PoP Week: Canada Day

And another flashback - to yesterday. Jake being interviewed by Tribute.ca, and it's a great one. Did you ever wonder whom Jake would pick for a celebrity Amazing Race partner? Now you'll know!



Flashforward update: Jake on Regis and Kelly - thanks to Stephanie!







Canadians celebrate it on July 1, but for Jake Gyllenhaal and the Prince of Persia promotional express, Tuesday was Canada Day. Jake made appearances on the CBC, MTV and a few other outlets.

According to one blogger, the MTV spot was a little wild:



Repeatedly throughout the program, girls would call out inappropriately, "Jake, show us your abs!", which later escalated to "Jake, show us your snake!" after he described the process of working with a Snake Trainer. Taking the situation in stride, he responded "Well played. I like your style". The show's frustrated hosts eventually had to silence the rowdy audience, which again saw girls interrupting Gyllenhaal as he was trying to thank Canadians for their support. Jokingly, he pointed at his abs, stating "I realize that this is a big weekend for the ladies.... but this (pointing at his abs) is Sex in the City. Why see Sex and The City 2 when you can watch Prince of Persia twice?". Charmer.



The eTalk appearance provoked a lot of happy tweets from audience members and participants and jealousy from those left out.

One after another, my friends bombed my Blackberry with Jakey love. And all of them noted first that it was his charm, his personality, that came before the hotness. He is funny and dorky and really nice and sweet with the bluest blue eyes and the sexiest sh-t eating smirk, all of it enhanced by that elusive “star quality”. Jake Gyllenhaal is a Movie Star. A true Movie Star. And remember, this isn’t coming from superfan losers and stalkers. This is observation from people who work with celebrities every day, they see it all the time. For jaded television people, the default position is to dislike. Somehow Jakey G swept through that building and won them all.



Here's a clip from The Hour:



In case you missed it in the last post, Jake also did some roundtable interviews, which were recorded. Worth a listen, as there are some different questions.

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USA Today talks about Jake's "deferred childhood" and the familiar theme of taking himself less seriously. The director has a nice summation:

But Newell says that Gyllenhaal was not only the film's muscle, but its emotional core.

"With video (game adaptations), you're always looking for the human equivalent," Newell says. "You need an actor who can almost breathe emotion. I knew from Brokeback Mountain (Gyllenhaal) could do that. And it didn't hurt that he could build that kind of physique and look good on a horse."



No, that does not hurt, Mike!

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Speaking of Jake on horseback, Moviefone asked Jake about one of Oscar's biggest blunders:

It seems like everybody looks at "'Brokeback Mountain' vs. 'Crash'" as one of the biggest Oscar upsets. Do you ever get flustered over that, or do you feel like those events are out of your control?

The irony is we made that movie for 12 million dollars. And I know that's a lot of money, but in the world of making movies, compared to something like 'Prince of Persia,' it's very small. And it had this massive success financially [and] critically. To me -- and I really don't mean to seem like a cliché -- but I have people come up to me on the street daily who say that a movie like 'Brokeback Mountain' changed their life. Award or no award, it doesn't matter. What matters is an audience has seen it and has been moved. Yeah, I think there's a want in everybody to say, "I want to win this, or do this." But I think in the end, we won so many times with that movie, it's amazing. That experience I know will be with me for the rest of my life, in so many ways.

I'd never heard Jake asked specifically about the Oscar upset.

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In a bold time-traveling maneuver, Jake also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel "Live" Tuesday night, where he discussed pancakes, photo bombs and princes, all in a Russian accent:

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Traveling back in time to last week, here's Part 1 of the Popsugar video of the special fan screening. Just a few glimpses of Jake, but lovely ones:




(MTV Live photo by amandavc. Other Canada photos courtesy IHJ.)