Jake - 'I'm not just an actor sitting here for attention... I need my life to have meaning too'

It's winter (I'm quick like that) and for many of you the snow is falling and you're shovelling paths. It's undoubtedly chilly for all those who might be filming in Santa Fe and New Mexico. So it seemed like a fitting time to do a special on Jake's most wintry of endeavours, The Day After Tomorrow. Each of Jake's films has a different role to play - you can turn to Jack Twist when you're in the mood for love but, speaking for myself, no character makes me smile like Wet Sam.


We've heard Jake in interviews in past posts talking about the environmental message behind The Day After Tomorrow, but in this podcast you can listen to Jake tell you why he wanted to do this big film, how demanding the shoot was, and what he took away from Spider-Man. You can listen to the podcast here and you can also download it. The interview also features the lovely and lucky Emmy Rossum and director Roland Emmerich.

As someone who has never made apologies for enjoying blockbusters (with the notable exception of superhero franchises), I do like to hear Jake talk about how much he loves them too: 'I've always wanted to be in a movie like this, despite what kind of the movies I've done in the past might say... All these summer movies that will come out this summer I will go and see. I'll go and see them with all my friends. I have seen them for years in the past and I've always wanted to be in one and hopefully will be in a lot of them.'


'Something changed in me when I saw Spider-Man actually, I have to say... There was a movie that was a huge movie, that was made for a lot of money, had incredible special effects, but it also had a story that, though it was simple in a lot of ways, was something really important for people to see at the time that it came out - which is just about love, like it's just a love story, but all the love stories that we've seen even in smaller movies become so cliche and it was really great to see a story like that. And something in me switched and said Wow, you can actually be in a movie that is a huge movie, that is like hugely entertaining and so much fun! That some people walk out of going 'Oh wow, there's something to think about' or there's something to feel. Not everybody will but some people will and that was really cool as I think that's why I want to make movies.'


'I mean I'm not just an actor sitting here for attention, I'm an actor here sitting here because I need my life to have meaning too, you know what I mean! I want to be in movies that have a point to them and I want to spend seven months of my life making a movie so that when it comes out I go 'That was really worth it!' That's how I feel walking out of this movie, like it makes me feel proud.'

As for all the action scenes, running from wolves, leaping over cars and the like: 'Well, I trained for six months in Malta, highly conditioned my body. No! I didn't really do much of anything. They were pretty demanding but I'm a masochist so I like it... It got demanding running up and down stairs but it wasn't like a lot of these guys are doing in movies this summer.'


'You walk into this movie and you will leave this movie being completely entertained. I'm a really harsh critic of thesse movies and I sense when people are faking it and when they're not, like pretty well. I know when I am and I know when other people are. When I walked out of this film, I was just like...Yeah! I'm so excited that this movie had a point but I was really excited that the movie just was awesome and huge.'



New/old pictures from London

This feature includes photographs from the UK premiere of The Day After Tomorrow. And to continue the theme of Jake in London and Jake in London with Kirsten, here are some new old pictures just posted at the wonderful IHJ from July 2003, a time when it was warm enough to sit out and watch the world go by.




And finally

Talking of big summer blockbusters, the biggest of next summer, and one you can bet Jake will be seeing featuring as it does both Maggie and Heath, will undoubtedly be The Dark Knight. The poster has just been released.


Includes pictures from IHJ and The Hollywood News.