Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Two men and a couch

And a videocamera and a reporter. Anne Thompson conducted an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal and Duncan Jones the day after the premiere of Source Code at SXSW. In part one, the pair discuss how the movie came together, different approaches and different ideas.



In Part Two, they discuss being contemporaries and collaborators.



The final part is the shortest:



It's fun to watch their interplay. There does seem to be mutual respect and affection.



In this interview, Jake reveals that he hadn't seen the final cut of the movie until the Austin premiere. He also talks about the different versions of the Source Code:

What were some of the other endings?

There was a big question about the order to the endings. I had all these weird ideas that someone could appear, or something could happen, and Duncan would always go with these ideas that I had. He would be like, "Can we get—find somebody in a suit! Get that guy off the street!" And we would do a take like that. So hopefully on the DVD you'll be able to see things like that.

But there were alternate versions of every scene. Every source code has an alternate version, initially a different choice made by me.


Yes, let's hope the DVD is jam-packed. Unlike the sort weak L&OD DVD release.

And who knew Popular Mechanics does film stories?

(Photo courtesy of IHJ.)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll have to look at this interview later, I have to run out for a while. I am looking forward to seeing Jake and Michelle in the unscripted interview.

bobbyanna said...

This Ann Thompson interview is really fine, UV. Watching Jake with Duncan, I got a feel for the collaborative aspects of the relationship. Jake likes to have fun in his interviews, but this one was more substantive from a filmmaking perspective if that makes sense.

Jake was very deft in backing away (but not ;)) from her line of questioning about his role in putting the project together. She was a half syllable from saying the word 'producer.' :) He was all about giving Duncan his props, but his own importance/involvement was pretty obvious.

I hope they work together again. They both seem comfortable with the final product. I remember Duncan's tweets in post,especially about the music, so I'm glad the music works so well,and it's getting praise from critics.

Extra said...

What a great interview and Thompson is a wonderful interviewer.

There is a serious tone to Jake here but also relaxed and confident, it's obvious he and Duncan got along well and he is proud of his involvement in getting this together.

Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't there sightings of Jake and Duncan having lunch together back when Jake was filming Pop in the UK?

I wondered then what was up and now we know!

Monica said...

He did the job of a producer. I'm not saying he's the producer, but he worked as a producer.
I do not remember seeing a great interaction between Jake and another director, as I see here.

FL said...

Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't there sightings of Jake and Duncan having lunch together back when Jake was filming Pop in the UK?

I believe the first time they met was in LA, just before Jake went off to Pittsburgh for LAOD.


Also had a painfully early breakfast meeting with Jake Gylenhall. A proper, truly lovely gent! Very much want to work with him.
7:53 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck

Was a fan before meeting him, even more so afterwards.
7:54 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck

Extra said...

Thanks FL, my memory is a little foggy, I just remembered the sighting!

Jake certainly sounds like a producer doesn't he Monica? And the interaction between them isn't anything I have seen before with Jake and other directors.

Anonymous said...

I finally got to see the videos. I think Jake did have the job of a producer, actors don't usually have much say in who is going to direct a movie, they just show up and do what they are supposed to do, they aren't involved in the decision making (like who is going to direct)

I figured that Jake would want to take on a bigger role in movie making get deeper into it by directing and producing (as well as writing. with his parents being a writer and director it comes as no surprise that Jake would want to go in that direction)

I think that Jake and Duncan became friends. And I don't think he could have complimented Duncan more than by comparing his demeanor to Ang. Jake obviously respected Ang Lee a lot and Duncan is a newbie in the directing field so it was a wonderful gesture. I think these two will collaborate again, they will certainly keep in touch, hang out. They seem to have struck up a friendship.

UltraViolet said...

The thing about Ang, though, was that there seemed to be a level of manipulation. I think both Jake and Heath talked about being mystified and feeling anxious. Not sure if that was there with Duncan.

But I do agree that comparing him to Ang is a big compliment from Jake to Duncan. Or Jake would see it that way.

It was just fun to watch them interact. We haven't seen anything like that with Jake and a director. The closest we got is probably the DVD commentary for Donnie Darko.

I do wish Jake would get to do more of those, with or without the director. Would love to have heard him and Fincher do one, lol.

And yes, Jake definitely seems to have played a producer-like role. Maybe he's doing that again for this mysterious new project.

UltraViolet said...

This is an embarrassing story for Summit/SC.

Also, it's clogging up my twitter search!

Oh, and the game does sound lame.

mary said...

im back from vegas had a good time but didnt win anything thanks for all the updates while i was gone

Anonymous said...

Even tho it wasn't on film but still recorded the interview Jake and Fincher did for "Interview" magazine was a good one. It was Jake who interviewed him and people don't interview others for that magazine unless they want to and they like the person they are interviewing.
He also did one with Natalie.

Chica said...

I finally got a chance to watch the entire interview and I loved it. They definately struck up a friendship during filming and they have a mutual respect for one another that shows.

Jake was more hands on with this and I agree sounded more like one of the producers for SC.

I do remember Jake and Heath talking about feeling like they wee being manipulated by Lee too, but I think he just wanted to compliment Duncan.

I don't know what Summit is referring to, I didn't find her interview with Jake or Duncan snarky unless I missed something.

Maybe this will knock the fan that tried to take a pic of Jake taking a leak crap off of twitter, we can only hope!

bobbyanna said...

Twitter's got lots of references to Jake's video on Shalom Sesame tonight, chica. On FB they're in love with him for it. Called it "AfikoMan-Candy," and Jewish women's porn. LOL!

Jake has more input than a lot of actors in his movies. He seems to like to participate in shaping his acting environment.

Shondra said...

Jewish women's porn, I love that Bobbyanna! He is beyond cute in that video.

This has to be one of the more interesting interviews Jake has done and I think that's because of Jake's involvement and he and Duncan seem to be on the same page and seem to genuinely to like each other.

I watched thr 5 minute clip and was blown away, no pun intended!!

I agree UV, the DVD wxtras in LAOD were disappointing.

mary said...

E news had an interview with jake done at the festival of course the interviewer was ben lyons they talked about family and how jake likes to exercise and about source code wasnt very long but was a good interview jake was ina a good mood

UltraViolet said...

I saw that, too, Mary. It was another Ben Lyons special. As annoying as he is, he does get a different Jake interview than the routine. Love how he gushed about Ramona.

E news repeats at 11:30 and it was in the second half of the show, so you can still catch it if you're up.

AfikoMan-Candy, hee. Even better, that video seems to have swept away the urinal story. Notcompletely but a little.

Chica, I didn't think the story was all that snarky either. Way to be oversensitive.

UltraViolet said...

New post.