Having interviewed you several times over the years, you seem more at ease with yourself nowadays?
Yes, I do feel that. I think that’s part of growing up. A lot of things happened in my life while I was making this movie, and it made me think that we never know what’s going to happen in the future. All we have is right now, so what do you have to lose but to go for it?

You spent your first day of shooting in a jail?
Yes. People are most open and most vulnerable when they feel it is safe, and it is hard to feel that way in a jail, that’s for sure. It was weird to start the first day of a movie in a jail.

That must have been tough?
It was. I went to LA County Jail and then I went to a couple of juvenile halls which was life changing.

How so?
I think we tend to generalise and to just look at anybody who is in jail a certain way. We don’t look at the story of each person who is in there which is what I think is frustrating. It’s the same as people saying, ‘Is this movie a war story? Is this a story about war?’ I feel you tend to generalise each individual story, what the story is. If someone is a soldier and they are at war, does that mean they are just a soldier at war? Or do they have their own story? And has that story become a war story because they are a soldier? People are coloured by things and that type of prejudice because it’s not what the story about. But in this movie, as in every movie, I found myself learning a different lesson and the biggest lesson I learnt from this movie was from my experience with these boys in juvenile hall.

(more…)

Jake Gyllenhaal gets physical in the new fantasy-adventure film Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, writes AREF OMAR

IN the trailer of the upcoming film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a muscular Jake Gyllenhaal is seen doing amazing moves in exciting action sequences.

One has him scaling a high castle wall by pulling himself up using arrows half-buried in the wall that had been shot at the castle by a comrade.

“I look pretty cool doing that,” says the soft-spoken Californian actor when interviewed in Santa Monica.

“But what you don’t know is the behind-the-scenes goofs. My arm and shoulder muscles were so big that the chest plate I wore prevented me from reaching up to grab the arrows,” he says.

“There were many funny takes of me doing that and in the end, they literally had to cut wider arm holes in the chest plate,” he says with a laugh.

Known for his brooding character in Donnie Darko, his role in Brokeback Mountain as well as for his recent film, Brothers with Tobey McGuire, Prince Of Persia sees Gyllenhaal venturing into new territory as an action hero.

Produced by action guru Jerry Bruckheimer, of Pirates Of The Caribbean fame, Gyllenhaal in Prince Of Persia grows a manly mane and bulks up to play the dashing rogue prince Dastan.

Set in the mystical land of sixth-century Persia, he reluctantly teams up with the mysterious Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) to prevent an ancient dagger from falling into the hands of evil nobleman Nizam (Ben Kingsley).

The dagger contains the Sands of Time, which can reverse time and allows its possessor to rule the world.

“I’ve always loved watching action-adventure films and dreamt of being one of those characters as a kid. You know, like Indiana Jones and the cool, swashbuckling Errol Flynn flicks,” he says.

“When I read Prince, I saw a clear role for me. This guy is wry, gets to do lots of fun stuff and best of all, is ‘bad’ and funny,” says the 29-year-old actor, who was once considered for the roles of Spiderman and Batman.

Gyllenhaal now has his own action figure line.

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” he says, with a laugh.

“It’s interesting to note that although the film is inspired by the popular video game of the 1980s, the platform game itself was inspired by action films like Raiders Of The Lost Ark.”
Looking casual in a pair of black jeans, sneakers and a Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop T-shirt, the six-footer looks fit as a fiddle.

“I’m a physical person by nature, I love being active,” says Gyllenhaal, who is an avid cyclist and kung fu exponent.

For the film he learned parkour, which sees the environment as a jungle gym obstacle course. It was founded by David Belle.

“The role was incredibly acrobatic,” says Gyllenhaal.

Director Mike Newell, whose credits include Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings And A Funeral, wanted the action scenes to be epic yet believable.

“There is a scene where my character runs along a wall, which seems impossible, but Belle made it happen. It’s one of my favourite scenes from the film,” says Gyllenhaal of the film which was shot in Morocco and at Pinewood Studios in Britain.

He says he does many of the stunts himself, including a 10.6-metre jump with wire work.
“I wanted to do everything,” he says.

“Why sign up for a film like this if you’re not game for some real action?”

Note: Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time opens on May 28.

Source.

Coming from a family steeped in the business, Jake Gyllenhaal knows the routine. When it comes to promoting a film, you can never say enough good things about your co-stars.

“It’s true, actors do this stuff: ‘Oh, he’s great — he pisses lemonade and he shits rainbows,”‘ he says.

But no more. Such was the positive experience Gyllenhaal enjoyed with his new best buddy Tobey Maguire in Brothers, he’s committed to working on projects where the camaraderie is real.

“I don’t believe any more I can make a movie when I don’t care … about the other people in the process,” says the actor, whose father is a director, his mother a writer and sister is the Oscar-nominated Maggie Gyllenhaal. “I don’t think I’m any good when I don’t interact.”

Once poised to take over from Maguire in the Spider-Man franchise, 29-year-old Gyllenhaal credits his on-screen brother for initiating a meaningful and professionally rich relationship when the pair decided to do the film.

“We’d work out together, we’d play basketball together,” Gyllenhaal says. “Not only is he a great actor, he’s also a great producer in some ways.

“He’s 100 per cent always involved.”

Gyllenhaal’s career has remained buoyant since he was nominated for an Oscar alongside Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain in 2005, although he’s yet to become the next ubiquitous Hollywood star as many had expected. Ironically, Gyllenhaal turned down the lead role in the blockbuster Avatar but with a raft of diverse roles, including the big-budget Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, coming to screens this year, he is destined to reinforce his reputation as a marquee name.

“Working on a movie like Prince of Persia was awesome,” he says. “It was really great fun to be like an action hero, jump around and run off walls and fight bad guys, have great quippy lines. Wearing half your clothes is always really fun.”

Gyllenhaal worked furiously for seven months to hone his physique for the fantasy adventure movie, based on the video game series of the same name. The $US150 million ($164 million) film is scheduled for a May release.

He has other significant films in the can, among them Love and Other Drugs with Anne Hathaway and the comedy Nailed alongside Jessica Biel.

Gyllenhaal is now shooting sci-fi thriller Source Code, capping a hectic 12 months during which time he also split from his partner, Reese Witherspoon.

“Whatever I dreamed and hoped for in my career and life is not how it’s gone in a lot of ways and I love that.”

Source.

The 29-year-old actor plays a brave street urchin in new adventure fantasy Prince of Persia. It is his first action role and Jake says he was chosen for the part because he tried to kill the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Asked how he convinced Bruckheimer he could handle the coveted role, Jake laughed: “I broke into his office and threatened him with a sword. No, the film’s director Mike Newell always championed me and said he’d always thought of me for the part.”

Jake bulked up considerably for the film, which sees him spending most of his time running around half-naked fighting battalions of enormous soldiers. He was also in a cheeky mood when asked by Total Film magazine how he had toned up for the role.

“Smoking and drinking,” he quipped. “No, I worked out for seven months. I wanted to be able to do this stuff and being intimidating was important, even if it’s just for myself, being confident fighting the stunt men.”

Source