Thursday 31 March 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal on Good Morning America and Regis and Kelly

I'm not able to do a proper post this evening, thanks to the fact that I've been to a preview of a truly horrible movie. Yes, I've been Sucker Punched. But I didn't want the day to end without posting the videos from today. Here is Jake Gyllenhaal's appearance on Good Morning America.



This was followed by Regis and Kelly.



There are some other new clips here.




Source Code opens in the UK and US tomorrow. The Guardian today gave the film 5 stars. It's an amazing review for an incredible film.

More on the way tomorrow!

Jake Gyllenhaal on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart - one day to go before Source Code is out!

Last night, Jake Gyllenhaal was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (someone else who appeared in Nailed with Jake). The suns are smiling on us today because here it is:



There are also, with many thanks to IHJ, photos of Jake leaving his NYC hotel and greeting fans outside Comedy Central. Looking great, Jake! Of course with the good, comes the not so good - next up, Regis and Kelly...





If you haven't already, do check out last night's megapost - there is a lot in it, including the new interview in Empire.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal lands in NYC amid interviews galore: 'You should get to know me. I'm actually a little funny.' A megapost!

Source Code is now a mere three days away from the theatres of the UK and US. And this means that there is so much going on that we have Source Code and Jake Gyllenhaal goodies coming at us from every angle, thick and fast. It feels like Federer is on the other side of the net, whacking the Source Code goodies at us, to the left, to the right, straight in the smacker. So, with deep breaths, it's time to hit some Jake volleys back. Take a seat (and remember no flash photography during play).


1. Jake arrived in NYC yesterday. This no doubt means that we should soon hear sightings (can you hear a sighting?) of Jake in various foodie places. He is doing the shows in NYC and on Friday, Jake and Duncan will be in the Apple store. One imagines there may be a few more screenings.



2. There are more pictures from the afterparty which followed the LA premiere on Monday. It's good to see photos of Jake with his dad again, it's been a while. These pictures are spread through the post.


It also gave Jake the chance to model a new bag. Fetching.


3. There are lots more videos from the past few days, including a better version of the Conan interview. They're all below. Many thanks also to Mermon, for alerting me to the new IMDb interview which you can find here. There is also a new interview with Jake over at Total Film.







There are also interviews with Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga.




4.We have paper interviews. There is a lovely interview with 'dreamy' Jake in Crave Online, which mentions at the beginning 'I’m amazed I got that much out of him, since I spent most of our exclusive interview lost in his eyes.' The interview is a little spoilery so you might want to take note of that. At the end, however, Jake mentions Nailed and End of Watch which, he reveals, will begin shooting in July.


'[Nailed's] been shot but there’s a scene missing from it. But David is not currently on that movie, so I follow my director, not anybody else. So right now I’m just waiting to hear from David to see how that’s going to go […] Your guess would be as good as mine. And then I have a movie that a movie that I’m prepping for now, it starts in July, that David Ayer wrote. He wrote Training Day. I play an LAPD officer. It’s a story about a partnership between two cops. It’s an amazing script. Amazing. So that’s next.'


The Scotsman also has an interview with Jake and it has this interesting snippet from Jake about himself: '"Someone said to me to me recently, 'You are really funny - and I didn't know that," Gyllenhaal recalls. "So I asked what they had thought of me and they told me, 'To be honest, I had thought you were kind of a jerk.' I was like, 'Well, you should get to know me. I'm actually a little funny.'"' It always amuses me that Jake's funnyness is treated as something new time upon time.

'"I grew up around movie sets, so you end up feeling comfortable in that context," he says. "But at the same time, I hardly ever sleep the first night before shooting. I always think I'm going to forget all the things I've rehearsed and prepared."'


Jake has also been talking to E! '"Because the train [we filmed on] was moving back and forth and we were on a stage so much, we literally had motion sickness," the hunky actor told us last night at the film's Hollywood premiere. "We thought that the earth was moving because the train had been moving, but it wasn't...I just loved the moment when Michelle and I, after a week of shooting on the train, we were at lunch and I caught her kind of holding on to the table at lunch [for support]." As for the flick itself, he dished, "It's high intensity, that's for sure! There's definitely a lot of running around, a lot of questioning people and occasionally a scuffle here and there."'


'"I have a movie that I'm about to shoot in July with David Ayer who wrote Training Day, he's directing it, about two Los Angeles police department officers and their partnership and their lives outside of work. But it's an unbelievable script." So will he be hitting the streets with real-life officers to train for the film? "Yes!" he answered quickly. "If we're allowed."'


5. Jake and MIchelle Monaghan are in the May edition of Empire magazine. IT's a wonderful interview but too brief. Click and the scans shall be embiggened. There is also a review in the magazine, and it includes such lines as these: 'Gyllenhaal shows immense range: film noir neurosis, cracked comedy, action-man intensity, tragic angst'. And the verdict: 'An exciting, intellectually stimulating science-fiction thriller which also connects emotionally. Everyone involved earns a promotion to the premiereship.'




6. There are new Spanish posters. Many thanks to Carlota for those.



Includes pictures from IHJ and WDW.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal on Conan! Source Code premieres! (Again!)

No messing around this morning! We have goodies and they're good ones. First off, Jake Gyllenhaal was on Conan O'Brien's Show last night. You can watch it below and you can also see the entire episode at a certain website that you may be able to work out from the video below.



Something else that took place last night was the LA premiere of Source Code. It also made the British papers. There's a report here from the Daily Mail.*








*I do apologise to the sensibilities of my fellow Brits for linking to this... paper.

There is also some video from the event. No doubt more will turn up.



And finally...

A set of interviews from Screen Team Media:





The Unscripted videos can be seen in the post below. Congratulations to reader Ayda for having her question answered!

Includes pictures from IHJ and Getty.

Monday 28 March 2011

[Updated] Unscripted! Interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal on Source Code LA premiere day! Plus bowling and Brothers

Update: The Moviefone Unscripted with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan is now available to watch. With thanks to a friend for the heads up!



There are two shorter videos with it. Here is one while the other one (which won't embed) can be found at the link above.



In the words of Duncan Jones who tweeted this today: 'What do I have to do today.. trim beard, cut hair, mow lawn, wash clothes... was something else.. oh yeah. SOURCE CODE PREMIER TONIGHT!' I'm sure you'll agree that mowing the lawn and washing clothes would alone make today a special day, but throw in the premiere of Source Code and I reckon that makes it even better. Adding custard to the crumble is Jake Gyllenhaal's appearance on Conan O'Brien tonight.


And just in case Jake still has his eye on that iPad 2, on Friday, he and Duncan will be making an appearance in New York City's Apple store. Details, and product advertising, here.


Proving that it is possible to bowl without the help of a Wii, on 26 March Jake visited the Spare Room in LA with a group of friends, including Maroon 5's Adam Levine, to bowl and, according to US Weekly, drink Red Stripe beer. [Note to real ale drinking Brits, this is a lager from Jamaica.] Apparently, in addition to trying to persuade models to have a go, 'As the game progressed, the guys started high-fiving each other; at one point Jake did what looked like a little dance after bowling a spare.' Far be it from me to mention that this sounds as if the spares might have been few and far between. Possibly, this is because it's hard to bowl and have your hood up.


We have more interviews today with Jake, Duncan and, I'm delighted to say, Vera Farmiga. These include interviews from Coming Soon and Collider. You'll find these embedded below within extracts from another interview with Jake, courtesy of The Spec. The article is a little spoilery but these snippets below are not. It's interesting to hear Jake talk a little more about how fond he is of his role in Brothers, Tommy. But first a little on keeping Source Code fresh throughout.



'“We knew beforehand that the only way this was going to be engaging and intriguing and fun to watch was through variation,” Gyllenhaal said. “How Duncan staged a scene, how I responded, how I gathered information, how much I was aware of what was going, and how much I wasn’t aware. So it felt like a real tightrope walk for me. And as soon as I stopped thinking about all those cliched responses you might expect from an actor in a thriller, as soon as it became a real psychological exploration, it became fascinating to me.”'



'“I have a relatively strange mind,” Gyllenhaal says. “Some strange things are going to come from it.” While there has been the occasional payday, like “Prince of Persia” (“Even there I tried to throw in a little bit of something,” he countered), he’s also done “The Good Girl,” “Lovely & Amazing,” the grossly underappreciated “Zodiac” and, more recently, “Brothers,” the Jim Sheridan’s adaptation of the Susanne Bier’s Danish film. “I loved that story and I loved that character,” he said. “In fact, I loved that character maybe more than any I’ve played; I’d like to bring him back in some kind of incarnation again ‘cause I just loved what he was struggling with. But yeah,” he added. “I think things work the best when I listen to my own instincts.”'



Includes pictures from IHJ.

Saturday 26 March 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal out and about in LA and even more interviews with Jake and Duncan Jones on Source Code

Jake Gyllenhaal's certainly busy at the moment. When he's not giving more interviews for Source Code, he's looking around motorbike shops (can't say I blame him, I'm looking for a bike jacket myself at the moment) or going to launches of jeans in Bloomingdales, Santa Monica. As Jake is Jeans Man personified, it's not a surprise that he showed up to that one. Jake has also been spotted chatting with singer Jason Mraz. Below, Jake is pictured visiting the bike shop on Friday (25 March) and at the Hoyle Jackson launch party the previous Friday.


There are more interviews with Jake and Duncan Jones today. The interview we were promised with the Orlando Sentinel has now been published. You can read that there but here are a couple of snippets. '“It’s regret that always makes you — if you listen to it — choose not to do something that you [might] regret the next time around,” Gyllenhaal says. “The things that we regret and remember are the things that make us more present in our lives. That’s what life is all about, for me... It goes from ‘I’m using these eight minutes of someone else’s life to save thousands of people’ to ‘What would you do if you had eight minutes to live?’ That’s pretty deep for a thriller. That lifts this movie to a much higher plane, dealing with a much larger philosophical idea.” Gyllenhaal chuckles. “The irony is, regardless of past or future, if we looked at the world that way, we’d all be a lot more present.”'


'“Every choice I’ve ever made is probably informed by my interest in Eastern religions and philosophies,” he says of his college courses. “’Source Code’ explores a ton of different philosophical ideas, that there is no real linearity to life, that time and space are flexible — all things that aren’t just about science but that concern religion and philosophy, particularly Buddhism.”'

'“I enjoy being the eyes of the audience, because I am always thinking of the audience. With this character, I had the ability to think about all the things the audience might think about that. ‘Why doesn’t he try this? Why don’t I try that?’ And I could play against that... What would you change if you had the chance? Not much. Not in my life. I’ve been blessed,” Gyllenhaal says. “But what I learn from this movie is it’s not what you do, it’s how you respond. It’s not going out and never making a mistake. It’s how you respond afterwards. That determines who we are. The ultimate goal is to help others, not yourself.”'


From an interview with the National Post: '“I think my strength is to do a take all the way through,” the actor says. “I am definitely not someone who can do a sprint. Maybe I am not that smart, but it takes me a while to find the moment, and I like to be pushed toward it.” Indeed, Gyllenhaal maintains that Jones has a great deal in common with his Brokeback Mountain director, Ang Lee. “They both give clear directions. Ang would say, ‘Not sexy at all. Sexier.’ And Duncan would say things like, ‘OK, say it weirder.’” Casting seemed to work out, as well, especially with the selection of Monaghan, who has received acclaim for roles in North Country and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. “Michelle’s the audience eyes for this film, so it was important to relate to her,” Gyllenhaal says. She returns the compliment: “Jake’s so easy to act with, because he loves his job.”'


Boston.com has an interesting article about Duncan Jones and the film but it is a little spoilery. It does, however, feature this quote from Jake: ''Making a movie where you’re playing with time is a fun process,’ says Gyllenhaal, who’s had a chance to meditate on the genre a bit, between Source Code, Donnie Darko, and even Prince of Persia. Speaking by phone from Los Angeles, he continues, 'There’s not a moment where you can go on autopilot. And the audience experiences the same feeling. Time is an issue that inevitably creates tension, and in movies like this, you have the ability to create even more.''

There is also a particularly fascinating article over at the SF Gate, focusing especially on Duncan and Michelle Monaghan. This is a lot heavier on the spoilers so do be warned.


And finally...

With thanks to a friend, I've updated the Jake on the Box panel to include Jake's appearance on Good Morning America on 31 March.

Includes pictures from links and IHJ.

My review of The Eagle is now up at MovieBrit.

Friday 25 March 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal at the Harvard Westlake Film Festival and Interviews with Duncan and Jake (on an awful lot of topics)

With all the excitement about the imminent release of Source Code buzzing around at the moment, Jake Gyllenhaal was able to surprise attendees at the Harvard Westlake Film Festival last week in LA. Details are only now emerging. Guillermo del Toro was the main guest but Jake was an unexpected speaker 'who joked that someday he hopes these young filmmakers will cast him in their films'.


Jake is a graduate of Harvard Westlake (1998) and so it's no surprise that he's been a guest of the festival before. This is from 2004.


There are some more interviews for Source Code today, as the great reviews pile up. The Times featurea a wonderful spread on Duncan Jones today, in which he talks very honestly and openly about his unusual upbringing, his parents and the choices he's made. 'I’m 40 next month. It’s taken me a long time to get where I am. If Moon was my calling card, Source Code is part of the certification process of Hollywood to show I can work with stars and bring in a studio film on budget (which was around $30 million).'


'“It’s ironic I became a director,” Jones smiles. “When I was young my family was very protective of me. They were always hiding me from photographers and so I’ve always been a bit phobic of having my picture taken. I’m better now, but it’s strange to be so nervous around cameras when I work behind them.”'

There is a video interview with Duncan over at First Showing.


Meanwhile, there is a great interview with Jake over at the Chicago Sun-Times. It begins, however, with a little piece about us: 'His fans call themselves Gyllenhaalics and there is no intervention. They just need to have their fix of those pecs and that sweet smile.' Although I like to think that a regular fix of Jake's talent on the big screen is more vital than a peek at pecs... But yes to the smile.

Scenes from Source Code were filmed in Chicago: “'Chicago is so cool in my book,” Gyllenhaal said. “We shot in the early morning hours and we had the whole park, but without giving too much away, we were filming in front of a statue that was very reflective. You could see the faces of the fans in the background going nuts and waving. It didn’t exactly fit into the plot about a guy who is hiding out. So I asked the ladies to shift a little to the left. It was pretty funny because the crowd moved together like one big dance step. It was everybody to the left in a few big steps. Then everybody to the right. I love my fans. They were so cooperative.”'


Acting in the pod: '“I knew it had to look disorientating, so what I would do is hold my breath and do a number of kung fu combinations to get dripping wet with sweat. Then we’d roll,” he recalled. “We’d do a seven-minute take and then I’d do my breath-holding routine all over again.” He admitted that he almost passed out a few times. “The room was literally spinning, but that was great because my confusion looked so real onscreen.”'

Jake recalls his first role in City Slickers. '“It was crazy to be a kid on a major movie set,” he said. “I couldn’t believe that I was that close to Billy Crystal. To this day, I remember the wardrobe I wore, being in the makeup trailer and working with that cow that played Norman.” He was a giving co-star. “Remember the last scene at the airport with the family in the van with our new pet?” he asks. “The cow was peeing all over me.”'


There are also memories of working with Heath Ledger: '“I remember seeing him after we were both cast. We were at this party and we didn’t have real space to talk. But somehow we found a little corner and we started doing some of the lines,” he said. “We both thought the story was so beautiful and we wanted to service that story in whatever way possible. We had no time to waste.”'

For the first time, we hear a little about End of Watch: it's “a beautiful screenplay about two Los Angeles police department officers. It’s about the nature of duty and friendship, and about the reasons why young guys put their lives in danger.”


'"It would be great to just play characters and lose yourself in them while the audience loses themselves in the characters you play,” he said. “I’d much rather they know less about me and more about the characters. I don’t like having my life played out in the media. I’d much rather keep my private life private. At the same time, I completely understand the interest in an actor’s personal life. I am very forgiving of little 9-year-old girls who run up and say, ‘I want to marry you.’”'

'“Family is the most important thing to me. I love being with my niece,” Gyllenhaal said. “Since my niece came into my life, I have a new perspective on spending time around the dinner table with the people who are special.” They won’t have to deal with his movie star attitude, because there is none. “If I developed an attitude, my mom would give me a real good whupping.”'


Jake has talked to NBC Connecticut about Source Code and what he would change: '“I’ve lived a blessed life,” says the actor, who plays a character who must continually re-explore eight minutes someone else’s life in order to avert a major catastrophe. “I think with regret, regardless of what it might be, if you listen to it is the best teacher, in the way that it has allowed me to live more presently.”'

'“But in the wake of something like what is going on in Japan, even around the world,” Gyllenhaal continues, “I can’t think about something that I would want to go back and re-live in my life, because my life has so far been pretty extraordinary. I would want there to be something like this computer program in the movie: Imagine if you had the ability to go back into a nuclear scientist’s body in Japan, or eight minutes before something happened – you could warn thousands of people what was going on. That’s what I would use it for. It’s hard for me to think about something for myself in the situation that is going on right now.”'


When talking about the 8-minute loops that his character must undergo, Jake recalls the instructions of Duncan: '“Make it weirder – treat everyone like they’re a computer game. Respond to them even stranger.”'

Jake has also been speaking a little about his future and it does include directing: 'Well, I do have a number of things that I'm developing. That's probably where the future lies for me, but I'm not going to give up the day-job just yet. I'd like to see where it goes. You're always wondering how long this will last. It's a piece of being an actor. There's always someone more talented or younger than you. But I also like to write. In years to come, I think that will expand. I won't just be scrapping for the next job. Maybe I'll create something for myself.'


Includes pictures from links and IHJ.

My review of the Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2D) is now up at MovieBrit.

Thursday 24 March 2011

[Updated] More Jake video interviews to go with Jake Gyllenhaal on the Jimmy Kimmel Show - comes with a Karaoke warning...

While we catch up on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, which has left an image in my mind of Jake's mum traipsing around the less salubrious streets of London Town in search of elusive street artists, here are some more video interviews from today, courtesy of Collider and Reelz Channel. I particularly like the former because Jake talks about playing Wii Tennis. Wouldn't mind giving him a run for his money on that one... Ahem. Jake also says that he, like David O Russell, has no idea about what is happening with Nailed and that he always follows his director. Like that.




Source Code | Jake Gyllenhaal | Hollywood Dailies | Movie Trailer | Review


And some more bits and pieces:





And back to Jimmy K!

Last night, in the wee small hours, Jake Gyllenhaal appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the full interview in four chunks. As a Brit, I think I have just about unconfused Jimmies Kimmel and Fallon in my head now. Unnamed sources have informed me that Kimmel is the one with the merkin and not the yellow bananas.




Wednesday 23 March 2011

News of the Source Code LA premiere, goodbye UMP, more interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal and Duncan Jones, a WDW Cotswold Interlude

Tonight Jake Gyllenhaal appears on the Jimmy Kimmel Show - does that mean the return of Yellow Banana one asks oneself. While we wait to see what is in store for us courtesy of Jimmy and Jake, we have some more interviews with Jake and Duncan Jones. But before that, we now know that the premiere for Source Code takes place on 28 March (7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard) and, if you have a bunch of dosh, you can be there too. It's all part of another Jake ACLU auction and more importantly it is donated by Jake himself. Details here. Thanks to BBMISwear for the heads up.


Admittedly, their last auction involving Jake was to join him and Doug Liman on the set of the Unnamed Moon Project back in the spring of 2010. Something that did not come to pass and something that is unlikely to either. The Hollywood Reporter revealed yesterday that UMP has reached another stage in its somewhat fractious path to a possible launch. Despite Jake's close association to the project in the past, as producer and star, it now looks as if Doug is trying to push the project forward yet again but now Jake is not attached. As we've mentioned here before, Jake's association with Duncan Jones may have given his link to UMP the kiss of death, but it has not been helped by switches in writers and plot plus the lack of studio support. One can't help but wish Doug all the best with this labour of the heart. I still think that Jake and Doug will work together at some point.


We have some more interviews with Jake and Duncan. First off, there's this from Making Of.



There is more behind the scenes footage at Kinogalereya. Thanks to Carlota and Eureka for the links! There is also this interview from Hitfix.



A WDW Cotswold Interlude

Today was the warmest day of the year so far - there wasn't a cloud in the sky and a sheltered spot it was positively balmy. I have a sunburnt face to prove it. And so, spontaneously, Mr WDW and I took off on the faithful Triumph for the Cotswolds and spent the day visiting some of the most beautiful old wool towns and fitted in a couple of Roman villas for good measure. We rode past one field and the sound of the bike disturbed a small herd of large deer, who leapt over wall upon wall - one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen in England. I tried to get a photo but just got the tailend.

Churches - the Painswick church is well known for its excessive topiary.




Villas - Chedworth is one of the most well-known Roman villas in the Cotswolds but is currently under scaffold as a new visitors' centre is built giving closer access to its famous mosaics. I rather liked the wrapping for the hypocaust.


The other villa, Great Witcombe Roman Villa, had no such disturbance. Just a spectacular backdrop across the most stunning countryside.



Pictures from links, IHJ and WDW.