Jake - 'I revel in stirring the pot'

The release of Rendition in the cinemas and theatres of Australia has given us a new interview with Jake Gyllenhaal, in which he doesn't only discuss his role as Douglas Freeman, he also reflects on the legacy of Brokeback Mountain for himself - how it has made people react to him. But when it comes to Rendition, I found it interesting that Jake says that he didn't like the scene where he grabs the suspect's neck, finding it unbelievable behaviour. I also enjoyed the idea that Jake likes to see posters of his films, lining the streets of LA.


"You choose a movie because of the structure of the story," he says. "Overall, people would be ill-advised in the movie business to choose movies because of political matters. We're in the business of humans."

Jake found the scene where he grabs the suspect's neck implausible because he believed Douglas, in that position, would have been governed by process and not passion - the antithesis to the motivations that drive an actor. "I live in a world where you explore the emotional background of these characters but the reality of this job is it requires detail - precise levels of detail - and that's what I was led into when I was fact-checking the character."... "I never look at it that way," he says. "It always throws me off if I think, 'How are people going to respond?' I do really care about the audience and what they would think but I also need to know what I can truly do."


And soon Jake makes comparisons with Brokeback: "Politically,... I didn't think it was a statement that was too outlandish. I also didn't think the same thing of Brokeback Mountain, strangely enough.. I grew up in a world where my godfathers are gay, my mother's best friends, half of them are gay men, so I've been brought up in a world where that's assimilated and understood, which is very different to the rest of the world."


'His feelings about this level of public recognition are mixed but mostly positive. "Sometimes I revel in it and I'm also disturbed by it," Gyllenhaal says. "There are times when I've been like ... it makes me laugh... I remember driving down the street about the time Brokeback Mountain came out. I look over [nods, to the imaginary driver of the next car] 'What's up?' He looked at me and he's like, 'Fag!'... I was like, 'Wow! [laughing] Awesome!' That's amazing, that somehow that infiltrated into this person so they were like ... something I had done, the work I had been involved in, had stirred up these feelings. And yet it saddened me and angered me... There is a real power to these things and I revel in stirring the pot," Gyllenhaal says, referring to both the films and his roles in them... "Do I hope there's some discussion? Yeah. I love it. That's what I think this is about. It's about saying what's true."


"It's great when I drive down the streets in Los Angeles and I see a poster with me and Reese and Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin on it and it just says Rendition. Whether people see the movie or not, they're gonna go, 'rendition?' When they see it in a newspaper, 'what is that?' That to me is cool." You can read more here.


Incidentally, Ennis and Jack have been voted by UK cinema goers as one of the top ten onscreen couples, as have Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader's characters in Secretary. Although the fact that Shrek and Donkey came top of the list (tying with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman) makes me wonder. As the report comments, it may be unusual to have a gay couple in the list but it's possibly even more unusual for it to include a non-human couple... 'It's an unusual choice'.


WDW's Hollywood Bound

Yes - it's Oscar time and that means only one thing - WDW (and me) is off to Los Angeles for a week of palm trees, blue skies (hopefully) and bright stars. So, all being well, during the next eight days I hope you'll join me in LA. Bring suntan lotion and good walking shoes. And if anyone wishes to suggest a place to visit, I'm all ears. The next post will be from Beverly Hills. Now, if anyone would like to help me pack....


Includes pictures from IHJ.