Jake Gyllenhaal in London, Part 2, and a couple of extraordinary interviews

Jake Gyllenhaal has now left these shores -  leaving behind a country seduced by one of the most impressive beards to appear on the nation's chat shows in recent times. At the moment, one can just speculate whether Jake will be returning to Europe shortly for other End of Watch release dates but even though it was brief, the visit was a great success.

In addition to the Graham Norton Show and the Radio 1 Breakfast Show (see below), Jake also appeared on Channel 4's T4 show on Saturday morning talking to Jameela. Let us hope that video of this appears. An interview with Jake was also broadcast on the XFM Breakfast Show with Danny Wallace. Hopefully, you can listen to that here.

A brief recap of some of the other most significant appearances (ie, the ones we have a record of).

From overseas comes the news that End of Watch will be re-released in the US this month - surely a sign that the Oscar buzz is increasing in volume.

Meanwhile, this week Hitfix has published a wonderful interview with Jake in which he looks back over a career working with some extraordinary directors. This is just the sort of stuff I want to hear and Jake does not disappoint. Do read it, it's full an revealing. I was intrigued to hear Jake say this, for instance, about Sam Mendes 'he was the best acting director and coach that I've ever worked with. The things I learned about acting from him I've taken with me everywhere I've gone.'

There is much more about Ang Lee, David Fincher, David O'Russell, Jim Sheridan and Ed Zwick, as well as David Ayer. I wonder how many other directors Jake will work with during his long career that will also be called David...

In Hitfix's other full interview with Jake, David Ayer also reveals a little about why Jake was so keen to take on the End of Watch role - and that he was actually sick of his life. Clearly, here was another of those roles, as with Jarhead, that he fought for and he needed: 'Gyllenhaal was looking for something new in his life and, according to Ayer, chased the project down. "I think he was just frustrated," Ayer said by telephone. "He wanted to act. He wanted to just sink his teeth into a role and act and not be distracted by the sort of big business side of things. He wanted to lose himself and he wanted to be reinvented…He's just like, 'Look, I'm sick of everything. I'm sick of my life and I want to change it. I want change.' And that's all I heard, is that he's ready to transform. His heart was really open at that time and he was really receptive to doing something totally different and giving me the total commitment that I needed for this movie to work…I told him, 'Look, if this works out, you're going to come out of this a different person.' And I think that happened."'

The photo is from Jake's BAFTA End of Watch Screening on Friday evening (thanks to IHJ).

End of Watch in the UK cinemas today! Which means lots of Jake Gyllenhaal interviews, covers and videos...

End of Watch  finally reaches the cinemas of Britain today! 23 November has come around and now many more of us will get to see this fine film which is stirring up rave reviews left, right and centre. Talking of reviews, here's mine. Of course, End of Watch came out a couple of months ago in the US and it already has an American DVD/blu ray release date - 22 January. You can see details of the extras here. The missed opportunity, though, is no commentary with Jake and Michael.

As you can imagine on End of Watch release day there is a lot going on and it's only going to get busier as Jake Gyllenhaal himself will be in the UK to promote the film next weekend. And so, ahead of the Part 2 WDW Exclusive with Ted, Lisa and Jake in the next post, here's a look at some highlights from this busy week.

Jake was all over the cover of the London free magazine Shortlist this week in a big piece of advertising for the film. In an interview with the magazine there are some comments in which Jake addresses the constantly recurring rumours that Jake could be picked to play a Rebooted Batman of Spider-Man. I wish I ha a pound for every time we've heard this over the years.

'At a certain point you realise there's always someone more interesting, talented and ready to do a role than you are - and you won't get every role you go for. All I want right now is to hone my skills and become a better actor, not dream about wearing a cape. But you never know.'

The potential for embarrassment does persist, however many hours of screentime an actors has clocked up: 'Do you think there is one person on Earth impervious to embarrassment? And do you think it would be me? That’s a rhetorical question, and I’ll leave you with that.'

Jake is also interviewed in the London paper, Metro, and interestingly Nailed is one of the subjects that pops up: '‘It’s weird that a movie you make doesn’t come out,’ sighs Gyllenhaal. ‘But I’m just an actor. It’s other people’s jobs to put the movie together and sell it. I did my job and maybe one day somebody else will put that movie out. Unlikely, though.’'

There is also a little bit about An Enemy. 'Gyllenhaal is next appearing in An Enemy, an adaptation of a José Saramago novel, in which he plays dual roles as a man seeking out his doppleganger after spotting him in a film. It will be, he promises, ‘a real head-f***’. It may not have required five months’ of immersion in LA copland but Gyllenhaal insists it fits into his new ethos of immersing himself in reality. ‘What we do in this profession can often be absurd,’ he says. ‘So now I’m much more interested in learning about real people’s stories and trying to portray those.’'

In an interview with the Scotsman, Jake makes it plain that he's not going to waste any more time answering questions about movie adaptations of Fifty Shades, thank heavens, before talking in some detail about the End of Watch shoot.

The riches continue with a video interview with Jake, Michael and David Ayer courtesy of the Guardian.

Digital Spy has been picking Jake's Top 5 Films. Take a look and see if you agree. Female First has also been using the opportunity to reassess Jake's career.

The Sun is more interested in Jake's shaved head.

New Eyes

With its original plans scuppered by Hurricane Sandy, this week New Eyes for the Needy finally managed to honour Jake for his work promoting the charity at its 80th anniversary gala. Jake's co-stars from If There Is... were among the crowd supporting Jake.

Thanks very much to IHJ for the pictures! Including this one below from GQ Korea which has a certain something...

And then there are the videos...

Big catch up! Jake Gyllenhaal on being alive when he's 60, new interviews and a fun clip from End of Watch

The second part of the WDW Exclusive with Ted and Lisa will follow shortly but in the meantime, a speedy catch up is necessary, not least for me who is being tortured by having to work evenings and weekends at the moment, as well as during the day. So while I grab my violin, let's take a look at what's been going on over the last few days.

Jake Gyllenhaal is enjoying the limelight in the UK papers but he's still popping up in the US sheets, and the fact that the dreaded O word is looming may have a little to do with it. Yes, I mean the Oscars, but if you won't mention it, I won't either (spits, throws salt over shoulder and avoids walking under black cats). This week Jake appeared in the LA Times where, when he was asked what he wanted to be when he was 60, said alive. I can empathise with that. Good to hear Jake speaking about Heath, too.

'At 30, there were a number of moments in my life that culminated or began — like my family being born in a new way, with two nieces that are now in my life. My parents got divorced right around that time. When you're in your 20s there's a certain sense of wanting to take responsibility for the way you behave, the way you look at the world and how you interact. I've always felt that way in the movies I pick, or the things I care about, because I was brought up by people with good values. But, yeah, there was a real biological turning point at that time.'

'You're putting your heart into this creative process and it means so much in the moment you're doing it — yet at the same time having the ability to be objective and say you're just making a movie, it's kind of absurd — that was definitely what they always instilled. It's not until recently where I've been able to see that. I get to make movies, and I'm so blessed, but most of the time I go, "This is absurd, this is way too much money and way too many egos and way too many people thinking they're the most important thing in the world." This is fun. We should all be having a great time.'

'I work with actors, and I've made a conscious effort to work with people who are more talented than me, because I think they bring out your best work. Heath was always full of massive charisma and great skill, and he really took his time to listen to himself and find that. And I have great admiration for that.'

There is a lot more that Jake has to say over at the LA Times.

The interview above is from the Canary Wharf magazine. Thanks to IHJ for the scans!

There is an interview with End of Watch director David Ayer in the UK Huff post. Here are a couple of extracts:

We rehearsed for five months before the shoot. They're both incredibly gifted professional actors and they initially started tackling the problem as professional actors. I was like, "Guys, this isn't something you're going to create with technique - it's got to be real. You've got to have that familiarity." And somewhere during this journey, somewhere during the ride-alongs and being with the real cops at 3am and running into gang members and dealing with the aftermath of shootings and firing live ammunition past each other's heads and tactical exercises and real training with the LAPD, somewhere in all of that this spark of friendship burst into flame. They're still friends to this day. When that happened, they wouldn't shut up and they drove me crazy [laughs] but it was ultimately good for the movie.

Jake 'shot a lot of the movie. It's insane. And it's interesting because I would tell him, "You've got this camera in your hands - it's not Jake Gyllenhaal operating the camera, it's your character operating the camera so you have to see the world through that character's eyes and figure out what about that is going to capture your attention so that you're going to want to record that on video." It added this amazing layer where not only was he my actor but he became a visual collaborator.'

End of Watch finally opens at the end of next week. To celebrate the occasion, here is a new released clip - and it is a goodie:

And finally...

A few more details on the filming of Prisoners which is set to kick off in January in Atlanta, before moving on to Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Thanks to IHJ for the pics!

Jake Gyllenhaal and David Ayer on making End of Watch and a WDW London Interlude

End of Watch continues to gather buzz. Next week it is shown at the London International Film Festival - I'll be there which makes me really rather happy - and the interest mounts. This week director David Ayer has been talking to Los Angeles Magazine about his road to End of Watch as well as what it meant to his stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. It wasn't necessarily pretty.

'To make LAPD officers of Gyllenhaal and his costar Michael Peña, Ayer put them through five months of punishment. Several days a week Gyllenhaal reported to an Echo Park dojo run by a friend of Ayer’s. “Dave said, ‘I really need you to know what it’s like getting the crap kicked out of you and how to beat the crap out of somebody,’ ” Gyllenhaal says. “And in the beginning it just started with getting the shit beaten out of me by 14- to 20-year-old kids literally every morning. Towards the end I definitely got some good kicks and punches in on those boys.”'

'Instead of the couple of nighttime ride-alongs that have become obligatory research for cop movies, the actors spent weeks in L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, LAPD, and Inglewood police squad cars. Over yogurt and granola at a Silver Lake café, Ayer describes how during Gyllenhaal’s first time out, he saw a gunshot victim die on the street. “Jake called me up that night and he was like, ‘That shit changed me,’  ” says Ayer, who is 42. His head shaved, he wears cargo shorts and a plaid button-down shirt whose loose fit only manages to make his shoulders look more massive. “I’m like, ‘Good, that’s exactly what I was hoping.’ It was horrible, and I know it isn’t going to sound right, but my hopes were that in this process he would encounter some truth and some reality about what’s really going on in L.A.”'

There is much more here. Thanks to IHJ for the pics!

Last night (6 October), Jake was on hand in NYC to help Proof co-star Gwyneth Paltrow celebrate the big 4-0.

WDW Greenwich Interlude

Today was a beautiful Autumnal day and so we took off to Greenwich in London on the motorbike. Greenwich is a beautiful place - a World Heritage Site which is also the home of the prime meridian (where time equals zero), the Cutty Sark, the  Christopher Wren Old Naval College, the Maritime Museum, the river in all its glory as well as 2012's Olympics equestrian events. Stunning, historic architecture can be found side by side with beautiful old pubs, shops and markets, not to mention the odd morris dancers. You might also spot some Tower of London and Tower Bridge in the photos below.

On the ride home, we stopped in the middle of the gorgeous Oxfordshire countryside to have a drink in a beautiful old pub. Once named the Admiral Nelson, it was renamed Lord Nelson when the man himself was elevated to a peerage all those years ago. The nautical theme continues.

My review of Looper is now up at MovieBrit!

Updated! Jake set for Prisoners? End of Watch ties for top of the US box office and Jake Gyllenhaal on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and much, much more

Update!

A new project is on the cards! Variety reports that Jake may soon be appearing as a police office again on the big screens in Prisoners alongside Hugh Jackman and Melissa Leo.

'Discussions are ongoing, and if the deal closes, Gyllenhaal would join Hugh Jackman and Melissa Leo with Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies") helming. Script, penned by Aaron Guzikowski, revolves around a small-town carpenter whose young daughter and best friend are kidnapped. After the cops fail to find them, he takes the law into his own hands, but in the process runs up against the big-city detective assigned to the case.

Alcon toppers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson are producing, along with 8:38 Productions' Kira Davis and Madhouse Entertainment's Adam Kolbrenner. Ed McDonnell and John Stark exec produce.

Production is scheduled to begin in early 2013. Alcon is targeting a Fall 2013 release through its output deal with Warner Bros. Gyllenhaal caught wind of the project after Villeneuve mentioned it while the two were filming indie thriller "An Enemy." Gyllenhaal had been considering the project for some time but discussions stalled; thesp re-engaged after a recent script polish.'

Thanks very much to good friends at ManMadeMovies for the link!

On with the post!

Congratulations are due to Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, David Ayer and everyone involved with End of Watch. The film is top of the box office, having tied with Jennifer Lawrence's House at the End of the Street. Perhaps even better than that, End of Watch had the best reviews of the weekend. More details here.

Very fitting, then, for a good news weekend that Jake should appear on the WDW favourite Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. You can watch it below.

The ALMA Awards aired last night having been recorded a few days ago. You can see the relevant bit here.

Jake Gyllenhaal & Michael Pena - 2012 Alma Awards by Orlandita02

Jake also appeared on Anderson Live - some videos have been posted from this on the previous post but I love this picture from IHJ. It may have been taken on last week's Talk Like A Pirate Day...

The full show is also now available:

We really do owe Stephanie huge amounts of thanks for all of this hard work.

And finally...

Here is the audio of the Redhands interview, the text of some of which appeared in the last post. Thanks to Susan for the link.

And here is a brief interview with Jake from the LA premiere of the film.

Phew! So much going on but you can bet there will be more...

My review of Dredd is now up at MovieBrit!

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!

End of Watch's new redband trailer!

End of Watch has a new trailer! And it's the x-rated, r-rated redband trailer and so that means if you're under 17 you must leave the room immediately and not be tempted (there will be random checks of ID and I may ask questions about current affairs in the mid 1990s). I recommend that you drink a very sugary drink and have some sweets first because you're about to get quite an adrenalin rush. If the link below doesn't work for you, you can find the trailer here.

Off in search of a darkened room...

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.

San Diego Comic-Con End of Watch update

As we'd suspected, Jake Gyllenhaal didn't join co-star Michael Pena and director David Ayer for the End of Watch panel at Comic-Con in San Diego yesterday. It would seem that An Enemy kept him in Toronto. However, that didn't stop Jake from introducing the film to the SDCC crowd via video and this included three clips. One of them is available for us to watch over at hula. Interesting use of beeps, especially if they make it into the movie itself.

ScreenCrave, amongst its other coverage, has great descriptions of the other two scenes. The first:

It’s POV shot from the front of a police car accompanied by a voiceover. The narrator is Officer Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and he’s giving a monologue about his devotion to the law. “A thin blue line protects the prey from predator, the good from the bad. We are the police.” The car is in a high speed chase with a black vehicle in a residential area.

The police car catches up to the rogue vehicle, forcing it to crash into a yard. The driver and its passenger immediately hop out with guns blazing. At this point, we’re still watching from the point of view of an anonymous the car. There’s a quick cut and we see Taylor and Zavala standing in front of the windshield aiming their guns at the assailants. They let off several rounds killing both men. Zavala walks over to their lifeless bodies, turns them over and handcuffs them. America Ferrera‘s character (Officer Orozco) appears in frame and looks at the damage. She exclaims, “Holy shit!”

The second:

Taylor and Zavala arrive on the scene of a house fire. A woman runs off her porch and screams that her two-year old daughter’s inside. Taylor immediately runs in to save her, with Zavala screaming, “No.” Cut to a scene filled with red lighting and puffs of smoke. Both men are shown crawling on the floor where they find the little girl.

Taylor grabs the child and covers her face with a blanket. Zavala tries to lead them out of the home but they’re stuck. They lose contact with one another because of the smoke. Luckily, they latch on to each other again and escape. The next thing we see is a group of firemen approaching the scene. Taylor and Zavala are on the ground shaking, sweating and struggling for breath. The firemen try to help them up, but Taylor yanks his arm and asks where were they.

According to MySpace: 

The unconventional camera coverage was chosen because David has the philosophy that with YouTube and video games the audience has learned to view footage and come to expect a certain level of reality in ways big studios don’t show. They built cameras to show the POV of the actors. Michael had to spend a lot of time running with one of these cameras strapped to his chest, which was hard because when he started he was out of shape and Jake loves to run.

You can read a full round up of the panel at Collidor, whose editor moderated the panel. Ayer doesn't spare Michael Pena's blushes, calling him fat compared to Jake at the beginning of filming. As time went on, Michael felt more like the 'Mexican RoboCop'. The whole experience, including the training, made Jake and Michael very close and so, no doubt, this charisma between the pair will be something to watch when the film is released. In fact, David Ayer wanted Jake and Michael to appreciate and feel the bond that police officers feel for their partners, a bond that is 'closer than marriage'.

Jake's voiceover to a car chase scene (source): 

“I’m the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love. I can be killed. We stand watch together. A thin blue line, protecting the prey from the predators. We are the police.”

You can watch a video interview with Michael and David here at Shockya. 

All in all, End of Watch suddenly got a lot more exciting and it can't come soon enough - 28 September for the US, 23 November for the UK.