He'll follow his own star

Due to Hurricane Sandy, Monday's New Eyes for the Needy dinner to honor Jake Gyllenhaal had to be postponed. But in October, 2006, Americans for the Arts gave Jake an award for Artistic Excellence. In the video produced for the event, Jarhead director Sam Mendes and actor (and brother-in-law) Peter Sarsgaard talk about Jake.



They have some great things to say about Jake, as an artist and a person:

He comes from a family of artists but he's definitely a standout

When he gets right to the edge, he's willing to jump in



An individual at all costs



He will not do the obvious roles





Under the guise of a handsome leading man



Individual, quirky, artist



He's completely an original


He's a very dear person, very good man



The best is yet to come



Jake's career probably hasn't gone the way many thought it would. But this year has certainly brought several career hallmarks and highlights. (Berlinale, Time To Dance, If There Is, End of Watch). So here's to the future!

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Here's an interview with Jake from that night.

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Part of that "best" would have to be Jake's performance on the New York stage in If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet. Jake and Brían F. O'Byrne were interviewed by NY1 about their experience so far.

(Photo of Enid Graham in the role previously played by Michelle Gomez.)

NY1 talks a bit about the play at the beginning of this clip and then gives a rave review to Jake at the end.

Local promotion

Jake Gyllenhaal has been hitting the local media outlets in New York, promoting If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet. He'll appear on tomorrow's episode of The Chew, where they did not, apparently, discuss whose show has the worse name.



ABC released photos from the appearance, almost all of which scream for captions:

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Jake and Brían F. O'Byrne also appeared on NY1:

If you didn't get to listen to Jake and Brían discussing If There Is on the radio the other day, you can still hear it. Definitely worth the time.

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More stage door:

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On October 29, New Eyes for the Needy is holding a dinner to celebrate its 80th anniversary. If you can't attend, you can bid on some pretty cool auction items contributed by Jake's friends.

Photo blast

Let's start the week with more stage door photos.

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I thought this was a new photo, but I think it's from the Esquire UK photo shoot. Still something for our Italian Jake fans to look out for:

Rough babelfish translation: It's hard to ask questions when you're younger. Especially in Hollywood, where it seems like everyone knows what they are doing? Italian help welcome!

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This is a German report on the End of Watch premiere. There's some video in here that I don't remember seeing. And Michael Pena saying something about Lance Armstrong...


Jake Gyllenhaal ganz unscheinbar by ENews_cac

Jake's got the moves

The End of Watch video parade continues. Some good stuff in this batch!

Not sure that reporter really knows who Mick Jagger is...



You should date a Mexican girl:


Jake has a cold:

"He is my friend:"



I think this is a repeat, but I can't remember! But it's a good one.

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Jake and Brian O'Byrne after the performance of If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet on 10/20 in New York:

Screen and stage

Updated with more from the WSG on JG:

What did you observe firsthand about the way cops are regarded?

When you see two people entering a situation as first responders that they will have very little jurisdiction over after they leave that area, and then also they have no idea what they’re encountering before they even get there, I think you start to understand why, out of context, police officers at times have been given a bad rap. That’s not to say everybody’s always behaved well, I’m not saying that. But I am saying that in general, many of the police officers we worked with always joked that everybody loves firemen, and everybody dislikes the police. My opinion of it is that there is a huge stigma that comes with that uniform, whether you are watching it come towards you or whether you’re wearing it. I’ve had the privilege and opportunity of wearing it, and what I tried to do was spend five months on the street to try and take that stigma out of putting it on and having it feel like a batsuit. Every time I look into a cop car at this point, I see two beating hearts. Two human beings with a history.

They got the theme of our post!

Another Jake interview a bit of different flavor. The interview was done for MBC.net, "the first privately owned and independent Arabic satellite TV station in Saudi Arabia."

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Update2: Ben Lyons interviewing Jake backstage:

The Wall Street Journal interviews Jake Gyllenhaal about going from movies to the stage:

How has the first month of your first New York stage show gone?

I feel like every night it's not only been a lesson creatively for me, but somehow, some way, just in my life. It's an interaction with an audience which always has a different personality every night, so there are the nights where you get lots of laughter, and there are nights where there's nothing. It becomes a lot less about reactions than really trying to tell the story as truthfully as possible. As a film actor, that's not always your job. Your job is to help the director and give him or her the best possible performance and interpretation, so that they can then tell the story. But in terms of a live performance, it's up to you and the rest of your cast to tell that story every night.

There's a lot of profanity in "End of Watch" and in the play. Do you find yourself dropping more curse words in your personal life?

I have found that at times. Sometimes, weirdly, particularly when you're doing a play, people say a line that sounds like a line you said in a play, and your response will be strangely similar, or the rhythm will be. I've done a lot of interviews recently and sometimes in those interviews, someone will use the same type of phrasing, or words that are connected in the same way that another character speaks to me in the play, and because I do it every night, so often, I'll throw in some curse words by mistake.

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More End of Watch goodies. First up, Jake's arranged marriage:



More here, including some behind-the-scenes shots I hadn't seen before:

Stop me if you've heard this before, but Jake went on ridealongs :)

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