All is quiet on the Jake Gyllenhaal front. IMDb appears to confirm that Jake may well be appearing as Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods (lucky Cinders) but otherwise Jake has been focusing on living his life in NYC. But he has been glimpsed and that was cycling about the city. Thanks to IHJ for the photo (taken on 23 May).
WDW historic interlude
In the absence of news, I thought I'd 'entertain' you with a few photos from our very hot and sunny Bank Holiday weekend. It's been raining persistently for days but kindly it decided to take a rest for the three-day holiday. The downside of this is that I now look like a giant red blushing lobster. The weekend had a historical theme, which meant it started off with Chedworth Roman Villa.
We then drove down the road to Hailes Abbey, a beautiful abbey that once housed a reliquary said to contain the blood of Christ. Cromwell had it tested, found it wanting and wreaked havoc on the buildings during the Reformation.
Next to the Abbey a small church, older than the Abbey, survives and it contains the most wonderful wall paintings.
The next day, we watched the famous Sealed Knot re-enactors redo the English Civil War battle for Woodstock at Blenheim Palace (the site of the old palace of Woodstock during the Middle Ages). It's many years since I've spent a day cheering on Royalists and Roundheads (can never make up my mind between them) with the Sealed Knot. I can certainly vouch for their taste in real ale. It appears to give them the powers of eternal life - not one was killed and stayed killed...
It was then time for the really important business - cricket.
Jake is also about - here he is being interviewed by Moviefone. And here's another one.
As we speak, probably, the SXSW red carpet in Austin, Texas, is getting its last bit of spit and polish before Jake Gyllenhaal and Duncan Jones walk the walk and Source Code premieres in just a few hours. I'd tell you exactly how many hours if I knew which timezone Austin's in. But proving true the ancient adage ('No film ever had more posters than Source Code'), today there are more posters for Source Code, also giving us the opportunity to see Jake's name spelt out in a range of languages. I might be wrong but so far I've not seen a poster in Welsh.
Duncan Jones has been blogging about his first day in Texas, spent in Dallas, and it is a must read. It could also make you hungry.
We have other goodies. There is a new featurette 'What is the Source Code?', which you can watch below, but it could be spoilery and so I haven't seen it with the sound on. It does look good, however. There are some new stills as well, thanks to IHJ, and you can find those below in the next section of the post. Alsoo, if you have your 3D specs handy, this is rather fun. Thanks to Eureka for the heads up!
Men's Journal - cyclists are like fish
As we know, Jake's featured in April's edition of Men's Journal and thanks to its website we get quite a taster. It was an interview conducted on the go - you've got to be fit to interview Jake these days - fit and speedy. It also contains the requisite amount of GyllenSpeak. Here are some excerpts, head over there to Men's Journal for the full extract. Incidentally, you have to wonder about a place that calls its hills Garbage Hill or Trash Truck Hill:
'Jake Gyllenhaal proves to be a man of his word, unfortunately. Yesterday he promised me a “really fucking hard climb,” and that’s what he’s engineering now, up and down Garbage Hill in Griffith Park, then over to the Hollywood Hills for a second round of ascents to Mulholland Drive. It starts out easy enough. As we zip over the flats along the 5 Freeway, portions of the ride spool by in bike-geek chitchat. I ask about his velodrome-style Look frame. “I’m not really a gearhead. With biking, the spirit of it is — whatever you can find. To be honest, I know nothing about my bikes. I know how to change a tire; I know how to fix my bike if need be. I just know none of the names.”'
'“I’ve had to teach myself to slow down a bit,” he confesses. “Because I get so into it, it becomes a real addiction. But it’s like a New Year’s resolution.” “To exercise less?” “To sit down and read a book. Life’s not a bike ride. I wouldn’t say exercise less, but sit with myself.” Good thing there’s the action-star loophole — Jake believes he can “sit with himself” while he’s running. “It’s not: ‘I’m having a shitty day and I’m going to go for a run,’ but ‘I’m having a shitty day and I’m going for a run and I’m going to try to work out what’s going on.’ Not just get my serotonin levels up and feel good. I’m going to think about things. And the only way you can do that is to slow the pace down.”'
'“I like to think of my toes as always moving forward,” he says. “Don’t push down. Try to even out the forces between pushing and pulling. Find a cadence and stay in it.” This works almost instantly; I close in on him and feel the way up the road getting easier. “Stay relaxed. You ever see the riders in the Tour de France getting up in the saddle? They’re not rocking from side to side. Their spines are loose, and they look like fish.” He stands on his pedals and turns to me. “When I start getting tense, I breathe out.” One arm at a time, he lets go of his handlebars and flicks his hands. “I carry a lot of tension in my hands, so I do this a lot.”'
*** For all Brits out there, do go out and buy the Times today (Saturday) - a stunning spread on Jake!***
You know it's a good day when you open up your daily broadsheet, and there, joyfully distracting you from anything remotely electiony or volcanoey, is Jake Gyllenhaal spread across two pages, in full and striking and big colour, complete with a full interview. You can read the full interview at the Independent. But, I'm sure you'll agree, if there's any movie star worth dropping your porridge on while you read the papers over brekkie, it's Jake.
'More women flirted with me when I shaved my head as a marine in Jarhead than when I got big muscles and had long hair in Prince of Persia.' While I appreciate that this verdict is the result of Jake's detailed analysis of his flirting spreadsheet, I would like to point out to him that this is because Jake was in a desert for 6 months, with women greatly outnumbered by stunt doubles. Give us half a chance, Jake, and we'll flirt.
I liked this tribute to Paul Newman: 'I don't think I've met a more decent human being.' And also when Jake mentions that he did take a photo of himself after he completed his initiation jump - of 35 feet - he was so proud of himself. 'Happy is a funny word' is a more complex statement to understand. There's still time, pop down to the local shop and grab a copy.
I'm really pleased to say that there are more videos today to add to the Prince of Persia scrolls. I enoyed this one below from InStyle, in which Jake and Gemma Arterton manage to bicker with each other's answers even though they're not interviewed together!
Incidentally, who'd have thought that if you went to Marble Arch at the end of London's Oxford Street, you'd be confronted with a 12 foot Prince of Persia made entirely from sand? Considering our weather this week, Oxford Street could have its very own sandstorm tomorrow...
In this video from E! Jake talks about his muscle gain and says it's nothing that 10,000 repetitions can't give you. I think I'll stick with the washing hair regime. Jake does say that having long and greasy hair makes him empathise with women more - er, thanks, Jake, maybe...
If you're in the UK, do go out and grab your copy of the June edition of SciFi Now. It has just reached the shelves and it has six glorious PoP pages.
The US is getting a run of TV spots and thanks to IHJ we have a couple more to enjoy.
In a complete change of tack, this video below presents a bunch of people spurring on cyclist Levi Leipheimer as he goes for his 4th consecutive win at the Amgen Tour of California. You can find Jake (Actor Extraordinaire) around the 4:30 mark.
I feel like I'm catching up a little but there's quite a bit more to do before Monday, when the PoP tour reaches Los Angeles!
