Jim Sheridan's Brothers - a look at how Hollywood adapts national identity

After all the excitement of the last few days, with more than its fair show of gun showdowns, gritty worms and rampaging torrents, it makes a rather pleasant interlude to sit back in comfort this evening and read an indepth article that takes us back to those days of Brothers. This edition of Film International looks at what Jim Sheridan did with the Danish original by Susanne Bier to 'Hollywoodise' its treatment of family issues and the war in Afghanistan. Above all, it looks at how nationalism is shifted when two very different countries adapt the same story. Of coursem this is confused somewhat because Sheridan is from Ireland, the old world. Along the way of course, there is Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman.

Many thanks to BBMISwear for the scans.

'Working with Jim was a beautiful mess' - Jim Sheridan celebrated

The Irish Film Institute in Dublin is currently hosting a season to celebrate the work of one of the country's most well-known and much-loved directors Jim Sheridan. At a screening of My Left Foot last week, its star, Daniel Day-Lewis was there to pay tribute to the man who allowed him to create such a career-defining first role with Christy Brown. Reading that, and hearing the kind words about Sheridan, I couldn't help but think of Jake Gyllenhaal's experience of working with Jim on Brothers, another example where the director has influenced and inspired Jake to take a role. And it gave Jake the chance to try out his Irish accent during press, of course.. A bonus.


Jake told the Telegraph that his sense of feeling more comfortable with himself - something he has commented on during the publicity for Love and Other Drugs - began with Brothers and working with Jim. 'He ignited something, which was like, 'You can be whatever you want or, if not, whatever you are is enough.''


But acting for Jim was not quite what Jake was used to (here in the Herald): 'Working with Jim was a beautiful mess... I am not sure what happened or how it came together, but it was a really interesting mess. One day there's a PA who he's brought over who brought coffee, and there she is sitting behind the monitor and he's asking her what she thinks of the scene! Then we're changing the dialogue according to what she thinks of the scene!'

'The next day, some guy he met on a plane he invites to the set and rewrites the dialogue for him! It's a whole real interesting mess with Jim, but it turns out to be a good result in the end, so...'


Jim told Natalie Portman in an interview for Making Of that he had some trouble working with Jake (and Natalie as well), getting these Hollywood actors to show the emotion he required of them. I remember we had quite a discussion about that here at the time! When reminded of this by the Herald, Jake had this to say:


'"What do you mean by that? I have great respect for Jim and it's important that you respect someone's work. The work is not always the same as who they are as a person and navigating that is always difficult and there are lots of different egos and personalities in this business," he says, seeming both hurt and defensive. "I don't mean to wear the fact that I like to challenge people as a badge of honour. I think that's something I've moved beyond."


'"I was born into the film industry and all of us grow up thinking we have a perspective on film-making that's different from the job. But only very recently I realised that film-making is a collaborative process. When I was younger I had an idea that I was the actor there to do the job. For somebody who's gotten to the place where they are directing or writing a movie, they have to have a pretty interesting personality to be doing that. So I realise now that I am in service of somebody else's vision and I think it's changed the whole situation."'


Telegraph again: "[Jim] walked up to me in the beginning of this movie, and he said [adopts Irish accent], 'Jake, I just want you to know, you're playing my little brother in the movie, so I'm going to have to hate you most of the time.' Honestly, he was like, 'I f------ hate you!' But clearly the process worked."


"I think that this movie is a journey, the journey that Tobey's character makes to get back home. It is intertwined with a lot of other family complications – this is a Jim Sheridan movie after all – but mostly it is about what this man does to get back to the people that he loves, and to his life."

Jim Sheridan was also responsible for the first great Sasquatch carnation. That's another matter altogether...


There were compensations, however.


Includes pictures from IHJ.

I saw True Grit tonight - at last out in the UK - you can read the review here.

Jim Sheridan: 'You look forward to where Jake Gyllenhaal will go as an actor'. And a personal comment

This post takes the form of a little bit of a time out - the hoopla of Prince of Persia is quickening pace and there are wonders on the way (not all of them wearing a shirt). And so, while I figure out what to do with my two PoP sticker books that arrived today and before we get sucked up again into the excitement of it all, this post is intended as a big thank you to Jake Gyllenhaal - for entertaining me, enthralling me for years. My heart has beaten faster, my eyelashes have fluttered (irresistibly), I've cried, I've run down streets, I've stood up and applauded and I've been turned to mush yet inspired to write, all in the same moment. Without doubt, fun has filled my life and much of it is thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal - his talent, his character, his smile and his fans.


So this hug of a post is inspired by a number of things, but part of it is that I watched Brothers again today, on DVD and with Jim Sheridan's commentary. Listening to this, while enjoying Jake's transformation into Tommy Cahill, shows all too well how Jim and Jake succeeded in their aim, which was to make Grace, the little girls and us all fall in love with this ex-con who wants to put things right. I was going to put a lot more into the post tonight but I think I'll leave those for tomorrow.


Here are some of the things that Jim says about Jake and his role in Brothers, beginning with our first sight of Jake and Tobey Maguire together: 'I miscalculated how young Tobey looked in his eyes and how old Jake appears in his eyes - like Tobey seems like a new person to the world and Jake seems like he's been here for millennia so the audience actually had a hard time believing Tobey was the older brother.'


Walking in the prison: 'You see what I mean about Jake? He has a different aspect to Tobey, he has a different DNA structure. It was his idea, actually, to go to the jail and it changes the movie.'


Grace gives Tommy the bad news: 'It's a difficult part for [Jake] in the movie. I think he's really good in this scene. He never does the same thing twice, thanks be to God. I know that would drive a lot of directors crazy, but for me, it's kind of like... I think me and Jake occupied the same kind of space on the set, where we both wanted to be the centre of attention. So early on I was kind of in conflict with him - who's the most anarchic, I suppose.'


'Jake is very smart about what you might need and he would do shots like that or he would ask me if he could do a shot in the prison, or walking along, or in his room, or lying on the bed, whatever. Stuff that seemed so incidental but is very useful when you're editing. If he wants to be paid about a quarter of what he gets paid as an actor, he might end up as a director one day.'


The kiss scene: 'I think when we shot this I stayed on Jake for hours with the camera, like where he wouldn't do anything after Natalie left. And I suppose the mags were ten minutes long and sometimes for four or five minutes nothing would happen until eventually he kind of broke down, crying, and got upset. So you never know what's going to happen.'


Towards the end of Brothers, Jim had to work with the material he had of Jake because 'I don't think he had a moment, Jake, before he went on to the other movie.'


'You kind of look forward, I supppose, to where Jake Gyllenhaal will go as an actor. He seems to have a lot of possibilities.'


Standing up - A personal comment from me

You know that feeling you get when you can see someone you care about getting bullied or lied about by someone who doesn't even deserve to be in the same room as this person that you care for? I have that feeling right now. It's impossible to ignore the cruel lies that have rippled out of Montreal over the last few days, nor is it possible to pretend that Jake's feelings and honour have not been assaulted. A statement from his rep. to E! definitely demonstrates that this has struck deep:

'Our client is taking such strong and immediate action because of the seriousness of the issue behind the allegation. He would never harm a woman, or touch a woman in anger. Such behavior is not only criminal, but personally abhorrent to him.'

The Examiner puts it perfectly and so I suggest you read that because I find it hard to string words together about this - rage and compassion mixed together with a big dollop of fury have a way of stealing your words. But I needed to say something.

Jim Sheridan on Jake Gyllenhaal: 'he's a sweetheart'

Tomorrow, Brothers is finally released in the UK. It's taken quite a bit over two years to make it, but at last it's here. Not surprisingly for this film, its arrival has been low-key, with even some of the cinemas, just a few days ago, not quite certain if it was coming or not. Then one cinema chain advertised the title with the wrong film, just to make it that little bit harder for potential audiences. Reviews have been all over the place with their verdict but the majority agree that Jake Gyllenhaal, in the words of Film 2010 host and critic Jonathan Ross, is 'outstanding'.


Film 2010 included new interviews with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman but none with Jake. And, disappointingly, the Guardian's film blogger (and possible successor to Ross on Film 2010) Jason Solomon discussed Natalie and Tobey with Jim Sheridan in his weekly podcast, but not Jake. This is despite the fact that Jason has on more than occasion shown himself to be quite the Gyllenhaalic - I remember BAFTAS 2006.


Nevertheless, in a new interview with Digital Spy, Jim Sheridan did have just a little to say about his star Jake: 'Q: You've previously said that Jake Gyllenhaal drove you mad at points - did you find a way to cope with each other in the end? JS: "Yes, I think we both realised we'd always be fighting to be the centre of attention - two mammie's boys it's called on the set! But he's a sweetheart and after I'd got used to him I adored him. He's easy to work with."'

Natalie Portman has also been telling the Mirror that on occasion, when tensions rose between Jake and Tobey, she was the mediator on set.


However, despite the UK release of Brothers tomorrow, Jake and a host of stars has other business to attend to, helping to raise funds for Haiti in George Clooney's Telethon. Jake was also one of those who filmed a Red Cross commercial for the appeal on Saturday and that will air on tomorrow's Oprah.


And finally...

As we all remember, Jake Gyllenhaal got a well-celebrated mention in a recent episode of House. Last night, it was the turn of Ugly Betty.


Pictures thanks to IHJ.

The road to Brothers - Jim Sheridan recalls meeting Jake Gyllenhaal with Heath Ledger

I think this merits a second post of the day: Jim Sheridan is today interviewed in the Irish Herald about Brothers. The feature includes a fascinating piee of information about the casting of Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman in particular - that Leo DiCaprio was the initial choice for Jake's role. However, when that fell through, it seemed an obvious choice to pick Jake, whom Jim had met, hanging around the Chateau Marmont pool with Heath Ledger. Another of those little connections...


'The pairing of Maguire and Gyllenhaal is a stroke of genius, not just because of their similar features, but the convincing emotional shorthand they share. It's difficult to fathom that Leonardo DiCaprio was an initial contender for Gyllenhaal's role. "I had talked to Tobey and Leonardo for a few years about making a movie together," recalls Sheridan. "Leo was off doing something and Jake, I had always met Jake at Chateau [Marmont] around the pool, a lot of the time with Heath [Ledger].

"We became friendly; he wanted to do something with me and Natalie was the only one I didn't know. The boys knew her and asked Natalie and that was it."'

'I just think in terms of the chess that is actors on a set, everybody has to fill different parts' - Jake Gyllenhaal on Brothers and making movies

We've heard bits and pieces before from the New York press day for Brothers - remember the brief audio clips about the gas tank on the set of Love and Other Drugs and the stillness of Peter Sarsgaard, or talking about the honesty of the child actors - but here is a much fuller transcript of what Jake Gyllenhaal had to say. This post is illustrated with wonderful new pictures from the LA press day and from the Variety Screening - many thanks IHJ!



'“Jim Sheridan attracted me to the movie,” Gyllenhaal bluntly states, point blank, “He’s made some of the most extraordinary films and has gotten some of the most extraordinary performances out of actors and many of the directors working today. His nature and his thoughts on the film and his inherent trust in me as an actor. When we met, it was like, hey, it’s Jim. I had seen the original movie actually before I had read the script,” he continues, “So I knew the story and I thought it was a beautiful story and I thought David Benioff wrote a really nice, beautiful script. When someone like Jim Sheridan comes up to you and says, you know what, we want you to do this movie with me and we’re going to shoot this movie in six weeks. Six weeks of your life to work with someone as extraordinary as him, it’s like a Godsend.”'


'“I don’t have a brother, thank God!” he says, “I do have a brother-in-law now, but that would be weird. Anyway, I believe that I think that we all have a great ability to move towards ‘Our impulse is anger’ or ‘Our impulse is violence’. I think I speak for myself [that] as a married man that there are things that come in what you want to do, what you feel like you should do, and what you should do. And then, to me, this movie is about forgiveness ultimately and about somebody who does something unbelievable to get back to the thing that they love,” Jake adds, “And to me, I just feel that’s all that life’s about, like, if you have something that you love that you care for, then I hope that anybody would do anything to get that back then, no matter what. And the complications of what have to be done are unfathomable, it won’t compute in any logical sense of even storytelling. Tobey’s character particularly is put in a position where there is no right choice.”'


'“I hate hearing actors talking about politics, but we can have that discussion,” he says, “To be honest, I think that, because I haven’t been before this moment, but to be clear, there’s a tendency for journalists to want to corner a movie like this into a certain corner. This movie, it’s hard to separate, for instance, the soldier from the life that that soldier lived. Just like if you see a man in uniform, than the movie is about war. The movie is about a man getting to get back to the things he loves, in my opinion.”'


'“I’ve made movies about war. I feel like that I can say that and I’ve answered many questions about that,” Gyllenhaal adds, “In that sense, how do I feel about what’s happening, I still have great faith in our President and I believe he’ll make the right choices, in terms of the current situation. Look, it’s complicated. We’re human beings. Soldiers are human beings. They have lives. This is a story about someone …For me, I didn’t approach it like that, I didn’t play that part. I played a guy who was in jail at the beginning of the movie and to me, that’s an equally interesting aspect politically, which is actually a domestic issue, which I didn’t know much about ‘till I did research for the movie.”'


'“For me, I don’t think my character, it wasn’t about holding a fort or being there for his brother or talking to somebody who’s had a brother who’s been through something like this. It wasn’t about that for me. We tend to fall into those ideas. It’s hard to say this without feeling like you’re trying to sway from talking about a movie about war, but it’s not, it doesn’t feel like that to me. I can’t seem to bring myself to say that that’s what this is about,” Jake continues, “And, specifically, I don’t know because it’s just to me, he didn’t know his brother was going to come back to that way, he didn’t expect that to happen. But he did constantly worry about his brother not coming home.”


“I went to jails all around California,” Jake recalls, “I went to Lancaster, I went to L.A. County Jail, I went to juvenile halls. I got involved with the writing program as a result of doing research with these young juveniles 14 to 18 years old who write while they are incarcerated. Some of them have gotten out and I have relationships with some of them and some of them have gone on to serve life sentences in some cases. All of them, strangely, regardless of what has happened to them and their fate, are incredible kids, incredible kids, and I think, to me, that’s also an important aspect to this movie.”


'“Here’s this guy who comes into jail, it’s not very clear in the movie, after having stuck-up a bank and he ultimately turns his life around to care for two children and to love,” he continues, “The great thing about the drama of war is that it outshines everything else that is going on in even certain domestic things that are going on. To learn about this, to meet these kids that are in this system that seems impossible to beat or to redeem themselves, my life changed from making this movie, from meeting those kids.”'


'“I mean, making movies is so much about selling a movie or making it look good for an audience and the great, special moments that happen in movies is every movie has a lesson for anybody involved in it. I didn’t know,” Jake says, “David Benioff introduced me to Scott Budnick, who is the producer, and he works in Hollywood, but he his off-time and extracurricular often is these boys and this writing program. David called me up and said, ‘I need to do some research for this movie.’ He introduced me to Scott and he took me through a journey. Look, I don’t know how it can’t change your life when you meet a kid before the day he was sentenced to life.”'


'“He was 18 year old and whose girlfriend had to testify against him who was there and watched it,” he continues, “I don’t know how you could be breathing and not have it change your life, not have it say, ‘Look, these kids want, even if it’s like it’s not this guy, he’s an actor and I’ve seen movies that he’s been in, like, hey, we get an hour outside everyday. We’re 14 years old and we get to spend an hour outside a week when I first went there. When I went to the first juvenile hall, they had an hour to play outside a week. It’s now changed to a day, but it was a week at this one place and it’s not to say they haven’t done horrific things, but it’s to say that it can’t not change your life. You meet people.”'


'“Scott took me to see this another kid and Jim ended up putting him in the movie in the helicopter scene when Tobey goes down, he’s in the movie because we went to go see him,” he says, “We went to this place called L.A. Conservation Corps, which I have politically gone back to every year to give awards to these kids who come back and change their lives. They do work for the city and plant trees and they learn a trade. With this kid Victor, he went in jail and Jim and I went to go meet him because Scott wanted to say, ‘Here’s one out. Here’s one avenue and then, here’s another avenue, and the avenue of being released and having the opportunity to change their lives.’ And we met this kid at the L.A. Conservation Corps in downtown in L.A. and told us all the stories, to me, they were unreal,” Gyllenhaal adds, “I mean it was like hiding meth in the back of the lamp of a four-wheel drive vehicle like driving over the border. He was 16 years old and he was telling these stories like Homer. I mean, he was literally like how Jim tells stories. He tells these stories and [they're just tales]. Jim is sitting there listening to him, hunched over, and he goes, ‘He’s an actor. He has to be in a movie.’ But that kind of thing, he’s changed his life. He now in the governor’s office in Sacramento. It’s those things that you look at a movie and you’re like, yeah, it’s a movie, but that’s just stuff that I care about, but that’s at least how it can change your life at least a little bit.”'


'I think our relationship [Tobey Maguire and Jake] existed even before we started shooting,” he says, “With somebody that is your contemporary, there’s bound to be. You’re kind of brothers-in-arms. There is admiration and confrontation, the mixture of all those things, the fusion of all those things. The belief in yourself over them and the belief of them over you, your love for them, your want for their success, your struggling with their success, all of those things exist. I can go on for a long list of contradictions that exists between two people who do the same kind of job. So we had to kind of show up and it was there. Plus, we look kind of alike. I say this message to every taxicab driver in New York, I’m not Spider-Man. It was just easy, so there you go.”'


'“The making of a movie is always full of its odd moments,” Jake says, “When somebody breaks a cabinet in a movie and has an intense moment, you then have to go put the breakaway glass back and you have to do other things (chuckles). That’s what I love about movies. I was shooting recently late at night a scene where I get into a car and close the door and the gas tank kept popping open every single time.”'


“There’s nothing more wonderful than working with children,” Gyllenhaal says, “I think children have given some of the most incredible performances in film on par with some of the great adult performances. Children probably tend to do it at a higher ratio. They are just present and alive. Jim working with them was like, whatever was happening with them. Jim was sitting at this table with them and they were commenting on your hair and their honesty about what shirt they’re wearing and if they like it or not and they don’t care whether it’s going to offend you or not or they aren’t going to tell you how beautiful your eyes look. Those types of things Jim brings out and cuts together.”'


'“To work with the two of them, it’s great because here you have these three actors who are probably taking themselves way too seriously and you have these two little beings who are so present and so much better than you and it was great,” he adds, “They also were really understanding of the dramatic scenes. They weren’t these little innocents plucked off the street and put into a film. They were ready for it. When Tobey freaked out and Baile[e] had her little moment with him and she says Uncle Tommy and the whole situation, she was excited. She couldn’t wait to tell him, ‘Uncle Tommy was fucking her mom,’ you know what I mean, because it was like her big moment, it really was. It was great because it was fun. It wasn’t really tense. Jim just makes it fun and I think the nature of there being it during the writers’ strike, we had kind of a sense of, whatever.”'


'“I told Jim what I felt I responded to in the character. I was just like, it’s not flashy, but I found Tommy to be so fascinating because he was just still. A lot of people admire actors who have the showy things and I admire those actors, too, but I admire actors who are still. My brother-in law, for instance, Peter Sarsgaard, I’ve watched him give performance after performance where he is just still and extraordinary and if you watch him carefully, there’s more going on than the other,” he continues, “I just think in terms of the chess that is actors on a set, everybody has to fill different parts, so Jim pushed me because he said you can be still.”'

Source.


Source Code

Meanwhile there is some interesting background information about Jake's next project, Source Code, from the director and writer previously connected to the project, Shane Abbess. 'I was on it for two years. originally I was on The Dark Crystal for about nine months and I rewrote the Dark Crystal script with Brian Henson, Jim Henson's son. I'd been on that ages.'

'To get the rebate, we had to shoot it in Australia, and so we had to bring on Australian producers. As soon as that happened it went from being a really edgy Henson movie to being a watered down Australian version of Shrek. I wasn't going to part of that film, and I was attached to Source Code at the time, but I left The Dark Crystal really regretfully. I really wanted to do the film, but I realised I wasn't going to be able to do my version of it.'


'So with Source Code, we did five drafts. Billy Ray, who's an amazing writer, worked on the rewrite, and we'd got to the point where we had a few really big names that were serious about doing it, then Jake (Gyllenhaal) came aboard, and he's a lovely guy, but we had such different opinions about the film about how he wanted to be shot, and he's at the point in his career where he can call the shots, so… I'm still attached to the film in the producing capacity.'


'The film started off with Universal, then it got to Relativity, then it got to Summit. When you change guard that much, the film you began with is not the film you have at the end, so I think you're better off with someone new to do it and for me to go on with some of the other films I'm developing. You sign on to make an apple, and in a few years, you've got a pear.'


Many thanks to IHJ for the new pics.