Jake Gyllenhaal's gift to science and hotness studies - The Hot Poll results are in!

The Hot Poll is closed. In this special supplement of the journal Jacobus Gyllenogia, I have asked my cousin Dr WDW to provide us with the benefit of his sharp analytical grey cells and so shed light on what the results reveal about our planet. I'm sure you'll agree that this is taking science one great leap further than launching rockets just to gather a bit of dust. Over to The Doctor.


'For the sake of this analysis, I have thrown myself into the role of Gyllenhaalic and donned that mantle of Jakedom. It was not as difficult as I had expected. The opinions of 76 people was sought - a group of people drawn from across the Gyllenspectrum - and, as my cousin had warned me, Jack Twist (Age - 19-39; role - cowboy; Trait - a hopeful romantic and good with animals; Quirk - facial hair) was the clear leader on the Hotness Scale. A massive 75% of voters selected Jack Twist as their clear favourite - it is possible that this number may even have been higher if it were not for people feeling sorry for some of the other roles.




Hotness here doesn't just mean blue eyes hidden and active under a black hat, or long legs squeezed into the tightest jeans and boots, it also means love, romance, tragedy and hope. Even with a moustache, even in a purple shirt tucked into the jeans and even with sideburns that graze his knees, Jack Twist is the epitome of hotness to a great number of Gyllenhaalics. It's not hard to see why.





There is another side to Gyllenism and his name is Douglas Freeman (Age - late 30s; role - CIA pen pusher; Trait - a good listener; Quirk - a very good phone). Douglas drew 27% of votes and was second, demonstrating graphically how clear above the others is Jack Twist. While it is true that Douglas strove during Rendition to put something right, to do what was right, it is scientifically feasible that Douglas is number 2 on the hotness scale because he doesn't wear much in bed, wears a suit that hints at the body of an athlete below, and because he has deepness in his expression. If Rendition had been set in Greenland, it is arguable that Douglas would not have been number 2, but fortunately it was about Middle Eastern torture and terrorism and not about the threat currently facing polar bears, belugas and migrating geese.







Not surprisingly, Anthony Swofford (Age - about 20; Role - hairless sniper; Trait - lost; Quirk - musical) was number 3. Again, hot climates may be a factor, supported in this case by Christmas accessories and a large weapon. Yet, Swoff, as he is known to some, also has an enquiring brain, demonstrated by his reading matter and his knowledge of Stevie Wonder hits. He's also sporty and can polish his buttons. Hot, clever, sporty, tidy, has a big weapon - no wonder Swoff was number three in the list.






Finally, for this part of the study, we will take a look at the two roles that share fourth place with 21% of the votes each. Firstly, we have an enigma, Hal (Age - 26; Role - mathematician; Trait - geek and nosey; Quirk - good at running, not so good with women). Although a fellow scientist, Hal was unable to make chemistry with Gwynnie but this mattered less to viewers who enjoy that other benefit of modern science - the fast forward button. Hal was in a band and that is scientifically proven to increase hotness. Unfortunately, he was a drummer.





Hal's partner on the Hotness Scale is a very different kettle of fish - Dastan (Age: 20s; Role - rogue prince; Trait - likes climbing walls and slowing down time; Quirk - enjoys being wet). An early medieval persian prince, Dastan again enjoys the benefits of living in a hot climate while being able to cool off with fountains around every parapet. We have yet to see Dastan being put through his hot paces, but initial reports suggest chest exposure, leaping, fighting, banter, camels and an accent. All of which will raise the Hotness Scale.






Other Jake roles were not far behind, notably Time Traveller Donnie, Crossword Puzzle Fanatic Robert Graysmith, Wet Sam and Bad Boy Turned Good Tommy. Room for further analysis, I think. Thanks to everyone who participated in the study and made it possible. Clearly, the ramifications will be felt for some time and any film director is welcome to contact me who wants to know how best to draw the Hotness from Jake Gyllenhaal and give his Gyllenhaalics what they want and deserve. Back to WDW.'




Thanks to The Doctor and thanks to IHJ for heating up the scale further with some new old black and white studies in movie stardom.

The Nailed and Brokeback Blues

Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal's co-star in Nailed, has been speaking about her frustration and disappointment with a film that remains, I'm very sorry to learn, unfinished. Despite enjoying the experience of working with a director she admires immensely as well as a very impressive cast, Jessica is 'devastated' that all that hard work may come to nothing.


Roger Moore at The Orlando Sentinel reports: 'That was definitely an experience, something I could NOT say no to," Biel told me in an interview. "I am a huge David O. Russell fan. It’s just heartbreaking that so many people put so much work into this particular project only to have it sit there, unfinished. But it’s one of those things where we had no idea it would have happened. If I’d had an idea that it might happen, would I still have done it? I don’t know. Probably. I had an incredible experience with David and the rest of the cast. It made me a better actor. For all that, I’m devastated that it’s not finished and who knows when it will be and will come out. I still have my fingers crossed that something good will come of it, that it will be finished."



Jessica's not the only one, I'm sure. And good luck to Jessica in Coward's Easy Virtue.

Annie's Brokeback Blues

Annie Proulx appears in the new Spring 2009 issue of the Paris Review's Art of Fiction and, in a reprise of her comments to the Independent last September, Annie confirms that she wishes she had never written Brokeback Mountain and had never created Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar.

'I wish I’d never written the story. It’s just been the cause of hassle and problems and irritation since the film came out. Before the film it was all right.'


'In Wyoming they won’t read it. A large section of the population is still outraged. But that’s not where the problem was. I’m used to that response from people here, who generally do not like the way I write. But the problem has come since the film. So many people have completely misunderstood the story. I think it’s important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience, but unfortunately the audience that “Brokeback” reached most strongly have powerful fantasy lives. And one of the reasons we keep the gates locked here is that a lot of men have decided that the story should have had a happy ending.'


'They can’t bear the way it ends—they just can’t stand it. So they rewrite the story, including all kinds of boyfriends and new lovers and so forth after Jack is killed. And it just drives me wild. They can’t understand that the story isn’t about Jack and Ennis. It’s about homophobia; it’s about a social situation; it’s about a place and a particular mindset and morality. They just don’t get it. I can’t tell you how many of these things have been sent to me as though they’re expecting me to say, oh great, if only I’d had the sense to write it that way. And they all begin the same way—I’m not gay, but . . . The implication is that because they’re men they understand much better than I how these people would have behaved. And maybe they do. But that’s not the story I wrote. Those are not their characters. The characters belong to me by law.'


'I haven’t had the same sort of problem with anything else I’ve ever written. Nothing else. People saw it as a story about two cowboys. It was never about two cowboys. You know you have to have characters to hang the story on but I guess they were too real. A lot of people have adopted them and put their names on their license plates. Sometimes the cart gets away from the horse—the characters outgrew the intent.'


We've discussed before here the inappropriateness and the presumption of fan fiction authors sending their 'rewrites' to Annie, although, from this interview, it sounds like Annie has been troubled by another type of reader or viewer altogether, and not one that I recognise. While I fully accept that, just as Jake has (and must) move on from Jack Twist, Annie must also be allowed to continue to develop freely as a writer, separate from a short story written over a decade ago, yet I do regret that she wishes Brokeback undone. And that she blames the film. I do hate to read that she has locked the gates against Brokeback's fans and I can't help but take it personally even though one hopes she doesn't tar all Brokeback's fans with this brush of distaste. Maybe, very occasionally indeed, it is possible to write something too good.


Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal playing real lives - 'He looks like how I looked in my dreams'

Great actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal have the power to transport us into alternate universes of experiences, as varied as medieval Persian fantasy and the rodeos of 1960s' Texas, but imagine what it is like to have Jake play you - to transpose your story onto the screen and to reproduce your mannerisms, affectations, failings and strengths. Homer Hickam, Tony Swofford and Robert Graysmith have all experienced just that - they looked into the mirror and saw Jake.


Rocketeer

When Jake took on the part of Homer Hickam, he recalled that Homer had given Chris Cooper (Jake's father in the film) his own father's jewellery to wear, making it more real for him and for Jake. Jake reflected, though, that what drew him closer to Homer was not the touch of familiar things but the thought of aspiration and dreams (This video works but you need the patience of a saint): 'But I think in terms of the character of Homer there are two things. And there's one the character that I create, drawing from myself and from my own experiences, and then trying to adopt the characteristics of Homer, the real Homer, and do service to him as a character, as a human being really. But I think that the connection between the two of us are the rockets and learning about the rockets, it's really what helped me to develop the character besides the accent and besides asking him.'


''And specific situations when I wanted specifics about a scene, especially actually emotional scenes. I knew they were emotional for him in real life - I wanted to do these scenes service, so I would talk with him about different aspects of what was going on, how was he feeling for a ... or I would just let him talk and I didn't even want to ask too many questions. I felt like I just wanted to know what he was going through.'


'And so, then also, friends of his came to the set and I would ask them questions and I kept a notebook so I had notes from what they had told me. And even lists of personality traits. I heard from one of his friends that he used to carry like a transistor radio everywhere he went to listen to the latest news, and even on his bike. He was the guy with the transistor radio. And I thought to myself 'What kind of person carries a transistor radio with them all the time?' So that added to it and just different things.'

In the documentary that accompanies the DVD, Laura Dern, who plays the inspirational teacher Miss Riley, reflects that this was a special time for Jake and that he was "in constant discovery. He has a passion and interest, which I think is paralleled in Homer, so it's really fun and moving to watch." The real Homer muses about Jake that "He looks like how I looked in my high school days in my dreams! He's a great kid. I only wish I'd been that sharp.'


Homer himself also said: 'if he had been as good looking as the actor (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the movie, he might have got more material and retitled his book Rocket Boys and Girls.'

Sniper

Although Jake was greatly impressed by Tony Swofford's account of his Gulf War experiences, he was also intimidated enough to have a lunch with Swoff and Mendes and not say a word (as Sam described in the video below) and then sit next to Swoff at a screening, during which he would scrutinise Swoff's face for every flicker of interest. This was a man Jake did not want to let down.


But Swoff was happy: 'I like Jake's acting; he does a fantastic job... It's easy to be out there for this film. It's odd for me, I'm watching it as the book's author... as my life up on the screen... But everyone I was talking to on the film knew the material, so it seemed right. And it is.'



 Variety Screening Series 2005 - Jarhead
Tony also said: 'I'd loved Donnie Darko and The Good Girl, and I felt that his onscreen presence was such that he would capture the controversial bloodlust and existential angst of the young jarhead going to war. I visited the set during the last week of rehearsal and met Jake. He was committed to playing the role authentically and intensely.'


Here, Swoff describes the first time he saw Jarhead: 'Oh yeah, it was bizarre. The first time I saw the film was here in New York and Sam and Walter Murch (editor) were sitting behind me and it was truly bizarre to hear Jake called 'Swofford' and 'Swoff' and see him get his head shoved into a chalk board, but very quickly I fell into watching the story telling. It was like there were three versions of me sitting there in that seat, there was the writer of the work, the person who had that past, and who I am now. I'm aware that now that I'm exposed in a different way, that it's harsh and it's not always attractive. But it's always honest.'


The obsessed cartoonist

Jake had a healthy respect of entering the head of cartoonist serial killer hunter Robert Graysmith - this was a man who would scrutinise Jake, relentlessly summing him up. When Robert was asked at the LA premiere what he thought of Jake's performance: 'I love Jake's performance! Am I the luckiest man in the entire universe?'


In fact, Graysmith was full of admiration: ''I don't think you have to walk Jake through anything. I was just talking with Mark [Ruffalo] outside the hall. My best friend is Inspector Toschi. We go and have lemon meringue pie and french fries in San Francisco and we talk about the case maybe once every week. But Mark Ruffalo came back as [young] Dave Toschi. He's got the Toschi hair, the voice, and he's really annoying after a while because he follows you around. Jake, he just watches me. I never told a person on this Earth that when I was living in Japan, I was in the boy scouts. But by God, he got that. How he got that I don't know. He got that apparently I was very obsessed about this case. (laughs) I did not know this until I saw Jake's performance and then I thought maybe I was two-fisted like Mark Ruffalo. Everyone went, "No, Jake has got it."'


They don't have to be real to breathe

But as Jake told Aboutfilm, a character does not have to have breathed real fresh air for Jake to consider them living people: 'I've considered characters I've played that aren't real people to be people that are still living out there, or have lived, who have struggled with the same things. I think Jack Twist is just as much of a real person as Tony Swofford. I approached both in the same way. They're aspects of every person, everybody's personality. With Jack Twist, I met with a lot of different cowboy and rode horses and learned how to pack mules, and all those things. That became a big part of that character for me.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jarhead's 'shades of grey' - Jake, Peter and Sam talk about making a war movie

As it's a cold and dark winter's afternoon/evening, I thought you might like something longer to listen to and hopefully enjoy. This is the podcast (link at the end), all 32 minutes of it, of the Variety Screening for Jarhead held in November 2005 at the Arclight Theatre in Hollywood, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Sam Mendes (some of the pictures in this post were taken at the same screening and Q&A event). There are gems here, both in terms of what Jake, Peter and Sam say but also for the light their comments - especially Sam's - throw on the process that goes into making a war movie to stand the march of time.


When Jake is asked if he met Anthony Swofford before filming, he replies: 'Sam had devised a little meeting of sorts, about two weeks into the rehearsal I think. I hadn't met or talked with Tony before then. And Sam kind of came up one day and said 'Y'know, tomorrow we're going out to lunch with Tony' [laughs] and then I didn't really think about it. And then 'Oh, we're going out for lunch with Tony today' and I had a panic attack and sat at lunch [laughter] staring at my food and...'

Sam: 'If you know Tony, he's not a talkative individual, he's very private and Jake didn't talk either so they both sat opposite each other staring at each other! And I thought this is a disaster!'


Jake (laughing): Sam talked the whole time! 'Isn't that right, Tony? Right, Jake? Right?' It was an interesting and awkward moment but Tony and I did talk. He came to rehearsal after lunch and we talked after that. Then he came back to rehearsal the next day and we talked a lot about just the idea of Tony Swofford not being Swoff.'

This is interesting - the distinction between Swofford as he is himself, as he wrote himself in his book and the Swoff who came out of the screenplay adapted by Vietnam veteran William Broyles Jr, or Bill. Jake: 'I think he's a sort of an amalgamation of the experiences that Tony's had and myself and my experiences with the film and how I responded to those artificial experiences that were put in front of me, that were representations of the real ones he went through. So - I didn't talk to him through the whole shoot. And Sam actually said to us after the first read through, he said 'It's now time time to put down the book and to not refer to it again. This is going to be our journey and it's going to become something different than what the book is.' And we all did and I did that with Tony and he had the courage and the wisdom to know that someone like Sam was making this movie and was going to do his story the best service.' And I didn't see him until a month ago when we did a photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly and really I love him. And even the short time we sat down the other night and watched the movie together and both sweated it out!'


Another fascinating bit of information to come out of the Q&A session is that the final shot of Swoff standing looking out of the window of his den was to have been of President Bush (Jr) addressing the marines. But Sam decided against it because he wanted the film to have the longevity and resonance of a war film that would never date and it would lose this by making reference to a current situation - or political leader. It's a deliberately subjective view of the war, avoiding 'God shots' (those views from above) and showing war in its 'shades of grey'.


Jake is asked by a member of the audience if being aware of a real war going on in Iraq had made a difference. 'I have two close friends and one who's in the marines and one who's in the navy. And I was really aware - they all thought it was hilarious that I was playing this part - I think we were superaware... I think we just throughout it continued to recognise the artifice in what we were doing and tried as hard as we could to respect the current situation but also realise this war is - that we portray in the movie - though it's hard to see - is a different war at a different time that we do have some perspective on and, for me, it was just really important that, and I think I probably speak for Peter too, we just respect what was going on and what is continuing to go on. That this is a very separate entity from what reality is.'


Jake describes in detail the scene in which he sits in the circle of dead bodies and leaves footprints that are real and not effects added later. 'We had to redo that like sitting there while they took one of those things that they - I don't even know what they are - one of those blowers, and blowing it and blowing the black sand over the sand and noone could walk anywhere - it was hard in those days! Really, really hard! [Peter laughing] I admire those film actors, those filmmakers!'


The Santa hat: 'We joked with Jim Deaver, our military advisor, when I was doing the scene with the Santa cap when we're all partying in the tent, he would always come up to us and say 'No, no, no, you don't wear your pants like that, that's not how it goes, you don't hold that like that, we didn't do that!' So, whenever we did scenes that were absurd, we'd always joke with them and I would always do my impersonation [funny voice] - 'You would never wear your Santa cap like that! That would never... we would never do it like that! We would wear it on the side! or like with a different tie! Not the bow tie!' I mean to the T, I mean to the point where we're wearing our dress blues and he's adjusting a medal. He looks at us like we're so, a sloppy mess, and 'no no no no no' and that he adjusts it and I have no idea how it looks any different and he goes 'that's the way it should be'.


And there's some golden Peter moments! Peter speaks about the emotion of making the film and that he didn't realise he was feeling some of the things in the movie until after it was done: 'It's like you don't realise someone's standing on your foot until after they step off of it.' Jake pipes in: 'Some people realise people are standing on their feet...'

Peter says that, as important as it was to speak to marine advisers about their experiences, it was also invaluable to listen to their dreams, remembering one telling him about how he dreamed of owning land with old trees: 'These guys are everyone'. Sam recalls that Peter had wanted his character to smoke as he 'wanted to smoke on a daily basis!' But the consultants all said no. However, Peter finally found a marine who said his character could smoke, two weeks down the line - 'he was a great marine that guy!' And in the scene where he was so desperate to fire his gun, Peter really was - 'I was going crazy by that point!'


There was a huge amount of improvisation on the film, made possible because of the four weeks of rehearsal, which enabled the actors to feel comfort and support in their roles. Apparently, the whole scene at the beginning between Jake and the drill sergeant, from 'what are you looking at with your baby blues?' through to being made to do press ups was a complete improvisation. Sam describes it in these terms: it's like 'filling the gas tank of the actors with as much gas as possible but don't let them ignite the engine until you start rolling the cameras.'

The film also includes quotes from other war films because, as Sam says, soldiers learn of war not from war but from war movies - as a group, soldiers are expert in war films and quotes from them form part of their language. Music and film colour their experiences and a great anti-war film or singer can be transformed into a pro-war movie or anthem. Films and music have so many meanings and these are affected by time.



So, if that's whetted your interest, here's the rest. As always, I can but trust this works for the vast majority of readers (including Twisted Logic who appears to have an anti-Jake device on her computer).

Here is a new link to the podcast (January 2012).

The other side of the camera

Here, Anthony Swofford talks about the process of creating and filming Jarhead: 'Late in the summer Jake Gyllenhaal was cast for the role of Swoff, and I was pleased with this development. I'd loved Donnie Darko and The Good Girl, and I felt that his onscreen presence was such that he would capture the controversial bloodlust and existential angst of the young jarhead going to war. I visited the set during the last week of rehearsal and met Jake. He was committed to playing the role authentically and intensely. It was bizarre to meet the other actors and guess who would be playing whom: for certain, they all looked like young jarheads. One morning while waiting for Sam to call a meeting, the actors joked back and forth and insulted one another, and I felt like I was among some of the same men I'd served with--nervous, hungry, lonely and committed to a cause. I visited some of the sets, including my high school bedroom. On watching the swirl of activity, sets being built, young actors being thrashed by Jim Deaver, Broyles looked at me and said, "Crazy to think all of this came from a book you wrote alone in a room, sitting in your underwear." '


'After a few scenes I got used to an actor on screen being called Swofford. I recognized the story of Jarhead being told, the intense narrative tale and the more subtle and nuanced psychological and metaphysical storytelling strands that punctuate and intensify the war experience for Swoff and his cohorts. War in the real world is about winning, but war in art is about the expansion of feeling and the explosion of emotion, meaning and beauty.'


In this interview (with Tony and Bill Broyles), Tony describes what it was like seeing the film for the first time: 'Oh yeah, it was bizarre. The first time I saw the film was here in New York and Sam and Walter Murch (editor) were sitting behind me and it was truly bizarre to hear Jake called 'Swofford' and 'Swoff' and see him get his head shoved into a chalk board, but very quickly I fell into watching the story telling. It was like there were three versions of me sitting there in that seat, there was the writer of the work, the person who had that past, and who I am now. I'm aware that now that I'm exposed in a different way, that it's harsh and it's not always attractive. But it's always honest.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.