Más de Madrid

A more stylized view of Jake Gyllenhaal at the Enemy Madrid premiere last week:





Here's Jake with Enemy writer Javier Gullón in Madrid:



Look: Javier has a rejected Enemy poster, with Jake in North by Northwest/Source Code mode:

---

I will post some links to Spanish print interviews. They continue the tradition of being more interesting than Jake's domestic interviews. In the meantime, you can watch a few:





And a look at the premiere, including Denis Villeneuve's interesting introduction of Jake:

---

(First (and maybe fourth?) photo courtesy of Ralf Pascual.

Madridness

Jake Gyllenhaal action on the red carpet in Madrid for the Spanish premiere of Enemy:



All spiffed up to meet and greet.



Where do I go?



I'll just stay right here.



Meet the Enemy. An Enemy?



Just Enemy. Okay.



Someone's creeping up on me.



I'm out of here.



Bye-bye!



That way to the movie...



Hope you all enjoy the show.

---

Jake and Denis did a lot of interviews for Prisoners. I wasn't expecting the same for Enemy. There aren't as many, but there are quite a few. The one above, from Time Out New York really should be longer. Jake seems very relaxed and gets a kick out of the TONY's throwback cover.





Putting this review at the end, as the code is likely to interfere with the rest of the post. Tweet from the interviewer: Jake Gyllenhaal is a very serious man. It's impossible to escape his STARE. You try.

Questions and (some) answers

Some new Enemy art, from the New Yorker and the studio:






Amid the surprising riches of the Enemy promotion, this unexpected treat just popped up. Taped in November of last year, here's a 90-minute Career Conversation with Jake Gyllenhaal, presented by SAG-AFTRA:



Ninety minutes of Jake talking about his career and his family and friends. From road trips to cornrows, the convo runs the gamut. There's some babble in there, but lots of insight and humor. A real treat.

---

From an interview with Salon:

I look at movies like dreams in a way. We have them. There’s something to be learned there. Some people might say they are these things at night that ultimately just keep your neurons going and keep your brain warm. Other people might say they’re open for interpretation. Other people have many ideas. But, to me, I think movies are like that. When you wake up from a dream sometimes you’re moved, sometimes you’re terrified, sometimes you have no idea what happened. And I like all of those things that happen during it. But most of the time you wake up and go, “Wait a second. This just happened when I was asleep. But I don’t know what it’s about.” And I like that about movies and I think you sit in the dark, much like you do when you’re dreaming and you experience something. So I am thrilled by the open ends and the questions. I think they’re what it’s all about.

---

Jake's Five Favorite Movies, via Rotten Tomatoes:


La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954; 97% Tomatometer)

The next I would say is La Strada because, well, do I really have to say? I feel like it's sort of self-explanatory. Like [laughs] Giulietta Masina, I mean every performance, but particularly the last scene in the movie, with Anthony Quinn and just being on the beach, and everything about that movie is beautiful. And there's something always about his films that, knowing that audio was recorded post shooting the film -- I'm pretty sure that's true with that movie -- just to know, in a way, if it is true, it's just to know that there are two sort of performances happening simultaneously. You can see and hear that. And I love that idea and what skill and sort of the presence to this day that movie has. And it's also personally really resonant because my father said after he saw that movie, it was what made him want to make movies, and when I finally saw it when I was a teenager, I understood why. So it inevitably has a resonance beyond the brilliance of the movie itself.

So it was just something that was prominent in your family, growing up?

La Strada? Yeah when I was an infant we were just talking about it. [laughs] No, I just think it sort of tied to that. I mean, I just wonder sometimes if my father hadn't seen that movie and been so moved by it, you know, would he have met my mother? Would my sister have been born? You know, there's a lot of "would-haves" and eventually all of us have found our way into the movie business, so you know, that's just an interesting thing. And you know, you never know how a movie will inspire someone and how it will lead not just one life but many to come. Sort of an interesting idea.

Surrounded by the Enemy

The Enemy push continues with another behind-the-scenes featurette, as well as a few Jake Gyllenhaal interviews. First up, a podcast for CBC radio's Q with Jian Khomeshi.



In January, Jake traveled to Toronto to screen Enemy at the Canada Top Ten festival. He also taped an interview for George Stromboulopoulos Tonight:



Jake recently called Vanity Fair to discuss Enemy and working with Denis Villeneuve:



One of your characters is a professor, the other is a self-absorbed actor. Which character did you relate to more?

Is this a trick question?! I felt more comfortable playing the [professor] Adam character because he was sort of the protagonist, the one in my mind whom I wanted to succeed. And I wanted Anthony’s wife to end up with Adam ultimately. With Anthony [the actor], sadly, maybe he came to me more naturally given my own profession. But I always found myself intimidated while playing him. If he walked in a room, he would not take no for an answer. If Adam walked into the room, he would immediately resign himself to the “no” answer and then apologize for even asking. So in a way, Anthony is an easier character to play because there is a forward momentum.

The latest Enemy featurette delves into the mind of director Denis Villeneuve:

---

This story from Italy names Jake as the lead in Everest. Probably just an assumption; the Italian press seems to focus on Jake as the most famous member of the cast. The story also doesn't say who these people are with Jake. I think the guy with the bead is Michael Kelly. Pardon the bad google translation, especially in the food section:

The Sherpas. The bulky crew, made up of 180 people from all over the world, enjoyed the hotels in the valley, as well as the food and, of course, wine. Eleven Sherpas came to South Tyrol for shooting straight from Nepal, supported by a group of six security personnel from New Zealand. To be part of this international team also about 60 South Tyroleans worked as location manager, assistant director and costumers for the production staff, drivers, guides and extras. They were joined by carpenters, electricians, seamstresses and ski instructors.

Production. The "control center", as busy as a beehive, was in Maso Corto, where they were available to the production with 32 telephone lines. The team stayed in Schnalstal, divided among a dozen hotels and lodges and everyone was able to enjoy the special hospitality and kindness of the Valley, especially the delicious delicacies prepared by our chefs. They especially appreciated the roast chamois Goldenen Kreuz, the Keiserschmarrn and sushi Goldenen Rose, as well as the roast rabbit dell'Oberrainlhof enjoyed by the Sherpas. Paul Grüner's "Goldenen Rose" from Certosa was in charge of the catering for the set workers on the glaciers; up to 400 meals per day were transported and consumed there.

Shooting: … The outside temperature on the glacier was several degrees below zero, the wind and heavy snow put a strain on man and machine. "The continuous changes in the weather gave us quite a hard time in recent weeks," said the producers. As soon as we decided to shoot in a particular place and we had moved all the necessary equipment, the weather changed and we had to rearrange everything. Fortunately, our team was experienced and professional to be able to keep up with any unexpected events."

Difficulties: But professionals are seen also, and especially, in these conditions: the actors are dressed as if they were really on Everest and have continued their work. "During the making of other films, the stars are taken on the set by limo; here we arrive by cable car or chairlift. ... A major challenge for this production was logistics: all the equipment was transported with snowmobiles and helicopters, up to a warehouse built at 3,000 meters high.

---

#TBT October Sky



I think I was 10 years old and hanging out on the movie set October Sky with Jake Gyllenhaal #tbt #octobersky #jakegyllenhaal #petrostn #coalfield #morgancounty

Another #TBT:



Throwback Thursday to the day I asked Jake Gyllenhaal, "excuse me, could we take a picture with you?"
#tbt #jakegyllenhaal #globalwarmingawareness #iqaluit #nunavut

(Happy Sad Confused photo with/from MTV's Josh Horowitz.)

Ensemble

Is Jake Gyllenhaal having trouble deciding what to wear for the Man of the World cover shoot? There seem to be a lot of props to choose from. Or perhaps he was just thinking really hard, something he seems to be doing a lot lately.



In both "Prisoners" and this, you have so much going on beneath the surface -- they're performances that stick with you. It's no coincidence they're my two favorite performances of yours. You seem to be digging deeper than ever before in your work. Is that due to what Denis asks of you, or did you just come to a realization of sorts?

Yeah. I feel a desperate need to bring that to everything that I do. And I feel that every interaction that I have, be it in the interaction that we're having now, or I go out on the street, whoever I see, whoever I meet, in my life, my friends, the people I love, my family... each on of those things in between each project I do is an accumulation of an experience and I want to put all those things, even if it correlates to the movie I'm doing or not. It's all inside me, it's how I grow. So, I don't want deny that stuff and then go and make a movie. I want to take all that stuff with me and put it into the experience I'm having. And that's a decision I made, I started to realize, "That moves me. Oh, I detest that. Oh..." Whatever it is, and bring it in to the performances. I think you get to a certain age where you start doing that and you're no longer feeling that.. I don't know (Laughs).



So I'm seeing more of you in every performance now.

I think so. I think so... I mean, I've become a lot more obsessed with the specificity of characters and like you said, my work, the choices I make, also being on stage was a really big evolution for me. Getting back on stage last year, I will again next year, to me, being a part of... I don't know... I just feel more alive in what I'm doing.

I can't explain it in any way, except the relationships I make with the people I make movies with matters to me the most and how we interact. I'm about to go do this movie about Everest with Baltasar Kormakur, directing the movie, and I know the relationship we have there, like, we will explore. I will listen to him and what he needs and then I'll go into unknown territory for him as a result. I don't now what that's about. I don't know what happened. I just know I went like, "Oh, now's the time." There's no other time but now to go do it. I'm going to make a bold choice and if someone doesn't want it they can cut it out.

---

As far as Italy, at least. Jake and other members of the the Everest cast and crew took a tour of the Eternal City with Imago Artis Tours.



Some information on the Cinecitta sets for Everest. (Spoiler alert if you don't know what happened on the mountain.)

… the area of ​​7,000 square meters topped by a depth of 80 meters in width and 20 in height, the pool - in the past used by Martin Scorsese on "Gangs of New York" and the well-known series "The Borgias "- has been used to recreate the base camp of the tragic Everest expedition of 1996...

---

And here's Jake at Il Gabriello restaurant in Rome: