Friday, November 30, 2012

Tired of London?



Never. Not for Samuel Johnson or Jake Gyllenhaal. He made a very entertaining stop on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show this morning. The verdict?

BBC Radio1 Breakfast ‏@R1Breakfast
We've all fallen a little bit in love with Jake Gyllenhaal. Even the guys on the team. What a guy :D





Here's a link to the show:

On Friday's show, we're joined by Hollywood legend Jake Glyllenhaal. His name might be difficult to spell, but it turns out that he's a really nice chap! He tells us about his new movie, and he tries to convince Grimmy to grow a beard.




Jake's morning continued with an Empire podcast:




Then a web chat:


And lots of excited office workers in London.



Jake was also on the Graham Norton show last night; this photo was taken backstage (I think). Link to the whole show; whole show and some clips below:









Jake must be tired IN London at this point.


Unless he's just sitting in it the wrong way, that's Jake in what appears to be the world's most uncomfortable chair at a BAFTA Q&A for End of Watch.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

EoW BTS

Update: Variety's SAG Awards coverage kicks off with Actors on Actors. Carey Mulligan gives her perspective on Jake as he made End of Watch:


I remember so vividly Jake's demeanor when he was preparing for "End of Watch." I have known him and regarded him as a dear friend for several years, and during that time I was very struck by some fundamental change in him. He was energized, he was completely present and he told me with such excitement about the work that he was doing to get ready for his next movie.

A large part of the work involved was observing protocol on the midnight shift with the LAPD. Both he and Michael Pena witnessed pretty tragic, unpleasant scenes that affected them both. His descriptions of the ride-alongs were charged not with voyeurism but with a profound respect for the policemen and women whom they were observing. His reinvigorated sense of perspective and humility was palpable. I sensed just how deep he had already gone, and that the experience was filling him in some new way. Not that Jake had ever taken work lightly ­­-- quite the opposite -- but what was so distinct on this occasion was that this work was releasing him. He seemed more free, more alive and more comfortable in his skin than I had ever known him.

Watching Jake in "End of Watch," I saw all of that joyous freedom on the screen. His complete ease in scenes with the brilliant Michael Pena makes those moments wrap around you in all their infectious warmth, and pulls you into the car with them. Their comraderie is the most beautiful portrayal of friendship in the truest sense: absolute trust, love and unflinching loyalty.

It is a love story that broke my heart and Jake's work is fearless. He is not daunted by the intimacy of their relationship, the lightening fast emotional changes, the dichotomy of bravado and honesty or even a meticulously choreographed first dance at his wedding.

When he stood to speak at the closing of the movie, with such quiet grace, I realized I hadn't thought once of the Jake I know as my friend but only as the character he embodies in this wonderfully special movie.





End of Watch will be released January 22 on DVD. Here's hoping there's a lot more of stuff like this:



Especially the stuff around 9:30 :)


Bonus features include:

Fate with a Badge
In the Streets
Women on Watch
Watch Your Six
Honors
Deleted Scenes
Feature Commentary with Writer and Director David Ayer

Jake has a cold:

Jake Gyllenhaal speaks to Joe Michalczuk about Cop thriller End of Watch from Joe Michalczuk on Vimeo.


That's the video to a radio interview I posted earlier.

Jake for the French:

Veuillez installer Flash Player pour lire la vidéo
What Jake learned:
In case you missed it, Anna Kendrick continues to sing Jake's praises: With a highly charged storyline and five different cameras, shooting the film wasn’t always easy, but again, Anna could only praise Jake’s professionalism. She added: "We were filming on five different cameras and you’d be in character for 12 hours a day. We all got really close really quickly which was lovely and Jake was always running around set making sure that everyone was ok. That was really impressive!"
Reposting this wonderful 30-minute interview with Jake, done by Dave Poland:

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had an embarrassment of Jake Gyllenhaal riches in 2012. Thanksgiving Day yields more.


Dave Poland sits down with Jake, who discusses the things he loves about making movies and being an actor, his ambitions and whether he has a grand plan. It's a wonderful opportunity to observe a relaxed, funny and serious Jake. All in glorious close up.



Britain's ShortList delves into similar themes:

Did you have trouble convincing your agent to let you do it?

It’s interesting you say that because [it points out] how the business is taking over any sense of creativity that anybody might have. Everyone’s going after some goal, be it financial or otherwise and, in my perspective, that is totally out of whack. But no, I wouldn’t work with an agent like that. ...

Did you experience any funny encounters on the job?

The laughter comes in the little things – like figuring out where to eat, because people will do crappy things to the food if you’re a cop. Seriously. And when you do eat, like clockwork, locals will come up and ask you questions about parking tickets or when their cousin will get out of jail. ...


You came close to playing both Batman and Spider-Man. Are you over the superhero thing now?

At a certain point you realise there’s always someone more interesting, talented and ready to do a role than you are – and you won’t get every role you go for. All I want right now is to hone my skills and become a better actor, not dream about wearing a cape. But you never know.

After nude scenes in Brokeback Mountain and Love And Other Drugs, are you now impervious to embarrassment on screen?

Do you think there is one person on Earth impervious to embarrassment? And do you think it would be me? That’s a rhetorical question, and I’ll leave you with that.


The Wrap shines the spotlight on movies and performances that shouldn't be overlooked come awards time:


David Ayers, "End of Watch": The year's best crime drama is a hyper-realistic ode to the LAPD punctuated by strong performances from Jake Gyllenhaal (right) and Michael Peña. "Training Day" made writer-director Ayers' career, but this film isn't far off.

Jake on the Gyllenholiday tradition:





This year in Jake World, I'm grateful for two thrilling, moving performances. In End of Watch, for which Jake and everyone involved worked so hard. I'm so happy that it has paid off for all of them.

I'm especially thankful for If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet and the opportunity to see Jake being funny and sexy and dark, all live and in person.

Meeting and attending the play with fellow Jake fans made it all the sweeter.

Every year, I'm grateful for the community we have here, from regulars to lurkers. Thanks for making this a fun place to spend time. And thank you to Jake for giving us so much to experience, look back on and look forward to.


Eat, drink and be merry!

Monday, November 19, 2012

'Tis the season



Jake is being honored tonight by New Eyes for the Needy:


New Eyes for the Needy celebrates 80 years of empowering children and adults in the United States and overseas with the improved vision they need to pursue a better quality of life for themselves, their families and their communities. Please join us in saluting Jake Gyllenhaal as a lifelong supporter, ambassador and fundraiser for New Eyes.







What's that? It's the smell of Oscar season. And IndieWire's Anne Thompson puts Jake in consideration:

Of all the dark horse Oscar hopefuls this year, none deserves more consideration than Jake Gyllenhaal for his role as an LA cop in David Ayer's "End of Watch." It's such a competitive year for leading actors that I hope this performance in a this well-reviewed indie film will be seen. Critics groups may give it some attention.


Major movie stars have a hint of danger about them; Gyllenhaal, who hits 32 in December, is one of many boyish American leading men who are earning gravitas as they age. "End of Watch" marks Gyllenhaal's finest and most aggressively mature work to date.


Anne Thompson: You're on a roll: you got your best reviews to date for your latest film 'End of Watch' as well as your off-Broadway play 'If There Is, I Haven't Found It Yet.'

Jake Gyllenhaal: I don't read them. I find it overwhelming; the stage work is still alive, so those type of things get in your head. It's best not to think in terms of that, it ends up affecting you, whether it's good or bad. So I stay away and do my work.

AT: Did you make a recent change in your approach to choosing projects?

JG: It was a perfect storm of a lot of things happening. The reality of life itself was hitting me hard, at 30. It was not a calculation. I had spent the majority of my 20s blessed by being able to work consistently. I grew up thinking I understood the business of making movies. I got to a point where I said, 'What do I want my life be? It's about more than career.' So I don't put my career before my life anymore.


It's a great read, so check out the rest.

Two Oscar hopefuls in InStyle:


"There's no one I'd rather be stuck in a car with than Michael."

If you've always wanted to hear Jake say the word "flatulence," now's your chance:


Saturday, November 17, 2012

SMA

Jake Gyllenhaal apparently does make an appearance in People's Sexiest Man Alive issue. They got the cover wrong for the eighth straight year, but this is a nice shot of Jake:


Gyllencrazy posted these Hollywood Elsewhere clips the other day. A few clips from an End of Watch Q&A at the Screen Actors' Guild after the L.A. premiere:







Some stage door and backstage photos:








Friday, November 16, 2012

30/60/80


There's been a flurry of Jake Gyllenhaal press this week. The Los Angeles Times did a profile in their Contenders section.

We started off by noting you're in your 30s. Where are you in your 60s?

Hopefully alive. (Laughs.) Hopefully with a family, hopefully as a father, with a family I can be proud of, which will most likely be a mess of one. If you're asking me if I see my career or whatever — well, there are so many talented people out there, so many people who have, as Jay-Z says, "genius-level talent." I don't want to be presumptuous enough to say I'd still be doing what I do in 30 years. But I would like to be.


GoldDerby posted an 18-minute video chat with Jake Gyllenhaal, in which Jake talks about making End of Watch and starring in If There Is I Haven't Found It yet.



After several weeks in the role, he has more than 80 performances under his belt – the show closes on December 23 – but he says he only recently settled into the conceptually challenging play: "I have to say I don't think I found the play until two shows ago … I think we finally have a show that we understand."

Jake mentions the show they did for an audience of high school students and how much he learned from their response to the play, as well as their questions at the Q&A.

But he enjoys the challenge of live theater and hopes for another chance to return to the stage. He also appreciates the rare comfort of having "a consistent job … at 7:30 every night, I have a job, which as an actor is a pretty great feeling."

Jake confirms that he has a new gig after the play, confirming Prisoners.


The press coincides with the imminent release of End of Watch in the UK, as well as the start of awards season. It's nice to see Open Road making a campaign for EoW.

From a Glamour UK interview with Anna Kendrick:

G: What was it like working closely with Jake?

A: "He's incredible. I think he really has a knack for understanding other actors and what they need and he's incredibly supportive and he was really protective of me on set... And, you know, in this lovely way, where life kind of imitates art, the first scene I shot with him was the scene when I meet his friends for the first time, and it really felt like I was meeting my boyfriend's friends because they had been working together for a really long time and I really felt like I had to prove myself to them, and at the same time Jake felt like he really had to watch out for me so, yeah, it was really lovely."


This video has many familiar answers, but there's a moment where the lights go out - hadn't seen that in an interview before!

Canary Wharf incorporates a lot of old quotes but a new bit, as well:

He resurfaced in Clerkenwell, skulking around Exmouth Market, black baseball cap pulled low, engulfing collar pulled up round the ears. Was he shooting a new movie; working on a new play; charming a local lovely? Actually, he was filming a bizarre music video for obscure indie noise The Shoes, where he was documented liaising with hipsters in East London.

"It really just seemed like the right thing to do at the time," he drawls in a slightly nasally Pacific Coast twang. "I wasn't really looking to do anything for a couple of months but the band are friends of friends and had put together a great treatment for a video shoot in London. I said, 'can I do it with you?' and that's really all I did for a while—I did that promo, and then hung out a lot, just reading, watching the world go by. It was nice."


Vote for Jake in the Dramatic Actor category for the People's Choice Awards.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Redemption?


The Times of London sees End of Watch as redemption for Jake Gyllenhaal

Round, close-set eyes, long face, upturned nose, beatific grin... No matter how hard one tries to banish the thought, when you see Jake Gyllenhaal, you can’t stop the image of Woody from Toy Story popping into your head. Maybe that’s why he got cast in Brokeback Mountain; perhaps Heath Ledger reminded the producers of Buzz. Today, though, the picture is somewhat skewed, because Gyllenhaal’s youthful looks are obscured by an added cartoonish adornment — a beard of such pirate-captain volume and lustre, you suspect there’s a band around his head, holding it in place.


We are used to black-clad ­Hollywood bucks disfiguring themselves in the name of art, as if handsomeness precludes integrity, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. The face rug is, however, for a part; he’s appearing in If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet at the Laura Pels Theatre, in New York.

Lampooning Gyllenhaal — with a soft “g” — is a bit mean. He is, it turns out, a most excellent and genial fellow. Generous, too, breaking bread in a downtown Manhattan hotel, late in the afternoon, when he really ought to be limbering up backstage for tonight’s show. “I happen to like not starting my engine until very soon before,” he says. “It makes it a little more exciting for me.”


So why the comeback? “It was a questioning of what I want to do with my work and my life, and if I felt fulfilled,” he says. “I think it may have been turning 30. I’d made a promise to myself that I would really only pursue my artistic instincts, no matter where it took me, and I kind of broke that promise.”


There is a contrivance, in that the film is supp­osedly viewed through Gyllenhaal’s omnipresent digicam: “YouTube meets Training Day,” as Ayer put it. Key to the exercise, Gyllenhaal says, was realism. He spent five months on night-time ride-alongs with the LAPD, cruising the ’hoods seen in the movie. Whenever an actor makes such a claim, I say, one can’t help but think of the film The Hard Way, in which, for the purposes of filmic research, a pampered movie star (played by Michael J Fox) is foisted on an abusive hard-boiled detective (James Woods). “So do I,” he chuckles. “And, by the way, don’t think we didn’t get all that shit while doing it for real. The very first ride-along, we were the second call on a shooting, a murder. Guy bled out right in front of me.”

Gyllenhaal runs through the highlights, picking out Donnie Darko, the Sundance hit The Good Girl (as Jennifer Aniston’s toy boy) and Jarhead as particular favourites. “And obviously Brokeback Mountain [his Oscar-nominated, Bafta-winning turn as the gay cowpoke Jack Twist], not just for the process, which was incredibly special, but for the result that came out of it. I’m so grateful to that movie for everything.” One might add David Fincher’s serial-killer docudrama, Zodiac, or Love & Other Drugs, opposite Anne Hathaway, with Gyllenhaal as a Viagra-touting pharmaceutical salesman.


You know your most underrated performance, I say. “No?” Bear Grylls: Man vs Wild — a corking episode in which Gyllenhaal and the survival expert are dropped on a glacier in Iceland, then yomp across volcanoes, swim icy waters and try to eat a rotting sheep. He laughs. “That was fun. That was the start of all this crazy stuff, going on the streets with cops after going with Bear. I thought, ‘Yeah, this sounds dan­gerous. Let’s do it.’”


One thing Gyllenhaal’s new direction won’t include is the screen version of Fifty Shades of Grey. Stories have spread across the internet linking him to the part of the priapic Christian Grey, something based on the casual comments of the book’s author, EL James. “Literally, I know nothing about that.”

Currently, he has a more pressing engagement, with a theatre audience. He’s cutting it fine and still has the rush-hour traffic to contend with. You know what, he says, family business or not, acting would still have been his vocation. “Because, at times, there is nothing that brings me more joy than being up on the stage or being in a movie, watching an actor give an extra­ordinary performance across from me. That gives my soul joy. And I know it sounds like a total cliché, and it is, and in print it sure will be, but it does.”