Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum melt the ice

At the New York premiere for Beautiful Creatures this week, Interview magazine asked the lovely Emmy Rossum for embarrassing memories from when she was 16 years old:

"I was filming The Day After Tomorrow, it was my first big film, and I had to kiss Jake Gyllenhaal, so I was really nervous. The night before, I got a big zit and, stupidly, I picked at it, so then it was bigger and infected and had a scab over it. Jake called it my ‘third eye,'" Rossum recalled. Her 16-year-old self was crushed —"He's never going to want to kiss me now!"

In an earlier interview for USA Weekend (the link now no longer exists except in the WDW archives), we were told: 'This 19-year-old is no wallflower. When she met hunky star Jake Gyllenhaal one morning a few years ago, Rossum pulled a move worthy of the Phantom. "I went over to him and said, 'Look, I know it's 9 a.m., but is it OK if I kiss you?' " Rossum recalls. When he consented ("He said, 'It's never too early!' "), she obliged. "I knew if I didn't do it, it would seem like I was scared. And I wanted to kiss him. He's very, very cute."'

There's more from A Girl's World on what it was like to work with Jake.

'Fantastic! He’s a fantastic guy. He’s very intelligent. It was funny because I was kind of like the only girl on the set. There was Mark Gordon, our producer, Roland, Jake, Dennis Quaid and me. So, he’s like the big brother I never had. So it was really nice. We also work in kind of a similar way. We both put a lot of emphasis on preparation but then we get there and we kind of let it rip and are intuitive in a lot of ways within the bounds of the character and the arc. I think we work really well together.... He’s quite goofy in reality. I think we were so cold and wet and shivering most of the time that nobody had enough energy to pull pranks after running through that tank 500 times in one day with Roland going ‘do it again’! But he’s very much positive. He has a lot of positive energy.'

There's another account of the audition with less kissing: 'I definitely auditioned. I went in and sat on the bench next to all the other girls that were auditioning. I wasn’t given any kind of special treatment by any means. I got a meeting with Roland and Mark, went in and read for them, got a screen test with Jake, went in and I did that. I knew that that screen test was the moment when I had to prove myself. That’s when you’ve gotta show it. You’ve gotta bring it. I think that anybody can run through water but not necessarily anybody can run through water while bringing the heart and emotion to the character.'

As for making chemistry: 'There was no choice for me. It was gonna be there. It also wasn’t difficult. He’s terribly attractive. So it wasn’t like the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life but, at the same time, I think the heat had to be there. Somebody had to melt the ice! (laughter).'

Thanks to IHJ for the last new old picture from the Berlin photocall for The Day After Tomorrow.

My review of Lincoln on MovieBrit.

Never mind the Oscars - Jake Gyllenhaal is the Most Kissable Man

Never mind the Oscars, it's time to get down to the awards that really count. For today it was announced that Jake Gyllenhaal has been awarded the Most Kissable Man award. The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentists who clearly know a lot about smiles and, it would seem, also about kissing, put Jake above Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Denzel Washington, all three of whom are relatively kissable, just not as kissable as Jake Gyllenhaal.


Actually, seeing that picture above reminds me of the interview from which it was grabbed, back in Rendition days when Jake was in London and turned everyone to mush. Versions of this video no longer work across WDW and so here is a replacement:



I digress... back to the Most Kissable Man:







Then there was Emmy Rossum's famous audition for The Day After Tomorrow, during which she adopted the direct approach.




Anyone who has seen Love and Other Drugs wouldn't have failed to notice that there is a fair amount of kissing in it. I look forward to proper analysis on the arrival of my blu ray, which is currently in the post.

Jake's Eiffel Tower adventure: 'I'm a little freaked out by heights'

It's been a day of chaos (and some rather ugly snowmen) in southern England due to rather a lot of snow and, even though Jake Gyllenhaal is enjoying the relatively balmy climes of Los Angeles, I'm sure he is with us wintry folk in spirit and is no doubt reliving his Montreal TDAT experiences. By all accounts, The Big Freeze forecast in The Day After Tomorrow was as nothing compared to the reality outside on the streets of the Canadian city. As an antidote, this post has Hot Pics.



'During his lunch break on one of the final days of shooting last spring, Emmerich said making The Day After Tomorrow has been a tough slog and it would've been even harder if they'd been shooting on the streets of Montreal at well-below-zero temperatures. "With really low temperatures and the wind machines going, the actors would've had frost-bite after one scene", Emmerich said.'


'Most of Day After was shot in freezing temperatures in Montreal. "It was cold inside the stages, it was cold outside, it was cold as hell at night," said Quaid. "We couldn't escape from it. It got to the point where we learned to recognize people not by their faces but by the color of their parkas." Of course, with all the special effects, the actors were often called upon to react to fake wind, rain and waves. "I enjoyed it, but it does get to you after awhile," said Gyllenhaal. In any case, the cast and crew have all had enough of the cold to last them awhile. So if there should be an instant ice age, Emmerich said you can look for him in Mexico, while Quaid said he'll be holed up somewhere with the book Survival for Dummies.' Jake has yet to reveal his Ice Age plans.


Jake has however talked about his stuntman capabilities and confirmed his vertigo issues: 'Um (long pause) I'm a little freaked out by heights. I never thought I was but I am. I remember I went to the Eiffel Tower when I was little with my parents. I thought I would like going up, but when I got to the second level I was crying and I didn't want to go up - I was eight years old or something. My dad was like, "He's coming to the top! That's my boy!" Yeah, and he stayed down on the second level. [So you won't be jumping off any buildings then?] That's for Jackie Chan and for stuntmen - I'll leave that to the professionals. But if they called for it I would do it. In this movie I did some moves up on the Russian ship. There's one moment – it's not in the movie anymore – where I nearly fall and grab with one hand, and they said did I want to wear a harness but I was like naah, I don't really want to wear a harness, I'm fine.'



'[But did you feel threatened by the wolves?] They didn't actually exist then. You could take that scene out of the movie and put that in Donnie Darko and it looks like a schizophrenic kid running away from nothing. [You've been linked with lots of superhero roles – are you tempted?] I think that the metaphor of the superhero is a really amazing one. When you play those roles you get in the suit and the suit plays itself, so if I were to play one of those roles I would be interesting in bringing myself to it. But then the fear is that then you become that thing and you're stuck with it. I would love to if it was great and I really believed in it and I felt like I could spend many months of my life devoted to it and then talking about it.'


Arjay Smith also remembered Jake's stunt exploits but his memory had wire in it: 'Jake had to do a couple of stunts. They had to put him on a wire because he’s walking across a boat – a ship, actually – and so he was about 20’ high. He had to just get wired up, just for safety reasons.'


It seems that the world benefited in other ways from Wet Sam - through trees: 'I decided I had to get involved with something,’ [Jake] says. ‘something that would help the environmental cause. I’d much rather talk about the environment than some gigantic action movie. Global warming is a hugely important issue.’ ...He has chosen to support a forest in Mozambique and talks enthusiastically of how he has ‘bought mango trees, fruit trees, nut trees’. He adds: ‘they also give jobs and food. People can get an income from them, which is important for sustainable development’.' Of course, Jake didn't realise at the time that I have a violent mango allergy, or he would've resisted putting more of the blasted things on the planet.


As we've mentioned before here, at the NYC premiere of The Day After Tomorrow, Jake took advantage of the fake snow and wind machines to lob snowballs down the red carpet - but this didn't mean he still couldn't flirt the feet from under the reporters: ''Incoming!' hollers JAKE GYLLENHAAL, who plays the scientist's son, as he lobs a snowball down the aisle. 'What do you think about being a hunk?' a reporter from US Weekly asks him. 'The real question is, a hunk of what?'' Mr. Gyllenhaal says, as he reaches forward and gently touches her face. 'You have a little soap on your chin,'' he says.' Talk about melting...


Includes hot summery pictures from IHJ.

The TDAT set - we learnt to recognise each other by the colour of our parkas

One thing about doing a big summer blockbuster is that its publicity can take an actor on a tour of the world - thanks to new old pics from IHJ we can see Jake Gyllenhaal, Roland Emmerich, Emmy Rossum and Dennis Quaid at the Tokyo premiere of the Day After Tomorrow, which took place at the Virgin Cinema in the Roppongi Hills Building on May 31, 2004. I've always liked these pictures and it's good to see more of them (I think I like to see Jake holding a bunch of flowers).


In this video, Jake, Emmy Rossum and Dennis Quaid discuss The Day After Tomorrow and what it was like working with blue screens and a whole lot of weather.



The undertaking of this film was a serious business, requiring lengthy discussions of its message 'Every day. We got together. We had meetings in the basement at Columbia University [laughs]. No, I think first and foremost we were all in it because we just wanted to make a lot [of money]. No ... [laughs again]. Whenever I would get down, or I'd be having a hard time, or I'd be in the middle of nowhere in the cold in Montreal, I'd always say to myself stuff like "At least this movie has something to say." ... I don't think it was, like, conscious. ... But ... we think it's an issue that's really important.'


'Every day we got together and discussed it (laughs). No, I think for me, whenever I would get down or I'd be having a hard time or I'd be in the middle of nowhere in the cold in Montreal I'd always say to myself, 'At least this movie has something to say. I don't this it was conscious in us, looking at the monitor and being like, 'did you get that minority in there?' but we all think it's an issue that's really important.'


When in Japan for the premiere, it was a theme that the cataclysmic weather of TDAT was as nothing compared to the winter chill of Montreal: 'Most of "Day After" was filmed in freezing temperatures in Montreal. "It was cold inside the stages, it was cold outside, it was cold as hell at night," said Quaid. "We couldn't escape from it. It got to the point where we learned to recognize people not by their faces but by the color of their parkas." Of course, with all the special effects, most of the time, the actors were called upon to react to fake wind, rain and waves. "I enjoyed it, but it does get to you after awhile," said Gyllenhaal. In any case, the cast and crew have all had enough of the cold to last them for awhile. So if there should be an instant ice age, Emmerich said you can look for him in Mexico, while Quaid said he'll be holed up somewhere with the book "Survival for Dummies."'



The premieres took place in the the more clement month of May, but that didn't stop the filmmakers from bringing sticky snow to the red carpet - as can be seen in this video of Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler and Roland Emmerich in London.



Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake's Blockbuster lesson No 1 - Have a personal trainer

It's cold outside. In fact, it's very cold outside. Seems very appropriate to thank IHJ for the new/old pics of Jake Gyllenhaal (with Zooey Deschanel) messing about in the snow in not nearly enough layers. But at least from this we can tell that if ever we need to build an emergency igloo, Jake is the sexgod, sorry man, for the job.


It is very likely that Jake will be heading back to the unreasonably and unfairly sunny climes of Los Angeles any day now, in which case, it's only fair that he should be reminded of what he will be missing. But, Californian or not, Jake has experience of big snow and Arctic seas thanks to Roland Emmerich and The Day After Tomorrow. Back in the days when Jake filmed this first big taste of a blockbuster, it was all a bit of a mystery about what he had let himself in for.


The lovely Emmy Rossum recounted: 'During filming, "we were in that tank, wet and cold and shivery, so much of the time and trying to keep our spirits up," the 17-year-old actress tells us, adding that their showbiz naivete didn't help. "There was one point (when) we were so exhausted we both collapsed," she said. "Jake said, 'So this is why those big movie stars ask for personal trainers. We should ask for those.' I said, 'Yeah, next time.'"' No wonder, then, that for PoP Jake should have trained his body to be capable of withstanding everything thrown at it, and why he had a trainer ensuring he was running up hills, in a flak jacket, every morning at the crack of dawn.


The Day After Tomorrow set does sound like it had its dangers: '"It looks like I'm running really slowly in the water, but it wasn't dangerous," he said. "I was in a dry suit for 50 takes. The only dangerous thing I did was almost smack my head on a crane."' (Chicago Sun-Times 2004). That would not have been good.


Elsewhere: 'Though he admits Montreal proved to be "one of the coldest places on Earth that winter," Gyllenhaal says he would gladly have traded the real snow on the Montreal streets for the fake snow in the studios. "The snow was made of the same stuff inside baby diapers. When you mix it with water, it expands immediately and you can squeeze it through your hands like jello, which is pretty much what happened inside our lungs."'


'The fake snow was also slippery. "I was supposed to run up this steep hill made of wood that was covered with the snow," recalls Gyllenhaal. "I turned down a stunt double because it seemed like such an easy stunt -- until I kept falling flat on my face." Eventually, Emmerich called for the stunt double who also ended up face first in the diaper padding. "They had to rethink the whole scene," says Gyllenhaal. When he was running down the flooded streets of New York, he was wearing boots and a dry-suit that filled with water. "It's why I'm running so slowly. I could barely move. We shot the sequence about 50 times. It almost did me in." Gyllenhaal says he likes The Day After Tomorrow because "there are no superheroes, just ordinary people. No one saves the world. People just have to learn how to live in the new world that the global warming creates."'


More trouble for Torso?

And it looks like David Fincher's Torso may be running into yet more trouble. According to this report, paramount are still holding back and there is still no decision on whether filming can take place in Cleveland. Interestingly, IGH gives the cast as Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams - not a Jake in sight.


Includes pictures from IHJ.

Making PoP 'fully satisfying' - And pick a sport for Olympian Jake...

Last night, Maggie Gyllenhaal was at a party with spectacular views over the city - although this does remind me a little of a certain scene in The Dark Knight, this time the city was Manhattan and no damage was done, so long as noone bought any of the luxurious diamonds and jewels. The party was for Piaget's US 'launch of their new Limelight Paris-New York jewelry and timepieces' - and it gives us the chance to see just how tall the beautiful Liv Tyler is (off topic: Jake was a guest at Liv's wedding to Royston Langdon back in 2003).


It was also good to see at the same event as a Gyllenhaal one of my favourites, Emmy Rossum, whom I once saw in LA looking perfectly gorgeous in yellow and gold. This party was such a contrast to (but possibly less fun than) another recent sighting of Maggie - at the Edgartown cinema on Martha's Vineyard with Naomi jigging along to Mamma Mia.



Meanwhile, Jake Gyllenhaal is no doubt hard at work battling scorching temperatures, the Vizier's sandy henchmen and tangines. In this interview with Comic Book Resources, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner gives us a little more flavour of his vision for the whole franchise: 'I've always been fascinated by the Middle East, since I was a kid hearing "1001 Nights" stories. But through "Prince of Persia," the various projects, starting with "Sands of Time," that was when I first really went back and got what I would consider a solid grounding and read the original "1001 Nights" and "Book of Kings." I'm fascinated by that world, both the real history and the mythical aspects.'


Interestingly, when Disney's Aladdin came out, Jordan had worried that it would mean the end of the Prince of Persia franchise - because there would be no way to compete. But now, of course, Disney is behind the PoP movie. Jordan is asked about the extent of his involvement in the different elemements of the franchise: 'And the game, the movie, the graphic novel are all being done by different entities. It's not like I'm sitting on the top of a corporate structure running things. My involvement has been in particular projects. The first one, "Sands of Time," I wrote the story. So I think on every "Prince of Persia" I work on, of course, part of my job is to be true to what "Prince of Persia" is. Make it a good and worthy work in its own right. And the same with the movie. I wrote the screenplay for it. Part of the challenge of that was how to translate that as a movie while keeping the DNA and yet making it a fully satisfying movie.'


Jordan is also asked how the film is coming along: 'Great. Shooting has begun in Morocco. They have a great cast. Mike Nolan's [sic - it's Newell] a great director. It's going to be on a spectacular scale.' Are you going to the set? 'Absolutely, you think I'd miss that? And the game is going to be released in the holiday season, and that's looking really cool. It's kind of interesting, with the game and the movie and the graphic novel all hitting separately, but at around the same time. This is not something I could have foreseen 20 years ago!'


Although Jake is hard at work, I hope that he has some time to watch bits and pieces of the Olympics. Perhaps, like many of us, he will catch up on favourite events online due to the challenge of the time differences with China. With his physical fitness no doubt at its height due to the demands of playing a medieval prince in peril, I thought I'd take a look at the particular Olympic sports in which Jake would excel, given half a chance and a few weeks off to polish his training.


Athletics

Jake is speedy, of that there is no doubt, although I think some credit must be given to Jake's choice of Nike and to all that bottled water. But not only could Jake compete in the sprints, his training for Jarhead showed he had stamina - running five miles a day, then swimming and cycling - so he could also take part in a middle distance event or even - and I shudder just to think on it - the triathlon.



Cycling

Judging by the fact that Jake has a bicyle with his name written on it, that his car contains more spare bicycle wheels than a slow stretch of the Thames, and that Jake owns the entire LiveStrong cycling catalogue, it's fair to say that Jake likes to bike. It's also fair to say that we like it too.



Watersports

One of the biggest perks of being a moviestar is that you don't have to share swimming baths with slimy flotsam and sneezing kids as well as people who don't look where they're going. Although Jake has been seen on more occasions lounging by a pool rather than in one, he no doubt owns one and likes to take a dip now and again. As an ex-lifeguard, Jake is also useful to have around in a pool.


Jake has said how much he enjoys sailing when he is on Martha's Vineyard and, with those biceps, he'd be great in the rowing.


Jake's not bad on a board either...


Shooting

As someone who has received sniper shooting training from Jamie Foxx himself, Jake would be a safe bet for the shooting. He also displayed talent in this sport as a youngster. However, years later, up on Brokeback, he relied upon a more steady pair of hands.



Gymnastics

This is a strong area for Jake - whether trampolining, heaving himself up onto a highpole, lifting weights or (and I'm not 100% certain this is a bona fide Olympic sport) mudwrestling with semi-naked women while encased in a bubble, Jake has shown himself to be a natural gymnast.





He's also a blackbelt.


Equestrian events

You could put your money on Jake for horse events. While his dressage is no doubt a little rusty, he is so able a horseman he has combined two events in one - showjumping and fencing.


Ball sports

Ball sports are more controversial. Britain doesn't even have an Olympic soccer team because it can't decide who should be in it. And then there's the tennis and the basketball (oh and the beach volleyball). But, if the ball sports were less controversial and a little less professional, Jake would be one for the team.



'I didn't know that was a sport' sport

Every four years there appears to be some new unusual sport added to the Olympic rota - such as the introduction of ice sculpture (although not at the Summer Olympics). Should skateboarding ever become a sport (if it's not all ready and British TV just doesn't show it), then Jake may be interested.


Includes pictures from IHJ, Just Jared and Pop Sugar.