drunkenness and helplessness as George accuses him of being just a “scared little boy”.'

'Terry’s presence is a final catalyst for troubled, bullied, overweight niece Anna, and their slightly uneasy, sometimes awkward, yet affectionate relationship provides the heart of the play. Anna’s dramatic breakdown after a disastrous date (at the local Wetherspoon’s, no less – a reference to a ubiquitous chain of British pubs which I wondered if anyone who hadn’t been subjected to them in the UK would truly appreciate) ends up throwing all the tensions between George, Terry and Fiona into sharp relief, and leaves Anna drowning in plain sight. Fiona, distracted by struggles with her elderly mother and George’s manic preoccupation, loses sight of how to help her daughter. “She means the world to me,” Fiona laments, and this is where we see Terry’s point that “saving the world” might not be so far removed from saving the family.'

Thanks so much Adele!



Finally, do watch through to the end of this video with Anna Kendrick talking about filming End of Watch with Jake. Thanks to BBMISwear for the links! Thanks to IHJ for the pictures!

Jake Gyllenhaal still sporty? And a catch up

The Olympic Games is over and while this means that life in Britain can return to something approaching normality, one also hopes that it won't lose all of the magic and happiness that has transformed the place over the last 16 days or so. Great Britain has been a wonderful place to live and it's quite possible it won't be the same place again. The Olympics has rather got in the way of blogging, however, and so that is one thing I can put to rights. So thank you for your patience!

Jake Gyllenhaal of course, speaking of sport, told Details magazine that his days of working out were behind him. Fortunately, Jake must have been crossing his fingers because the tweets have been in full flow (here is another one) about how Jake has been distracting the Soul Cycle devotees of NYC. Would his presence in the class make you spin faster? Or would you just freewheel?

Jake has also been spotted walking around NYC. According to the NY Daily News 'Jake Gyllenhaal's famous face did not get him special access to the set of “Smash” Wednesday night. The hunky movie star was strolling down Mercer St. in SoHo with a mystery woman when the pair stumbled upon the set of the hit NBC show starring Katharine McPhee and Debra Messing. The street was closed to the general public, and when Gyllenhaal, sporting black gym shorts and a hat, and his pretty brunette babe tried to walk down Mercer they were stopped by security. According to our eagle-eyed spy on the street, after inquiring what was going on, Gyllenhaal was told by security he had to take a detour, and the actor complied humbly.'



Anna Kendrick has been promoting her film Paranorman and took the chance to speak about what it was like to improvise on the set of End of Watch: 'Actually, in places, it was difficult to remember that, because we were improvi[s]ng so much for so long. And there would be times where we would allow a real conversation to just bleed into a scene. So there would be times when Jake [Gyllenhaal] would be telling me that something happened in his home town and I'd think, 'Wait – YOUR hometown or Brian's hometown? But that was exciting. Then it's trying to remember, ‘Okay, once we are in a scene I am this character and I am not myself.’ Because, yeah, the line started getting really blurry. But that was exciting.'



Thanks to IHJ for the picture.

Jake Gyllenhaal back in Toronto (before I even knew he'd left) and more from Anna Kendrick on End of Watch

This is a brief emergency post to announce Jake Gyllenhaal's safe return to Toronto after a mini break in NYC plus my own survival after a weekend camping in the hot sunshine in a new tent. Jake was seen walking through Toronto airport yesterday (26 May).  I must say, I think filming An Enemy agrees with him. Thanks to IHJ for the pictures, there are more there!

Thanks to Mermon for the link to Anna Kendrick's interview with Collider last week which includes more from Anna about watching a screening of End of Watch: 'Yes, I saw a screening of it and it was very bizarre coming out of it because I realized it was the first thing I’ve ever done that was super intense and serious. I came out of [the screening] physically feeling ill because it was so intense, and I was so tense through the whole movie that my back hurt (laughs). So I was like, “is that good? Did we do a good job? Is that okay?” Because usually you come out of a movie and your like, “That was fun, right everybody? That was a good movie, maybe?” And this was like, “I feel awful, that’s good right?”'

A proper Interlude will follow (consider that ample warning) but in this Olympic year I thought I'd post this picture I took of lads playing football in the arena of the Roman amphitheatre in the most fascinating town of Caerleon in South Wales. Wonderful archaeological sites and all free to visit.

A catch up with Jake Gyllenhaal in Toronto, Anna Kendrick on End of Watch and an WDW Interlude

As England languishes in bliss with the hot sun we've been missing for weeks, time for a catch up with Jake Gyllenhaal. As of yesterday, Jake was still in Toronto continuing to attract attention. He was seen at Kultura  Restaurant last night by a lucky tweeter who also managed to get a photo of him. Looks like he'd popped out to have a ciggie. The tweeter Casie was double lucky as she'd met Jake before. Meanwhile, another tweeter posted a great account of his adventure, meeting with Jake on Wednesday. There are new photos from the filming of An Enemy on Tuesday and, thanks to IHJ, some of those are included here.

Anna Kendrick, Jake's co-star in End of Watch, is currently in Cannes with her new movie What to Expect when You're Expecting. In an interview for that she mentioned how filming End of Watch took her right out of what she is used to: I’ve done End Of Watch, which is violent and full of suspense and I’ve never done that before. I play Jake Gyllenhaal’s wife. It’s a cop drama. It was crazy to sit in a cinema and watch the scenes. I really experienced myself being sick with worry about Jake’s character. I’m not method – it’s a testament to how good the film is.

WDW Interlude

This hot weather took us out to a river pub where there was a spot of drama, and I don't just mean the peacock nicking people's chips. Abandoned ducklings which had been hiding on the roof of the pub for over a day and a night, finally emerged, peeking over the edge. They were rescued and collected by the RSPCA. Meanwhile the peacock ate more chips.

My review of the Madonna movie about Edward and Mrs Simpson - W.E. - is now up on MovieBrit.

End of Watch makes Anna Kendrick blush and Jake Gyllenhaal puts his life in Michael Pena's hands

Jake Gyllenhaal  is managing to avoid the cameras, despite having been spotted on planes, trains and automobiles - well, in airports (presumably travelling to and from Toronto for preparations for filming An Enemy) and on NYC subways.

Last night, though, Jake managed to escape public transport long enough to attend the launch party of a new cognac, D'ussé, at the Top of the Standard Hotel in New York. Also there was Jay-Z, making this the third time in recent days that Jake has attended an event with Jay-Z. It certainly seems very probable that Jake and Jay-Z are planning to collaborate on a project, whether this is a song for End of Watch or, who knows?, another music video is yet to be revealed. Unfortunately, Jake was in stealth mode and said no to cameras.

The release of the first trailer for End of Watch continues to attract attention. Anna Kendrick has been talking to E! about the intimacy of working with Jake on such a film where the boundaries between reality an fiction were blurred.

"We were shooting [End of Watch] on tiny cameras with very little lighting and a very small crew. There was a lot of improv," Kendrick said. "It felt incredibly intimate. You're in character all the time because you're shooting all the time. So Jake and I would be holding hands and suddenly we'd be like, 'Oh, we're not filming.'" Ask her just how steamy things got with Jakey and Kendrick begins to giggle. "Oh, my goodness—I'm actually blushing," she said. "Yeah, it gets all sexy time with us."

On Tuesday, David Ayer, the director of End of Watch, was interviewed for the New York Times about his film which 'aims to transcend clichés that have piled up over the years, he explained, by portraying a pair of local patrol officers, played by Mr. Gyllenhaal and Mr. Peña, who are not crazed or corrupt. Instead they bring fierce mutual loyalty and an unexpected sweetness to their pursuit of goodness in a bad world.'

This is a fascinating glimpse into the fast and furious filming of End of Watch, including Jake's experience learning to use a firearm with live ammunition:

'In an unusual exercise with live ammunition, the actors learned to shoot past each other in what proved to be a lesson less in police tactics than in bonding. “This guy has my life in his hands for real,” Mr. Gyllenhaal recalled thinking. “I realized, I finally knew what we were dealing with.” (Mr. Ayer said the actors were “safe all the time” during the exercise at a training ground in Burbank.)'

A relief to hear that Michael Pena (and Jake) is a good shot!

Thanks to IHJ for their trailer caps!

Jake Gyllenhaal goes back to school and Anna Kendrick tells us more about 'brutal' and 'startling' End of Watch

Jake Gyllenhaal has been putting in some more hours in the classroom. In addition to helping kids grow food with Edible Schoolyard, and distracting them in English classes with the help of Ethan Hawke (full account here and some pictures here), Jake spent some of yesterday at LaGuardia Arts in NYC with the dramatists and gatecrashers. Unfortunately, we have yet to see any pictures although quite a few of the pupils have been painting an image of the class with words.

From Aiss Ice baby: 'One he was so marvellous.he had on green cargo pants,with a hole above the knee,and a white t-shirt. his stuffed bookbag was on the floor next to him. on his little table there was a  full, un-opened jug of orange juice. he answered questions,and made jokes and told all these wonderful little anecdotes about actors he knows. oh,he was just too good. also he said his only goal in acting was for people to be able to pronounce “gyllenhaal” correctly.'

From Arielleighrose: 'I met Jake Gyllenhaal today with my drama class at LaG. He came to speak to us and answer questions. He was down-to-earth, funny, and generally awesome and I loved him as much as I thought I would. He is a beautiful human being and I told him so and I got to shake his hand. It was amazing.'

It's good to think of Jake inspiring another generation of future actors and performers - as well as making them a little giddy.

Jake has also been seen just about everywhere else since then, including the Town Hall - with the Face Pet - and in shops and in cafes ('The fact that I'm sitting like 3 feet away from Jake Gyllenhaal right now is making it really difficult for me to eat my lunch'.) and in other cafes ('I just saw Jake Gyllenhaal at my coffee place... pretty eyes, nice hair, he's tall, good taste in coffee.... *le sigh* ah, he's beautiful'. And then there's always trains. 

Fortunately, there were no lovely dogs distracting the tweeters this time...

End of Watch

I'm delighted to say that Anna Kendrick has been continuing to do her bit to tell us little bits about End of Watch, this time to the AV Club:

'In End Of Watch, I play a wife who doesn’t have her own storyline outside of being married to Jake Gyllenhaal. That freaked me out a little bit, because I thought, “Oh, this might be really bad,” but I feel like the wives in that movie, even though they don’t have their own storyline, they ground the entire thing, because if these men are putting their lives on the line in a vacuum, it feels like a videogame. It doesn’t matter. If you see their lives outside of that, it means something. There’s a reason for those kinds of roles, in a lot of cases.'

'It’s pretty tough. The script is really startling, but then surprisingly, you find moments of levity in places where you wouldn’t, necessarily. I was thinking about that, like, “Oh God, this is my first movie where there’s no comic angle, no infusion of comedy.” But then you get on set and you think, “Oh no, real life, when it feels honest, is really funny and really light, as much as it can be really dramatic.” I was surprised at that. It’s a startlingly brutal script, but I think there are moments of levity.'

Do read the rest of this interview, there is a lovely tribute to Michelle Williams' work in Brokeback Mountain.

Many thanks to IHJ for the wonderful new old pics from Good Girl's festival appearance at Sundance back in 2002. Thanks too to BBMISwear for the much appreciated help with some of the links.

My review of Melancholia, quite possibly my favourite film of the year so far, is up at MovieBrit.

Anna Kendrick talks about the 'crazy' shoot for End of Watch and filming the trip to Las Vegas with Jake Gyllenhaal

Anna Kendrick has been talking to Collider about 50/50 but while she did it there were a few words about a film I think we're all interested in - End of Warch - in which Anna plays the girlfriend and then wife of Jake Gyllenhaal's character. The whole experience was nothing less than 'crazy for Anna.

It was 'really loose, lots of improv, almost no thought towards continuity and editing, which is really freeing, because a lot is shot as handheld video. And we ended up shooting an entire trip to Las Vegas, driving out there and driving back and everything that we did in Las Vegas, without any script whatsoever. We shot continuously for fourteen hours which was... crazy!'

My review of Fast and Furious 5 is now up at MovieBrit!

End of Watch, a big home movie? Get the look and have you voted for Jake Gyllenhaal yet?

Anna Kendrick has been speaking to PoPSugar about the delights of working with Jake Gyllenhaal on End of Watch. Regrettably, she didn't tell them how tall Jake is. Nevertheless, it's all good:

"[It's been] great! He is one of the most open actors I've ever worked with. The whole set was crazy, since we were basically shooting it as though it was home movies. We didn't stop shooting it; there was hardly a second between takes where somebody didn't pick up one of the hand-held cameras. We just start shooting each other, which was a completely new experience for me but really exciting."

I have an image in my head of a line of cameramen sitting to one side, having a snooze with their feet up.

Get the look

Over the last few days, Jake has been getting some/even more attention for his look. As is the way with trendsetters, Jake's hair may be growing again but, according to Esquire, his buzzcut is The Look (but only if you have a nice looking head). Apparently, you should ask for 'Number One on the sides, Number Two up top'. Doesn't that make it a Number Three?

Meanwhile, SFGate has been handing out its 8 Get Sexy Styling Tips for Guys and there at Number 1 is Jake Gyllenhaal with his dark jeans.

Have you voted yet?


A friendly reminder that if you haven't voted for Jake yet as best scifi actor in the SCREAM awards, please get to it. And if you have, why not do it again...? Here is the link.


Includes pictures from IHJ.