Sunday, March 27, 2011

Catching Up



Many news outlets have interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal and/or Duncan Jones this weekend, leading up to Friday's release of Source Code. We'll include a few snippets and links, as well as some Jake pics that have popped up. First up, Jake out and about in Los Angeles on Friday, apparently checking out a bike shop.

From The Gyllenhaal Code in the Boston Herald:

Perhaps Gyllenhaal’s gut feeling about the “Source Code” script can be chalked up to maturity — the actor who played the troubled teen in 2001’s “Donnie Darko” is now 30 years old.

“I feel like I’m lucky to have gotten to 30. There’s a great confidence that comes with it, a real security in understanding myself,” he said.

“This movie is actually a nice representation of that, because there’s a lot of trusting my instinct, trusting that I love this story and that I was going to go with it and never second-guessing it.”




Gyllenhaal hopes moviegoers will respond to his love story with Michelle Monaghan, set on a speeding train bound for destruction.

“In the end, it’s romantic. The choice for this guy is not like, ‘Oh, am I really going to save the world?’ The choice is that he starts as a guy essentially in someone else’s body who is nervous to ask this girl to get a cup of coffee and then has to get blown up eight times to realize that maybe he’s got to ask this girl out for a cup of coffee. So I do relate to that.

“Sometimes it feels like when you walk up to somebody and you’re intrigued by them, to gather up the gumption, to ask someone a question like that, feels like you’re blowing up inside eight times.”




From London Free Press:

Reflecting on his own career -- and putting it in context -- he observes, "As Donnie Darko was a metaphor for childhood into adolescence, I think this is a metaphor for adolescence into adulthood."

Besides, it's not like he has the option to stay young -- whether he's on or off-screen.

"If there's one thing I've learned from turning 30 it's that I really don't have a choice as to whether I'm going to get older or not. I have no intention of pretending I'm 15 when I'm 40. But, please, be aware there may be some mistakes along the way." ...

Regardless of the conceits of the plot, in his own life, Gyllenhaal describes regret as "a great teacher if you listen to it. I wouldn't redo anything."

Including, it turns out, some of his recent films. Both the romantic drama Love & Other Drugs, in which he co-starred with Anne Hathaway, and the video game-inspired Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time underperformed at the box office despite high commercial expectations.

"My experience has been the movies I'm most proud of always get found," he says when asked about Source Code's box office chances. "And with a movie similar in tone to this, Donnie Darko, it's become something more than it initially started as "¦ I believe Source Code will be discovered regardless. All you can do is movies you believe in and trust your instinct. If it's good, people will find it."




From Denton Record-Chronicle:

Jones said Gyllenhaal was instrumental in developing his character behind the scenes, and also in getting Jones involved with the project. The director said he read the script by newcomer Ben Ripley at Gyllenhaal’s request, and the two collaborated while fine-tuning the film after that.

“Jake and I had a very good shorthand as to how we wanted to approach this. We were able to be very improvisational,” Jones said. “We wanted to lighten the tone of the script, and Jake himself had an idea for what he wanted to do in each iteration. My job was to really make sure that we captured that, and to push Jake to do something a little bit more than what he was planning on doing, so we could really go to extremes at times. We had a lot of fun with that.”

Jones, 39, credits Gyllenhaal for helping to ease his transition from independent filmmaking to the Hollywood system, where directors must answer to a host of producers and studio executives that can sometimes threaten creative control. For example, when Jones made a decision to inject more humor into Ripley’s more straightforward script, Gyllenhaal was the first to back him.



Here's Jake at the Harvard Westlake Film Festival:



At the conclusion of the film screenings, Gyllenhaal took the stage and shared his memory of Harvard-Westlake’s first film festival in Rugby Auditorium as well as his admiration for the filmmakers.

"Promise me you’ll all hire me for your movies," he said.


A brief video of Jake onstage with the students:



Jake at the Hoyle Jackson launch party:



Jake with Sam Asi, one of the Source Code press junketeers:

24 comments:

UltraViolet said...

Sorry to end the last post abruptly. I was rushing out but wanted to get a new post up. So happy to read the tweets about Jake and Adam out bowling. Us also has a story about their evening.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, UV. I'm glad that Jake was enjoying himself. I haven't been bowling in years. I was curious what Mini Anden looked like. It seems Jake goes for blondes (I wish he'd give a brunette a try) well the photo I saw she was a blonde but it looks like she is a natural brunette.

I hope Jake and Duncan work together in the future. They looked like they were having so much fun promoting SC. I look forward to the interviews this week. I am still hopeful he might get on Ellen the week after next.

mary said...

stephanie has posted in the gallery a ccuple pics of jake out last night hes wearing a hoodie so you really cant see his face.

i havent been bowling in a long time either sounds like they had a good time good for them

Paula said...

Catching up is exactly what I am doing now, thanks for all the SC interviews and videos posted!

Jake looks smokin hot in the pics of him going to check out his motorcycle, it would have been more hotter if he was on it!

The tweets about Jake and Adam hanging out sounded like they had a blast but the pics on IHJ looks like Jake wasn't too happy:(

I'm getting a bit anxious about SC's BO next week, his competetion is a kids film called Hop and a horror film called Incidious.

The SC reviews have ben really good and Jake and Duncan sound really excited and proud , I can't wait!

bobbyanna said...

Happy that Jake had fun bowling and hanging out with a group of friends last night.

Seems like he spent the whole day with Adam, just hanging out. Adam's girlfriend is a model.

Shondra said...

Duncan's mention of shorthand indicates that Jake really was a major force behind SC.

Jake sounds really confident and mature in this interview. I'm glad that he says that he has no regrets about LOAD and Pop. He shouldn't, his performances were praised in both films.

39? I thought Duncan was 36?

He looks really good in the latest pap pics posted although a bit serious.

SC is still holding at 85% on RT!

Who is Mini Alden???

Lola said...

I'm glad Jake doesn't seem to regret POP or Laod, he was great in them and it got him some more fans. I really hope too, that Jake and Ducan will work together some time in the future. Good to hear Jake and Adam had fun bowling last night. I've only been bowling twice, but im very good at it and ended up winning both times. Mini Alden is a swedish model who has worked for tom ford, calvin klein, and victoria secret. She's been married to Taber Schroeder(a male model) since 2001, so the part of them flirting with eachother is probably false.

bobbyanna said...

Jake does sound very mature and very confident in the SC interviews. I'm praying the movie does well.

Mini's mostly a model, has done some acting, & she married a guy by the name of Taber Shroeder in 2001. I think they're still married. She's very pretty. I think she's Swedish.

I'm not in love with this version of Mildred Pierce. I'm trying.

bobbyanna said...

Oops! Sorry, Lola. I didn't see your post before I started mine.

Monica said...

I like all these interviews. Jake seems so mature.
I'm happy to see all this praise to his work and see how much he learned and devoted himself to this film.

Today I saw Sucker Punch. A bad movie. I'm tired of slow motions of Zac Snyder!

bobbyanna said...

Zac Snyder's not impressive, monica. Unfortunately,300 was his best work.

I found David Edelstein's review of SC. Nice write up in New York Magazine. I liked this part:

"Those who...convinced themselves Matt Damon and Emily Blunt had romantic chemistry in The Adjustment ­Bureau should check out true heat, courtesy of Gyllenhaal’s unblinking baby blues and Michelle Monaghan’s irrepressible glow."

UltraViolet said...

That was a great line from the review, Bobbyanna. Thanks for letting us know it's up. Here it is.

It is gratifying to read the praise for Jake and the movie. I hope it translates at the box office.

Lola, I am also very happy that Jake doesn't regret PoP or L&OD. He did wonderful work in both, and I'd hate to think of him regretting the time. I watched the end of L&OD the other night and was enchanted again.

UltraViolet said...

Here's another short video interview. The other cast and Duncan are on there, too.

I also added a nice SXSW pic of Jake at the beginning of the post. Click to embiggen.

Chica said...

I'm really liking this round of interviews and I agree he does sound more mature.

I love bowling, sounds like Jake and Adam had a fun weekend!

I wasn't feeling this version of Mildred Pierce either Bobbyanna, not the first part anyway.

Sucker Punch looks like garbage!

Love the Edelstien review, he is one of the few critics I respect.

bobbyanna said...

"I hope it translates at the box office."

Oh, me too, UV!!!!

This entire week...and next week they should be saturating TV and internet with Source Code. it's really all about the marketing. It has to be an "event."

Thanks for linking the nymag review by Edelstein.

Chica, I think Todd Haynes dropped the ball on this one. Pacing was way off.

Anonymous said...

I see a maturity in these interviews, too. In the past one of the things that bothered me about Jake was there was a touch of cockiness or too much laughing during Q&A stuff.

I liked these interviews. It's going to be a long dry spell now until Jake's End of Watch is done and released. I guess we've gone through these long spells before. Either he has one movie after another (like LAOD and SC) OR long stretches where there is nothing.

except for pap shots which we KNOW how much he likes that (NOT)

UltraViolet said...

We've been spoiled. This is Jake's third movie release in less than a year. I hope he'll kick into gear and maybe make a smaller movie, too, after End of Watch.

Stupid Christy Lemire. Pardon the swearing, but she's the AP critic so you always see her movie review in a million places. She gave SC 2.5 out of 4 stars. Not bad, but not great, either. The headline seen everywhere is "SC dazzles until the end." Not so bad, I guess. And if you read the review, it seems more positive than a 2.5 star review.

I thought I resented her for her PoP review, but when I just went back to look, it wasn't so bad. Especially for Jake. Maybe it was L&OD. Or a different AP reviewer.

It's hard to keep track of my grudges!

Coming Soon has a video interview with all the SC gang represented.

bobbyanna said...

I hate the AP, UV. You're right.That damned wire service goes out to millions of readers. I definitely remember them dammning Jake with faint praise, or outright slamming, too.

I think all your grudges are
well placed :-)

bobbyanna said...

here's another really good review of SC, Duncan and Jake.

http://www.lovefilm.com/reviews/Source-Code?cid=lftwitter_review

UltraViolet said...

That is a good review, Bobbyanna. It's really fun to keep reading all the good ones. I haven't seen any negative ones since the first few after SXSW. And Rotten Tomatoes has all of them, I think. I'm sure more will come, but I'm enjoying the rarefied air for now.

If you want to hear yet another account of UrinalGate, listen to the podcast. You have to FF through a bunch of game talk. One of the podders was in the bathroom and basically describes what happened:

He did his business, Jake was in line behind him. Jaske went to do his biz, saw the guy filming, asked him to stop. The guy said "I'm not going to film you going," Jake wasn't satisfied with that response - no kidding!

Jake started to go after the guy, the podder kind of came back in and tried to pull the guy away. They went outside and two cops were there.

The podder was disappointed that he'd been erased form history by not appearing in the Taiwan video, lol. He also said Jake thanked him the next day for helping.

bobbyanna said...

UV thanks for yet another perspective on "Urinalgate" LOL!

RT has SC @ 86% from all critics and 90% from audiences with
13,000+ votes! Top critics are favorable by 80%.

"Insidious" is it's closest competition with a RT of 67%. 92% of audiences want to see it out of 3100 votes.

Vote if you can.

Hope they do one last huge media push!

L.A. premiere is tonight, along with Conan @ 11 P.M. DST.

UltraViolet said...

forgot to say thank you for supporting my grudges, Bobbyanna :)

I'm loving the SC numbers so far. Fingers crossed for more good things.

I added a short video of Jake onstage at the harvard Westlake Film Festival. It's adorable.

Ebert gives it a thumbs up, though it's not exactly effusive.

And another short audio clip of Jake from an interview.

FL said...

If you want to hear yet another account of UrinalGate, listen to the podcast.

Well that was very interesting indeed. So Jake wasn't even AT a urinal, merely in the queue to get into the men's. And the guy with the camera was inappropriately filming Jake in queue to the men's. Yeah I can see why Jake doesn't want to talk about this anymore. But I sort of feel bad for the IGN guy on the podcast since his heroics in the incident went unnoticed.

UltraViolet said...

It was interesting to hear the story in an unsensationalized form.

New post.