Jake's 'long but extraordinary voyage'

While I wait, extremely impatiently, for the supplier to finish packing my copy of the Rendition DVD, I've been distracting myself with Jake Gyllenhaal's other recent masterpiece Zodiac. The meticulous process of directing Zodiac and the arduous process of acting in Zodiac fascinated Premiere reporter Fred Schruers. One feature by Schruers includes a long interview with David Fincher that also makes reference to an interview with Jake (also with Schruers), which can be found on the French Premiere website (see below).


As we know from the MTV UK special, Fincher always wanted Jake for the main role, an attitude encouraged by Jennifer Aniston's praise for Jake. Here David says: 'I really liked him in Donnie Darko... and I thought, He's an interesting double-sided coin. He can do that naive thing but he can also do possessed.' 'Gyllenhaal knew he was in for an arduous shoot ("He entered into an insane crucible," says Downey), as the central character in a production that would sprawl across some 112 shooting days — notoriously long days that the famously meticulous Fincher makes extra-long with painstaking tweaks and many, many takes. "There are two very difficult dreams that you learn a lot from as an actor," Gyllenhaal says. "One is a Shakespeare and the other is a David Fincher. Someone said to me, 'He paints with people.' The word 'perfectionist' is oversimplifying it."'


"We promise you that in the course of filming Zodiac no animals were hurt," Downey says with a laugh. "That's where the humane behavior ended. No ego was left untarnished. We're doing a scene and I realized after we'd done it about 40 times, I was tied to the mast. Dave's like, 'Everything that Downey has just spent the last six hours doing? Let's delete that, go to lunch, and start over.' But that's the shit, dude. It's — Fincher."'

The start of this feature contains a disarming moment: 'When Fincher looks up, however — his watchful eyes widened like those of his kindred nocturnal creature, the owl — his question is unexpectedly general and ruminative: "Do you think people are gonna come see our movie?" He seems to actually want an answer. And the query is a bit of a stumper.' Finally, Fincher describes what Zodiac means to him: 'Ultimately the movie isn't about knowing. It's about belief... Really, the drama is about people who won't let go.'


In Jake's interview - the Knight of the Zodiac - he shows that it could be hard: 'I realised that for an actor, there are two radical experiences, Shakespeare and Fincher; once you've tried both, you're ready to face anything... Somebody pointed out to me that Fincher is a painter whose brushes are people... he has a very detailed idea of his 'painting'.


'Every shot is an experiment... I'm generally very scrupulous about the characters I'm interpreting, but I'd never worked with a director who knew more than me about my character (laughs).' When being told that David is a good actor himself, Jake agrees: 'That's the least one could say - I'm sure David could act in a David Fincher film and he would undoubtedly be better that his actors.' And on why people are drawn back to Fincher: 'I can't put my finger on his 'skill' but it explains why people are drawn back to him. And it's what fascinates his audience. Whatever the story he's telling. How does he see the world? I still don't know and the experiment of acting with him as an attractive voyage - A long but extraordinary voyage.'

Talking of Jake's relationship with directors - and this is something that has always been important to Jake - his future Unnamed Moon Project director, Doug Liman, still hasn't decided what film to do next now Jumper is complete. In this interview, Doug gives away a little more about the film, making it clear that it is an action movie - good news indeed:


'Well, there’s two projects I’m currently developing and I don’t know which one will go in to production first. Or maybe something else will sneak in, who knows. The Jake Gyllenhaal-Moon project is a retelling of the Apollo program within the present day. You know, what if a group today decided to mount a private expedition to the moon—not just to go, but to establish a colony using the blueprints of the Apollo program. Like we already did it. You don’t have to start from scratch. And in fact the parts are all sitting in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, waiting to be stolen.... So it’s kind of science fact. And it’s an action film, an action adventure film on the surface of the moon... The other project is the Valerie Plame story. You remember her—she’s the CIA officer who the Bush Administration exposed her identity.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.