In a mere two weeks, Jake Gyllenhaal will emerge from his cave* into the big city - or Big Apple, to be more accurate. Yes, on Saturday 2 October, Jake is a guest of the New Yorker and will talk with critic David Denby at the SVA Theatre, NYC, about his career and about his upcoming film, Love and Other Drugs. A clue to that is the additional presence of LAOD director Ed Zwick. More details here.
This could very well mean that Jake will be spending the next two weeks preparing to bid a sad, inevitable and possibly teary farewell to The Beard. After several months of devoted care, no doubt twirling it between his fingers and stroking it in moments of deep thought, the time is almost here for when it must succumb to the brush and foam of the barber.
I know that many readers here - well, maybe 2 - are almost as attached to The Beard as Jake is himself. And so, in preparation for the Great Shave, this post is a tribute to Jake's face fuzz and, despite its numbered days, one can take consolation in the knowledge that it will be back. For sure. The video below is my favourite video of Jake with a beard. It's also my favourite video of Jake being interviewed by a Brummie.
But don't take it too far, Jake, please.
*Jake has mentioned living in a cave on two occasions now - in late 2007 and during this summer. Obviously, it would explain a great deal and from now on whenever Jake says something unusual, it pays to believe it. I would like to point out to Jake that we have some excellent cave systems in England, many in close proximity to superb cheese and cider producers.
Cave comment 2007: 'I’ve become an ascetic—I live in a cave now. That’s why I am growing a beard. I have no sex, so I’m much more interesting!'
Cave comment 2010: 'I am an ascetic, living in a cave. I no longer have sex and so I've become much more interesting (laughs).'
I'm picking up a theme...
And finally...
Thanks to everyone for all their votes in our What Next For Jake poll?! At the time of writing, Drama, Musical and Historical film are neck and neck and neck. Mr WDW will no doubt be pleased to see three votes for his choice, Film noir. There are four days left so keep the votes coming!
Update: Thanks to Claire for the alert that the international trailer for Love and Other Drugs has now appeared on the Orange UK homepage with, curiously, a release date of 31 December. I'm not so sure that date will stick although as it's my birthday I do approve...
Pictures thanks to IHJ and thanks to Sweetpea for the NYC headsup.
As Jake Gyllenhaal continues to torment us with his absence - although, rather obligingly and considerately, leaving Dastan with many of us for consolation - I thought I'd take the opportunity to do a poll. It's been a while and you'll see it to the right. After the results are in, we'll be able to tell Jake exactly what kind of role we would like him to sign on to next (whether it's before or after UMP, Damn Yankees and Born to Run). To help you make up your mind on this very important question, here's a look at Jake as he whips through the genres for your delectation.
1. RomCom
2. Horror
3. SciFi
4. Action
5. Weepie
6. Comedy
7. Whodunnit
8. Western
9. Drama
10. Musical
11. Film noir
12. Cartoon
13. Biopic
14. Historical
15. War
16. Other
How about another disaster movie or what about a certain agent working for Her Majesty's Secret Service?
One man who has received considerable attention during this PoP year is Simon Waterson who helped to pump up Jake Gyllenhaal's biceps and abs by mercilessly denying him snickers bars and hearty British pub fare while forcefeeding him with raw fish and soup and pummelling those tired muscles relentlessly. Simon Waterson, ex-Royal Marine and torturer to the rich and famous, has given us details about Jake's PoP regime and diet before, but now, to coincide with the DVD release, we have a full account from Simon. How can anyone not buy the DVD now, when faced with the unavoidable truth that there was a lot more to the making of Prince of Persia than wall-to-wall couscous? Here is the true story in all its horror, so shocking that no amount of Blu-ray extras can do justice to it. Do you ever see Dastan eat? I don't think so...
Over to Simon and the catalogue of tortures that made up the diary of Jake's PoP day (although I must admit that I'd be hard pressed to come up with a better start to the day than a 5am half-banana accompanied by sandy uphill sprints and squat thrusts while wearing a weighted jacket). But a warning... Do NOT try this at home (unless Bruckheimer asks you nicely).
5 A.M. “We’d start the day very early with a strong black coffee and a pre-workout snack of half a banana and some nuts,” explains Waterson. “Jake was staying in London at the time, so we’d drive to Hyde Park to work out on the sand horse tracks, which would mimic the sand of Morocco where much of the movie was filmed. Every workout would start of with warm-up exercises and stretches – and then Jake would put on a 20lb-weighted jacket to simulate the armor he would wear in the movie. He’d run around on the sand for 30 to 40 minutes before spending an hour on cardio exercises including sit-ups, press-up, squat thrusts and uphill sprints. Finally, we’d finish off with some stretches and a cool-down session – and then we’d head home.”
7.30 A.M. “Jake would eat breakfast around 7.30 A.M. every morning. This would consist of an egg white omelet with a piece of rye toast and half a protein shake with blueberries, raspberries and almonds. After a shower, he’d head off to the studio for the day where he’d work on the pre-production of the movie. He’d be involved with stunt rehearsals, fight choreography, costume tests and script run-throughs before returning home for his evening workout.”
10 A.M. “It was essential to keep Jake well fueled throughout the day, so he would eat small and often. A small snack consists of anything from a cereal bar to a power bar or half a protein shake and some nuts or dark chocolate.”
MIDDAY “A typical lunch would be a light meal of brown rice, chicken and a dark green, leafy vegetable like broccoli, steamed asparagus or spinach. Alternatively, he’d have a baked potato with tuna and salad.”
6 P.M. “We’d tackle a lot of circuit-based training in the hour-long evening session. This involved pull-ups, plyometrics, jumps and sit-ups. We’d use things like kettle bells during these exercises, as well as cables to simulate sword fights. We would end the session with a couple of compound exercises before stretching and cooling down. A compound exercise is an exercise where you use multiple muscle groups and you lift heavy weights. Typical examples of compound exercises are dead lifts, shoulder press and bench press exercises. These would allow Jake to develop muscle tissue, which gave him the aesthetics for the character.”
7.30 P.M. “If possible, Jake would get a half-hour deep tissue massage after the evening workout. This would help get blood into the right areas to heal and prevent muscle soreness – and to make sure the muscles were ready to work again the next day. For dinner, he’d eat a lean piece of meat or a little bit of sushi. Anything protein-based and lean would work, but if we finished late and it was within two hours of going to bed, it would better to have soup instead. A light soup like chicken and sweet corn soup works wonders because it’s easier to digest while you’re trying to sleep.”
9 P.M. “I’d always suggest Jake get to bed as early as possible because he’d have to be up before 5 A.M. every morning to tackle another day of intense exercise and work. There was never time for a late night with a workout regimen like this, but Jake put in 100 percent of effort and it all paid off with a remarkable level of fitness and a great movie role. It all worked out in the end.” Source.
Jake's lucky. At least he didn't have to live in a shoebox at the bottom of a lake and have to sponge it dry every morning by 2am before working a 29-hour shift down the pit while having his feet gnawed off by rats and licking the coalface for lunch. You had it easy, Jake!
Previous Waterson posts/interviews on WDW can be found here and here and here. Includes pictures from Disney and scans by WDW from Men's Fitness (June 2010)
Update: Reports are flooding in that Jake Gyllenhaal may indeed prove to be the missing link - more details here and see below.
Jake 'You can call me Grizzly' Gyllenhaal left the city this weekend, heading for a friend's cabin outside Los Angeles (28 August). Aguably, this time of woody environment is more conducive to intensive beard growth. Fortunately, Jake seems to have come out of his bear wrestling relatively unscathed - although the same cannot be said for his trousers... and shoes.
In the picture below, Jake demonstrates another new disguise he's picked up in the woods - the tree pose. Please note how I'm not mentioning the tongue.
Many thanks to IHJ for the pictures - there are lots more there! Good to see you again, Jake!
There's nothing for it - here is Jake Gyllenhaal singing 'Hedgehog Doing Karate: The American Idol Song' with Jimmy Fallon - in bright yellow. As I understand it, American Idol is a docudrama about a group of youngsters who crash land on a Pacific Island With No Name, who have to sing their way out of trouble while avoiding the indigenous polar bears and Simon Cowell and Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber.
Do not attempt to watch this clip without sunglasses, ear plugs and a strong constitution. Whatever would Nizam think?
Jake later recounted his traumatic experience in Century City where, just because he was firing some weapon, he was carted off in handcuffs. It is not known if this was before or after the Stealing the Speedo Incident at the Beverly Center. Jake was banned for life from Century City mall. If he goes anywhere near the place now, he is almost instantly surrounded by security and large crowds. Fortunately, I can attest myself that Jake managed to cause no lasting damage to London's Westfield Centre the other week.
This is another of those days when the GyllenGoodies hurtle thick and fast, tumbling down that Disney Mountain of PoP in an avalanche of golden treasures. With Prince of Persia now just hours away from the screens of North America, it's little surprise that PoP Thursday is every bit as jampacked as PoP Wednesday. So, not knowing where to begin, let's continue with Jake Gyllenhaal on the cover and in the pages of London's free weekly magazine, ShortList - more than enough to brighten up the morning commute.
This is such an interesting and varied interview - you can read it online here or click on these scans. 'Yeah, that’s like my favourite thing ever: the many mispronunciations of the name Gyllenhaal. Gill-en-hale, Gyle-en-hall, Gyle-en-hale… Does it bother you? No, I forgive them. It’s an absurd last name. It’s Swedish.'
'Lance Armstrong said to me, “Just break a sweat once a day.” Break a sweat once a day — and not out of stress — and you’ll stay healthy for the rest of your life. And I think that’s really true. Find something to get your heart-rate up, that’s what I did with this. But it’s good also to get paid to do it. That really helps. '
'[They say you’re a dab hand at woodwork. Is that nonsense?] That is kind of nonsense... I’m going to just set the record straight now. I don’t think I’m that good at woodwork. I do like doing woodwork. But I don’t necessarily think I’m good at it. It’s really hard. [What’s the last thing you made?] The last thing I think I made was a big outdoor dining table for my house. I made one for my mom that’s really great, made from salvaged wood. [Do you put your initials in it so she knows it’s from you?] No, no... My genius is anonymity. [That’s beautiful.] I know, it’s beautiful. You may be eating dinner at a table I made and not know it. I could have made this [taps the table in front of us]…'
'Well, he [Paul Newman] was just the guy who made salad dressings to me. But if he hadn’t been this extraordinary actor, this huge movie star, he still would have been this incredible person. Do you know what I mean? He always exuded that. As a kid, I could feel that. But I don’t think I knew how amazing he was until later on. And he became a real guide.'
On testing for Batman Begins: 'That was the beginning of me going after things that I think that people didn’t assume that I could play. Something like testing for the role of Batman, nobody wanted to see me for that.' [Was it a close-run thing?] I got pretty close. I just pushed and pushed and pushed and tried as hard as I could to get it, because I thought, “Maybe I could do it.” That was me saying, “I’m going to do things that people don’t expect.” The Batman thing was the beginning of that. [Are there any other big movies you missed out on?] These are horrible stories. So many, man. I’ve been acting for 15 years, since I was pretty young, so there have been tons of different things. My flummoxed audition for Dude, Where’s My Car? [You really auditioned for that?] Oh man, I gave such a good audition. Such a bummer. It was so good.'
'[Be serious, because we’re going to print this… I’m serious. Totally serious. I came in and they were like, “We don’t want it to be like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, we want it to be different.” I was like, “I got it. I got it.” I’d worked on it. I knew exactly what I was going to do. And I was like [puts on dorky accent], “Dude, where’s my car?” That was the character. That was who I was going to be. And they were like, “That’s great, um, can we try it again, without the accent?” And I was like, “That’s all I’ve got... That was what I’ve got for it.” That was a movie I would have loved to have done.'
World Cup: '[England play USA in their first game. You’ll definitely be watching it?] Yes, I’m going to watch it. I’m thinking I may go to South Africa. Maybe. [Your next movie is called Nailed. Other than the fact it’s about a woman with a nail stuck in her head, can you tell us why we should watch it?] Yeah, there’s a pretty raucous sex scene with me and Jessica Biel. It’s so brilliantly shot, crazy camera moves and a lot of choreography on our parts. That was all from the mind of [Three Kings director] David O Russell. I think it took maybe 40 tries to get right. [Not a bad day in the office...] Say no more.' Much more here, including more bewildering and impenetrable consideration of the Donnie Darko plot.
Another fine interview (conducted at the Dorchester in London) can be found today in Australia's Herald Sun. All of these interviews demonstrate what absolute fun Jake had making Prince of Persia and how its publicity has been a joy (the contrast to Rendition strikes me constantly). 'But when I saw the Lego, well. Most of the kids in my life, they would be like, 'There is a Lego Prince of Persia? This movie is gonna be awesome!' That really made me excited. Some may say an Academy Award nomination is a massive achievement, but I would say my own Prince of Persia Lego man (is bigger)... They had to totally redo the classic Lego mullet to accommodate my hairdo and make a new mould.'
'Normally I'm sitting on a set doing scenes and not being able to move and all I want to do is jump up and run around... So it was as fun to do as it is to watch. That was the movie -- we all went to the desert as a huge group of people and we had a whole lot of fun.'
'Everyone takes things so seriously and I've learnt that the world is a pretty rough place. I think if you have the opportunity to take things less seriously for a moment, well, do it... I'm doing something different not just for my career but for my life. I had the honour of meeting President Obama a little while ago and he said to me, 'It's your job as an entertainer to entertain and make people feel good because we're going through a rough time'. I really took those words of advice to heart. I was like, 'All right, many people do much more important jobs than me, but in terms of my job, that's what I do'. I happen to be at an age where I've taken myself so seriously and I don't really want to take myself as seriously any more. So I decided this film was going to be the jump off point for me. I just want to have fun and see what happens creatively... Now, if someone says to me 'You're going to do what?' I will be, 'I'm going to do it'.'
'The heart of this movie is someone coming to terms with someone who didn't want to get close to people... They don't want to open their heart but in the end they have no choice. These are two people fighting that, as every great love story is about that. But for me, it was about: you don't settle for anything, in life, in a love relationship.'
'Can I just say I love Australians? I have to say that right now. I don't want to group you as 'all Australians' but you're pretty rad. I just worked with (American actor) Michelle Monaghan and her husband (Queenslander Peter White) is Australian. Every Australian that comes in and out of my life is just so great.' I like that.
INTERMISSION - go and put the kettle on or pour yourself another drink. Imagine incidental music - maybe something nice on a harp...
... Jake conducted several interviews in Canada (you can watch another one here) on Tuesday and this article sets the scene a little: 'My abs make me who I am. That and the hair," he laughs wryly before reporters at Toronto's Windsor Arm's hotel. Gyllenhaal jokes. He plays. He talks mischievously about his bad eyesight and downing Gummy Bears (a training no-no) while shooting Disney's sprawling new epic, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time." You watch. You listen. And then you ask, "Is this the same guy from "Brokeback Mountain?" Yes, and no.'
'Contrary to popular belief, I like to have a good time... We were out to make a movie where people have a good time... That was our intention. To make a fun, lighthearted movie that was a throwback to the films of Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn but modern at the same time... When I was a kid I loved movies like ‘Indiana Jones.' I think ‘Prince of Persia' can give a whole new generation of kids the same kind of thrill.'
I'm sure we all remember WonderCon, the event that kicked off this Prince of Persia Adventure - today an interview from there has been released: 'here he is, the star of solemn dramas such as "Donnie Darko" and "Brokeback Mountain," in one of the back conference rooms of the Moscone Center looking oddly inconspicuous in a black sweatshirt and blue jeans and feeling a little frustrated that his handlers won't let him out to mingle with the thousands of costumed revelers on the floor. "I've always heard about these events, and I've always wondered what they were like," the 29-year-old Los Angeles native says, sipping a cup of green tea. "This feels like home. This is what it was like every Sunday at the Gyllenhaal house."'
'"I don't ostracize myself from the rest of the world in terms of how much I'm entertained by large-scale movies and how much I love them," he says. "So I thought, you know, I got a lot of attention from the other roles I played. It gave me the opportunity to look around."'
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'"But you've got to trust your instincts. Lives and careers are made out of great successes and great failures and taking risks. I feel like, if you try to sit there listening to what everybody thinks you should do and you're not listening to your own heart, then you're bound not to be living life. So I just went, 'I'm going to go for it.'?"' Read more here.
I do want to congratulate Sir Ben Kingsley for his Hollywood Star unveiled today, in the presence of Jerry Bruckheimer.
In another London interview (Reuters) just released, Jake talks some more about his choice of roles: 'I think it was about time I stopped taking myself so seriously, and I think to learn as an actor and as any artist that there are different facets to what you do.'
'I have been told often that I have a good sense of humor and the slew of movies that I've done, starting with this movie to the movie I just did with Anne Hathaway ("Love and Other Drugs") and then a movie I just did with Duncan Jones ("Source Code") all have incorporated that sense of humor and a sense of fun, and I think a sense of real entertainment. Those were the movies that I loved always when I was a kid. I loved Indiana Jones. There were movies I remember that were told for children or the child-like part of ourselves. Some of them are really dark, some of them are light, I consider this (Prince of Persia) as sort of lighter, but that's what I wanted to do, I wanted to tell a story and be in a story that was great fun.'
'When I was a little younger, and I did start (acting) so young, I think you tend to try and be a little bit more of what you think other people might want or what people might consider to be interesting. And then I think I found that I've just decided to do what I find interesting. That doesn't mean I'm not going to do films that are darker later on.'
'These games haven't been given the respect they deserve in the movie world and I think (producer) Gerry (Bruckheimer) has done that. They (gamers) are tough, and I appreciate that. I come from a tough family. I don't mind tough critics.'
And finally...
Jake Gyllenhaal appeared on ETalk in Toronto in Tuesday. You can see a taster here. As yet, this show hasn't made it online, but stay tuned to WDW because, in the next day or two, there will be an astonishing (and dareIsay 'rad') report by a WDW Correspondent and Adventurer! It is going to be Super Dope!
A reminder that if you want to go and heckle Rob on MovieBrit for his guest review of Prince of Persia, please do! I'm off to do that now myself...
Many thanks to Winterbird for treating me to the ShortList! And thanks to IHJ for continuing their incredible job of keeping us well-fed with videos and pictures.
