GQ Down Under

Jake Gyllenhaal is on the cover of GQ Australia, and there's a sneak peek online. The photos are old, but the interview is new. Ish. It was done in Toronto last month.



While the film premiered the night before to a rapturous response, it didn’t stop Gyllenhaal from sitting in the audience feeling nervous and worried that no one would like it as much as he did. He whispered as much to his cinema buddy (who may or may not have been rumoured girlfriend, and Sports Illustrated model, Alyssa Miller).

“I said to my friend in the middle of the screening, pretty pathetically actually, ‘Do you like it?’ And they were like, ‘I’m losing my mind.’ So I thought, OK, good.”

A day later, the rain has disappeared and the sun couldn’t be brighter if it tried. Gyllenhaal is a little tired – a festival will do that – but on good form. Those doe eyes that drive women (and more than a few men) berserk are strangely compelling in real life. He’s an affable bloke with a certain gentle, contemplative side. But there’s also something of a wicked glint. It makes for a good combination.



Gyllenhaal likes film festivals. They’re a chance to hang out with friends he hasn’t seen for a while – a school reunion for the rich and famous. Decked out casually in navy T-shirt, dark denim jeans and Nike high-tops, and wearing the very Brooklyn beard he seems to sport whenever he’s not filming, he’s one of those men (David Beckham’s another) who can combine such casual attire and still look like they just stepped out of, well, GQ. He’s also super fit, and unbelievably lean.

Jake is in some other international publications and video interviews, as the Prisoners promo train rolls around the world.

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A couple of fun videos. First, how to look like Loki:



And then a fun look back at the siblings G:

QE GYLLENHAALS from Melissa Bailey on Vimeo.

Smörgåsbord

Edited to add the above photo, just posted to IHJ, from a different and more appealing GQ shoot :)



Remember this old GQ photo spread? Jake's hair was apparently done by stylist April Barton of New York's Suite 303. Barton has posted a couple of "backstage" photos:




Taking a cue from that strange and, shall we say, eclectic shoot (to be nice), here's a hodgepodge of Jake photos that have cropped up in the last few weeks or so.

From the Di Palo's Fine Food instagram: "#jakegyllenhaal with our 5th generation! He is a big fan of our homemade eggplant parmigiana made daily in store #dipalos #dipalofinefoods thank you jake!"



Fan photo from Berlin last year:



At the Washington Nationals game, 2008:



From the Being John Malcovich premiere?

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And some random tidbits from the interwebs. First, in a February GQ UK article about Idris Elba:

True to his lane-changing philosophy, he spent the previous night DJing, while tonight he's having dinner with Jake Gyllenhaal.

That's one table it would have been fun to see!

Soul and Fly impressions of Jake:

You know I’m going to find a SoulCycle in every city I am in, right? The best workout on the planet- and the most fun too. This 18th Street studio does not disappoint- and I’ve even sat beside Jake Gyllenhaal in it’s classes (no, seriously I have.. and he’s ripped)

Happy March! I was just in a Flywheel class with Jake Gyllenhaal, so I know it’s going to be a good month. And yes, he was gorgeous, sweaty and all.

And from Us:

Jake Gyllenhall rocking out next to Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora at a Maroon 5 concert in NYC.

Maroon 5 played Madison Square Garden on February 16.

And I thought this was cute. From the FB of a former Harvard Westlake teacher:

Thanks to Netflix we saw "End of Watch" with former student Jake Gyllenhaal and "The Master" with Juaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Jake was intense. I'm still not sure what I watched as far as "The Master," but Hoffman is wonderful in every role he plays.

GQ Jake

May's GQ cover boy is Jake Gyllenhaal, and the photos have popped up, along with some snippets of the interview.


How's single life treating Jake Gyllenhaal these days?

"It's ... it's okay," he says in May's GQ.

A few years ago, Gyllenhaal -- who has since split from Reese Witherspoon -- boasted that "the most important job for a man is to find the right woman."

Does he still feel that way?

"Mmmm," he says. "It goes in either direction. I think it's important for every man to find the right woman and every woman to find the right man."

Asked if that's the most important thing, he pauses for a long time. "Who am I to say what the most important thing in life is?" he replies. "The best answer I could give to any of those things is that I really don’t know. Particularly right now in my life."




Gyllenhaal's parents -- film director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner -- finalized their divorce last year after 29 years of marriage.

He says such events can "bring out the truth and honesty in a relationship, and that's greatly relieving to everyone — that people can kind of move and change and grow. And so in some ways, as much pain as there is, there's also a positive outlook on it. And thinking, you know, some relationships last a lifetime, and some relationships don't."

He says his parents' split hasn't affected his personal view about relationships. "Like I said, I think it takes a lot of courage for my parents to make the decision that they made, and I trust both of them and their outlook on life," he says. "They're wonderful parents to me and my sister [Maggie]."

"I think any successful marriage, even if it hasn’t lasted for a lifetime, will create a sense of an ideal," he goes on. "But I don’t have a fantasy. There's not a fantasy. I know it's messy, is what I want to say."


“I’m trying not to keep things so neat. I think I’m realizing my strengths and my faults. I think I’m trying to see what is me…and what is not me.”



"Horns are, to me, the most affirmative instrument to say there is something beyond where we are. In Mumford & Sons [music], whenever those horns come on, I feel like it's all going to be okay. Life's all good -- for the whole world. Maybe that's sophomoric, but I really feel that in my heart."



"I just loved jumping whenever they said 'Jump!' I loved the idea that someone would say just go ahead and jump: 'Man, you know what? Just go ahead and f***ing jump!' 'Really?' And Van Halen was like, 'Yes, my friend.'"




On his experience filming Brokeback Mountain: “There was something magical in that time. We all slept in our trailers out by a trailer park in the first month of making that movie. I was sleeping next to Ang’s trailer; Ang’s trailer was next to Heath and Michelle’s trailer—they’d kind of moved in together. And Michael Hausman, the producer, brought his Airstream trailer down. And it was just us, by this river, for a month. And we would walk to set, and we would eat together, and we would make coffee in the morning, and I would wake up in the morning and there would be Ang Lee doing Tai Chi outside of my trailer, and it was just magical.”

On how Heath’s death affected him: “I don’t really like talking about it. That period of time was…it was difficult. He was very sensitive. He didn’t always have a sense of performance in his everyday life. He knew who he was. I think actors very often, they know how to present something, and that’s part of their job. I think he was just really sensitive. We often used to do a lot of things together, because people were very interested in him and I think we felt safe together. For such a serious actor as Heath was, he was crazy funny. Dark funny, but funny. I don't think any of us can watch [Brokeback Mountain] to this day. I remember talking to Michelle very recently and her being like, 'I didn't know if it was any good or not.'"

Even when we did Brokeback and stuff, it was like my work was the only thing that mattered to me. It was like I could only understand or define myself through doing that. Life, I didn’t totally understand. And I think I was afraid of life. And I had success in my work, enough success that you could keep going back there. But after that happened…I think I recognized that it was work. And I recognized that this is for real.”

Love this part:

Brother-in-law Peter Sarsgaard on a fight he and Jake had, causing them not to speak for ten days: “The nice thing is, for Jake, he doesn’t see having any argument as something that ruins a relationship. He sees it as something that could potentially help one. That’s something I learned from him. I’m extremely close with him. He’s basically my brother.”

Peter further points out, in extolling Jake’s virtues, how unusual he is: “It’s a very difficult thing—or it has been over the course of my life—for me to have respect for people like Jake, who are not self-destructive, who are positive. There are very few actors who have that quality. I go [sighs], ‘Ohhhh, motherf–ker just wants to live—f–k him.’ and my thesis with Jake is that it is genuine. He is not doing it to be more popular and more successful, it is actually who he is.”

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A new featurette on the stunts in PoP, from UGO:

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A shot of Jake between bloody takes on Source Code in Montreal:


And another shot - Jake delivering a punch:



See it in motion!

(GQ scans courtesy of IHJ.)

Deli Jake

Stephanie/IHJ posted the BuzzFoto photos of Jake Gyllenhaal at Katz's Deli in NYC on Saturday.






Looking good! And I'm looking forward to the GQ spread.

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McFarlane Toys has released details on their Prince of Perdia line-up:







(Photod courtesy of IHJ.)

Back in The City

Update: Two more:




Looks as if Jake Gyllenhaal is back in New York City, doing a photo shoot for GQ Magazine.



Nice to see you, Jake!

From twitter:

Celebrity spotting #2: Jake Gyllenhaal in Katz's Deli with a camera crew (photography). Very handsome in person. Quite nice to all the peeps

Another fan photo:



And a couple more:




And another:

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Some new publicity stills for Prince of Persia:

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We also got another report from last week's Love and Other Drugs screening, via Hollywood Elsewhere:



"It's pretty ambitious story about the mid '90s Viagra boom and selling pharmaceuticals for Phizer. Hathaway, Hank Azaria. Oliver Platt plays Gyllenhaal's mentor, and it's probably the best role he's ever had, and perhaps his best performance. He teaches Gyllenhaal the ropes, and he has a really great speech toward the end. The story line, which is basically about Gylenhaal becoming a pharma salesman, is fairly complex. George Segal and Jill Clayburgh play his parents. Josh Gad is the fat younger brother -- the Jonah Hill character.

"Gyllenhaal and Hathaway's love affair is the main thing. Hathaway's Maggie is coping with stage one of Parkinson's -- a very intense and interesting charatcer, well versed in her sickness. And Jake is trying to sell Viagra, and they meet and are attracted and end up having an affair.

"The script take pains to paint the Gyllenhaal character a rake, a ladies' man. Zwick doesn't do that good a job in some respects. There's a lot of bullshit Eloi humor and basically shitty schtick. Mostly about the younger brother being a fat-ass. There's some lame orgy in the middle of it with Jakes accidentally overdosing on Viagra...girls at a party make him swallow too much of it, and he won't go down, resulting in priapism.

"The most exciting part of the film is their relationship. A lot of nudity, a lot of really well done lovemaking stuff, and some of it that isn't so good. It's hard to explain. But Hathaway really knocks it out of the park...she's amazing, wonderful. Gyllenhaal is not as impressive, in my view. He's good in this but he can be a cypher. He's got a pretty narrow range. His character is a really smart guy with no drive...he could have been a doctor but he didn't do it. He's a good salesman but also a ladies' man. But Hathaway dominates.

"So the relationship part is good, the pharmacetical stuff is good. And like I said, Platt has a great speech at the end.

Not the greatest review for Jake, but it sounds like the reviewer isn't a Jake fan.

(PoP stills courtesy of IHJ; NYC photo from Tweet Photo.)