Jake Gyllenhaal: Acting is not all about Stravinsky and 'You've just got to live your life, ay ay ay'

Apparently there are some in the media who seem to think that Jake Gyllenhaal's buffed up Prince of Persia bod is not what Gyllenhaalics want to see for almost two hours, sometimes shirtless, on a huge movie screen, set off by sun, sweat, robes, beads, sandy deserts and exotic feisty princesses and big birds and magnificent horses. I beg to differ and in this article in today's New York Post, there is a familiar and much-loved voice speaking up for Jake's hot bod. After all, one can't be Donnie Darko and 19 forever. In the picture below, Jake models the Prince of Persia figure, in a manner of speaking.


'But Gyllenhaal, who’s better known for his acting than his abs, seems a slightly awkward fit for the role of a big-budget swashbuckling hero. And as “P of P” is supposedly the successor to the wildly successful “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, Jake’s carrying a lot of weight on those newly chiseled shoulders. Question is, will his fans go for the new look? “I was a bit skeptical at first, but now that I’ve seen photos and footage from the movie, I definitely think he pulls it off,” says Stephanie, who runs the fan site IHeartJake.com. “He looks hot. I don’t mind the muscles and the long hair at all. I actually prefer the ‘Prince of Persia’ look over his look in a lot of his older films.”' Me too! Good job, Steph!


The Arizona Republic has a great interview with Jake today - you can read it all there - but here are some of my favourite quotes: '(After) the premiere in LA . . . a friend of mine texted me and said, "I had dreams of sand and sandstorms, sliding down sand dunes." And I was like, yeah, well that was six months of work, of actually doing that myself, to find its way into somebody's dream.'


'A lot of times you make movies that look at the world in a very, very, very serious way. And I think that's important. There are a lot of things going on that we need to get a certain perspective on. But then I think it's also important to have a great humor and to enjoy yourself and have fun, just to be able to play. I even read an article recently about how people live longer and have better lives when they get to play, like kids on a playground. This movie was like that for me. It was a great time that I had running around fighting with sticks like a little kid. It's always important to go back to those places.'


And we have a fine example of GyllenSpeak: 'I think a lot of people would consider acting - at least I did earlier on in my career, and I know I'm still young - but a lot of people would consider a really great performance in a movie to be a portrait. I remember hearing Judi Dench talking about acting like a piano. You need to be able to play all different chords and all different notes on a piano, not only just minor, intense chords with an unresolved cadence but also major chords with resolved cadences. All different musical pieces involve all different types of emotion. For a long time, I thought only legitimate acting is really intense, you know, Stravinsky. And now I have to admit, a big part of myself loves to turn on the radio, and a lot of my playlist is a lot of great pop music. I'm treating myself.'


And Jake also is well aware that if you say the name Joe Namath on this side of the Atlantic you're likely to see some blank faces... 'It's funny, we just came back from all this international press, and they're like, "So what do you really want to do? What role would you really want to play?" And I'm like, "Joe Namath." And they'll be like, "What?" Yeah, that would be a dream come true, to play Mr. Namath. [Q: With the right haircut...] Well, you know what, man, I ain't afraid of the hair. Bring it on.'

'I hope people believe this, because it's really true - I got into shape so that I would be able to do those stunts. I wanted to do those stunts and I wanted to not get injured when I did them and I wanted to be able to pull them off. The only way to do that would be to get in really good shape, like all the stunt guys around me. And I did that. I don't think anybody expected there to be so much focus on the physical aspect. I haven't, I didn't, because it was all about really actually getting into functional shape. Hopefully, people will respond to this movie and I'll be able to show them some more.'


[Q: You've been in high-profile relationships and landed on plenty of tabloid covers. Does that ever affect decisions you make, like whom you might date, what movie you might make, that kind of thing?] 'I think I've seen people make decisions in their life that way, and I think I have maybe in the past tried to avoid certain things. I think it just ends up making you unhappy. In the words of T.I. and Rihanna, "You've just gotta live your life, ay ay ay."'

'To me, if I'm true to what I love watching, if I'm true to what I love doing and people are into it, I'm just going to try to keep doing that. I don't believe in making choices based on anything besides what my instincts are telling me. I would love to make big action movies. I had so much fun making this movie. The two movies I did after this, maybe it was a reaction to this, are a bit smaller but equally as commercial and equally as fun in different ways. . . . I'm sort of itching to get back to doing some action. I learned to buckle a little swash. Perhaps I should go back and do some swashbuckling. Once you learn how to buckle swash, you just can't go back.'


[Q: Your sister Maggie is an actress. Do you two criticize each other's movies and performances?] 'There's never any criticism of what she's done. I would be stupid. She's my older sister. I may be taller and bigger than her now, but I still have that little brother in me. It doesn't ever go away. So I don't mess with that. Really, the thing that matters to me, more than anything, is that she's there for me. I know she's got my back, and she knows I've got hers.' More here.


In another interview, with the Philly Inquirer, Jake mentions his old favourite Willow again, as an inspiration for PoP. '"When I think about being a kid, I think about the wonder of these movies. And I wanted to make a movie like that. And with Prince of Persia, I thought this is a little bit of all those things mixed into one." (Footnote for Willow aficionados: Gyllenhaal says that that film's star, Val Kilmer, served as "my inspiration for the hair in this movie" - and more. "Val really is an inspiration for this character," he insists.)'.

'Watching old Errol Flynn swashbucklers also helped Gyllenhaal get into the groove. "An absolute genius. He was a massive influence on this part, too."'


'Since making Prince of Persia (yes, he's signed a sequel clause, "so if people respond to it, I'm back"), the actor has starred in two more typically Gyllenhaalian projects: Source Code, "a science fiction action thriller" with Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan, and Jeffrey Wright, from Duncan Jones, the director of the eerie art-house android piece, Moon. Love and Other Drugs, a romantic comedy with Gyllenhaal as a pharmaceutical salesman who woos Anne Hathaway. Ed Zwick wrote and directed. "It's set in 1995," Gyllenhaal reports, "when Viagra was invented. . . . My character is very proficient with the ladies, so he ends up being able to sell Viagra very, very well... Annie and I definitely got pretty intimate, because there are a lot of love scenes in the movie, a lot of sexy scenes in that movie. You have to let it all hang out, so to speak."'


Tomorrow the Prince of Persia publicity machine rolls on to New York City - do see the panel to the right on the WDW homepage for Jake's engagements for the week, kicking off tomorrow (Monday).

A WDW Interlude

Proving that one can go and see Prince and Persia at the cinema at every opportunity and still get out there in the sun enough to turn a peculiar shade of beetroot, today I was on a baby lemur hunt. I know Jake warns against cute and cuddly critters but I think even he could approach this little thing in safety. Not so sure about the pair in the bottom pic though...




Many thanks to IHJ for the (non-animally) pictures!