"Why sign up for a film like this if you’re not game for some real action?”

In a new interview, Jake Gyllenhaal talks about running, jumping and having fun being bad.

IN the trailer of the upcoming film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a muscular Jake Gyllenhaal is seen doing amazing moves in exciting action sequences.

One has him scaling a high castle wall by pulling himself up using arrows half-buried in the wall that had been shot at the castle by a comrade.

“I look pretty cool doing that,” says the soft-spoken Californian actor when interviewed in Santa Monica.

"Can I help it if my arms are too big?!"

“But what you don’t know is the behind-the-scenes goofs. My arm and shoulder muscles were so big that the chest plate I wore prevented me from reaching up to grab the arrows,” he says.

“There were many funny takes of me doing that and in the end, they literally had to cut wider arm holes in the chest plate,” he says with a laugh.



“I’ve always loved watching action-adventure films and dreamt of being one of those characters as a kid. You know, like Indiana Jones and the cool, swashbuckling Errol Flynn flicks,” he says.

“When I read Prince, I saw a clear role for me. This guy is wry, gets to do lots of fun stuff and best of all, is ‘bad’ and funny.”



For the film he learned parkour, which sees the environment as a jungle gym obstacle course. It was founded by David Belle. ...

“There is a scene where my character runs along a wall, which seems impossible, but Belle made it happen. It’s one of my favourite scenes from the film,” says Gyllenhaal ...



He says he does many of the stunts himself, including a 10.6-metre jump with wire work. “I wanted to do everything,” he says.

“Why sign up for a film like this if you’re not game for some real action?”

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Remember last summer, when we heard that Jake went to the White House with Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd? Still no photo of Jake with the President, but here he is at the back gate:




We're getting closer!

(Some photos courtesy of IHJ.)