Prince of Persia Russian premiere: Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton walk the red carpet - and Jake talks World Cup!

Never mind Cannes, last night the place to be was Moscow - Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton set the red carpet alight as Prince of Persia premiered in Russia. Gyllenhaalism is not bound by borders or barriered by language as this fantastic PoP progression around (hopefully) much of the world shows. Nevertheless, I've been practising my rusty and, indeed, non-existent Russian to come up with the perfect phrase for a Jake Gyllenhaal Russian Red Carpet Experience: Мы любим тебя, Джейк' - this either means 'We love you, Jake!' or 'My slave Davos was eaten by a lion, do you know where I can get another one?' In other news, you'll be glad to hear that I have retrieved one of Lego Dastan's swords from the barrel of my Dyson vacuum cleaner.


We're lucky enough to have a clip from the red carpet, which shows that everywhere Prince of Persia takes Jake, his fanbase will be there too to cheer him on.



I'm still catching up with posting interviews, but I did like this one with the Sunday Mail, which shows that Jake also enjoys sports that are more familiar to us Euros (I still maintain that Jake has a secret cricket passion): "There is a very early entry in my diary, from when I was six, and it says 'soccer is my life!' "I played school soccer and it became my obsession. Of course, I'll be watching the games. I would really like to go to the World Cup finals." [My local does a great job following the World Cup, Jake, especially if you fancy watching a game with a pie and pint?]


'For the first time I can say that America is my team and not have people roll their eyes or nod in a kind of pitying way. I think we have a great team and real potential to definitely show something for the first time.'


Elsewhere in the interview, Jake speaks of the hot desert '"It was hot but it was fun. The desert is really cleansing, the sand exfoliates your skin and there is a nice, warm, dry sun. I definitely breathed in my share of sand."... He reveals he was excited just driving to the massive film sets which were created in the desert for Prince Of Persia. "It was like going to a sporting event when you are the captain of the team," enthuses Jake. "There were cars lined up along the road for five miles and there was an army of film crew and the sets were 100-feet high! Every day I did feel like a kid." The film also helped him realise another childhood ambition - to have his own action figure. He said: "That is like fulfilling the dreams that I had when I was eight. "When he is playing with an action figure what young boy doesn't think that maybe one day... ? "So to be one is incredible. If you were to go back to the eight-year-old me and say that one day I will be in a movie that looks a little like Indiana Jones and it is the video game that I am actually playing, called The Prince Of Persia... I think that my head would have exploded."'


For the future: 'And he also stars in another wacky comedy titled Love And Other Drugs in which he is cast as a Viagra salesman. He jokes: "That research was interesting."... There are other Prince Of Persia computer games which could be adapted for the screen and he loves the idea of returning to the desert for more movie adventures. "I am totally game," added Jake. "I love the character and his world. I think it is super fun."'


In another interview, Jake elaborates on the scale of filming Prince of Persia: 'It required a lot of technical work that I usually do in movies, but this was learning how to do the rudimentary aspects of Parkour, learning how to swordfight which involves learning martial arts and having martial arts training and learning choreography, really complicated choreography, and having two swords that I use. Learning how to horseback ride proficiently in a way that I could do stunts, learning a British accent and on top of all of that, on a movie this size, when you make a different choice, like if you block out a scene for instance. If you make a different choice in the middle of the day, you say, “Well, maybe I should be over here,” but if you make that choice, it affects 1000 more people than it would on a smaller movie or on other movies. It’s just the sheer size of it. I guess I could compare it to going to a sports event. Every day on set I would drive up to set and there’d be 500 cars lined up for five miles before you even got to set and you would get to the base camp for set and it would be like an army tent setup camp. Then we’d get onto set and there would be these massive sets built, 250 feet high with every intricate detail done so that they could shoot anywhere, and then 1000s of extras. I would get suited up every morning and take 40 minutes to put on my costume. I had these crazy intense boots that I wore that wereParkour style so that I could do the stunts. I think you can see it on the poster a little bit. I had all these different things that were attached to my costume and it took a long time. So it was kind of like getting prepared for some big sporting event.'


On working with (or 'for') Sir Ben Kingsley: 'Specifically working with someone, I would say “for” because he is Sir Ben Kingsley, working for Sir Ben Kingsley is just incredible. When you work with somebody of that level, that stature, who has that amount of experience, that many years, and has done such extraordinary work, it’s kind of an actor’s dream come true. The interesting thing about Sir Ben is he has a real childish play to him. I acted really, really conservatively around him when I first started acting and he was like, “Come on.” He sits up straight, he seems so regal but he really likes to kind of get down and dirty with his acting and so do I. So, it was great fun and a real honor.' There's much more to this interview, so be sure to read it here.


In this interview, Jake is interviewed by another Jake, leading to some mutual appreciation.



Jake features on two British TV shows tomorrow (Thursday):

08.30-09.25 GMTV with Lorraine (for sure)
18.25 Live from Studio Five (I think)


I wouldn't be too surprised to be back later - there is a lot of catching up to do and who knows where the PoP team will turn up next! Many thanks to IHJ for these fantastic pics from Russia.