Interview with Jake from the Digital Journal.

What made you interested in portraying Captain Colter Stevens in Source Code?

“I would have to say it was two things, the screenplay (by Ben Ripley), but mostly because of the director, Duncan Jones. Duncan made the most extraordinary movie with his debut film, Moon. I thought he and I would really work well together doing Source Code. And we did. Also, Duncan had this inherent trust in me, as an actor, and that felt good. I had weeks to work with someone as extraordinary as him, and it was like a godsend, you know. But I was also lucky to such a great character. He is someone I could look up to in participating in the Source Code program.”

(more…)

Bear Grylls, star of “Man vs. Wild,” has done plenty of challenging things during the nearly five-year run of the worst-case-scenario survival show. He ate a sheep’s eyeball. Drank his own urine. He even gave himself an enema in the middle of an ocean.

During the show’s sixth season — new episodes begin airing on Discovery on Monday night — the 37-year-old will not only continue to push himself, but one very pretty, high-profile actor: Jake Gyllenhaal. In an installment titled “Men vs. Wild,” Grylls takes Gyllenhaal to the Icelandic tundra. Unlike when he took Will Ferrell to the Arctic Circle, the weather is uncooperative: he and the “Love and Other Drugs” star brave 90 mph winds and individually pull themselves across a single rope suspended hundreds of feet over a deep ravine. (You can catch a glimpse of that scary stunt below.)

(more…)

Jake Gyllenhaal believes the movie City Slickers was a hit because of him.

The Hollywood star appeared in the 1991 comedy as an 11-year-old, alongside Billy Crystal. The film went on to be a massive hit across the world, a fact that Jake attributes to his presence in the movie.

“I’m the reason that movie was a hit. It was all down to me,” he joked to Empire magazine, before adding, “You know, I do remember shooting a scene in the schoolroom, where Billy Crystal had a big speech. And I get up and say, ‘My dad’s Mitch and he’s a submarine commander.’ I must have said it a million times and I was so nervous. Which worked, I guess, for the scene.”

(more…)

The video archive have been updated with a couple of new interviews from Germany and Italy.

He’s been under the coveted directorial thumbs of Ang Lee and Jim Sheridan, but now Jake Gyllenhaal is doling out advice for aspiring actors and filmmakers.

A humorous Gyllenhaal appeared at the Apple Store in SoHo Friday evening with co-star Michelle Monaghan and director Duncan Jones in promotion of their new movie, “Source Code.” The panel discussion was followed by a Q&A session with the mostly teenage audience, delighting passersby who congregated en masse on the store’s second floor.

When asked by a high schooler if acting was a viable career path, Gyllenhaal immediately quipped, “Is there something wrong with you?”

(more…)