18 Don't Pull Your Hair Out, July 2010 Interview
Jake plays it for laughs
Brokeback Mountainstar JAKE GYLLENHAAL shrugs his serious image aside to playanall-roundaction hero in the new Disneyblockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which opens in cinemas on May21. The heartthrob talks about taking himself less seriously, finding 'The One' and the benefits of being paid to get in shape.
By Susan Griffin
HE may have made his name in seri- ous movies such as the cult classic Donnie Darko and Ang Lee's award- winning Brokeback Mountain, but Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal feels it’stime he showed his lighter side. He has chosen to show-case his comedic sensibilities in Prince Of Persia, an epic Disney project based on avideo game –and one of this summer's big blockbusters, which is due out on DVD soon. For his role as the film’shero,
Dastan, Jake spent three months learning to speak with an English accent. “The opportunitytododry humour
and humouringeneral is so much easierinaBritish accent,” the actor muses.“Even though Idolike to have fun, Itake everything Idoreally seriously and the accent was proba- bly the hardest thing for me to devel- op,” he admits. He’seven turned roles down because of the ‘scrutiny any actor’s under when they do [an accent]’. Youonly need to read the news sto- ries about Russell Crowe's ‘Irish’
version of Robin Hood to believe how tough accents can be. Jake has got every reason to fear
public scrutiny,asPrince Of Persia is big-budget territory.Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer,the man behind TopGun, Armageddon and The Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, it boasts amulti-million pound budg- et and acast and crew of thou- sands. “I think Iwas tired of taking myself
so seriously,” says Jake on his deci- sion to play an action hero. “In my early 20s Ihad the opportu-
nity to make alot of movies and it was ahuge honour but Ithought acting was only one thing, [and that was] proving yourself as being the serious, dramatic actor,” he says, widening his large blue eyes. “Then Istarted to think, ‘Well, who
am Ireally? Am Ireally someone who’sanintrovert?’ Iactually do have asense of humour and like having fun, so Iwanted to kind of move it that way.Ithink young peo- ple misunderstand, thinking, ‘Oh, I shouldn't be having fun, Ishould be torturing myself, that’sreally acting’, but thereare so many facets.” We’reinasuite at London's
Dorchester hotel, wherethe world’s press will soon descend for apress conference. If Jake’sfeeling the pressureofheading up amovie of such epic proportions, he doesn’t show it. Looking tanned and relaxed in
jeans, T-shirt and sports jacket, he’s talkative and self-deprecating, and enjoys showing offthe Dastan Lego key-ring he’sbeen given. “It's my job,” he says on dealing
debut in 1991 as Billy Crystal’sson in City Slickers and, as achild of the Eighties, he says he loved movies like Indiana Jones, The Goonies and E.T. “I think Iwas fulfilling achildhood
The 29-year-old made his acting
dream to do amovie like Prince Of Persia,” he says laughing. “I dreamed of it as an eight-year-
old boy and if you told that boy that he’d be playing the Prince of Persia in 20 years from then, my mind would have exploded.” As for appealing to anew genera-
tion of eight-year-olds, he says: “I want those kids man, kids arethe coolest thing! “God I'm getting so Buddhist now
but it’sall about the energy of people and Ilove children, Ilove the energy of children. That’sthe reason Imade this movie. That’sthe energy I’m starting to really love and trying to incorporate into my life.” Given his reputation as adramatic
actor,Jake’sawaresome people will find his casting acurious choice but his take on it is simple: “If you think about what other people arethinking all the time, you'll become paralysed. Ithink it's moreimportant to think, ‘Well, what would Ilike to do?’ and if people respond, they do, and if they don’t, they don’t.” He looks set to silence his detrac-
tors when the film hits the big screen. Not only does he look the part, thanks to gruelling daily work- outs, but he shows offimpressive horse riding and sword-fighting skills to boot. “Jerry Bruckheimer paid me very
with the gruelling publicity schedule. “It is agreat job and it’spretty easy when it comes down to it. Thereare days when it’salittle tiring with some jet lag but ultimately this is not a hardjob and promoting abig, fun, epic, comedic, romantic, adventur- ous movie is just fun. I’m really excit- ed, I’m psyched!”
well to learnhow to swordfight,” he says with asmile. “I spent six months beforewestarted the movie pretty much getting into physical shape and after that Istarted to learnhow to fight with swords. Horse back riding Iknew how to do pretty well already.” The role also required Jake to learn the French art of parkour.Much like
its off-shoot, free-running, parkour involves people seamlessly climbing and bouncing offwalls and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. “Weworked with gymnasts at first
in agym in Los Angeles and then we started practising it in the Moroccan kasbahs,” wheremuch of the film was shot. “It was all practise, prac- tise, practise and repetition of every- thing, so Isort of looked like Iknew what Iwas doing.” Requiring ahuge amount of physi-
cal force, parkour was partly the rea- son Jake needed to whip himself into shape. “There’snoreason to do amovie
like this if you can’tdothe stunts. It was all about functional fitness, being able to do everything that was asked of me,” he says. But he couldn’thave prepared himself for such intense media scrutiny focused solely in the direc- tion of his newly honed abs. “I think there's adefinite focus on
vanity,and Ithink we all focus on it, which is so unimportant to me,” he says. “What’sinteresting is the char- acter being played. The images from the movie arethe only thing people have seen so... And it’sfine, Imean it’sdefinitely flattering.” Given Prince of Persia's themes of
fate and destiny,does he believe in ‘The One’? “‘The one’ meaning ‘the one great movie’, that’swhat you mean, right?” he deadpans. “Oh... alady!” he says in mock surprise. “Do you know what I believe in? Ibelieve in carnation and reincarnation. Ibelieve it’ssometimes adaily thing, aweekly thing, where we reincarnate and become different people and change in our days, in our weeks, in our years. Imean I’m not the same person Iwas even when we made this movie,” he says. And the idea of ‘The One’? “I do believe in soul mates and Ithink that destiny has something to do with that, yeah,” he says with awry smile.
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