09/09/2005
Jake Gyllenhaal in W Magazine
This month's W magazine features an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal in which he talks about his upcoming movies Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain. Issue hits NYC newsstands today and the rest of the nation very soon. Below you'll find an excerpt:
In a scene destined to be this year’s boldest cinematic taboo-breaker, Ennis del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) surprise themselves one night by consummating their crush during a wordless encounter in their moonlit pup tent. After Jack makes the first move, Ennis, with very little fanfare and even less tenderness, puts Jack on all fours and takes him from behind. Lee recalls that the scene required 13 takes spanning one very long day. “I was very proud of Jake,” he says. “What he does with that scene is very moving, very real, with a lot of emotion and a lot of excitement.”“Uh, I don’t really remember much of that day,” says Gyllenhaal, laughing. He spent much of it cutting the tension by joking with Ledger about who was going to do what to whom. “It’s one of the riskiest things I’ve done in my career,” Gyllenhaal says, likening the experience to jumping into a very cold lake. “At a certain point you just take a deep breath and dive in. And then the water’s freezing, and you jump out as fast as you can.”
Now who wouldn't have given their right arm to be Best Boy on that day, eh? From all reports, Ang Lee handles Brokeback's sexual scenes with subtlety. If all goes as planned, next week I'll be able to let you know if that's the case. For now, enjoy these shots.
Related
Brokeback Mountain Shines in Venice [tr]
Brokeback Mountain Trailer Online [tr]
Heath on Brokeback: Fear Conquered [tr]
Thoughts on the Brokeback Mountain trailer [tr]
Love is a Force of Nature [tr]
Heath on Brokeback: Best Script Ever Read [tr]
Jake "Coy" on Brokeback Love Scenes [tr]
The Brokeback Tease Continues... [tr]
Cowboy Ballads [tr]
Brokeback Mountain Teaser Trailer [tr]
Heath and Jake Swap Spit [tr]
Cowboy Love [tr]
Posted 6:24 PM EST by Andy in Film & TV | Permalink
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You are going to see a screening??? OMG! YOu are lucky!
Posted by: Roy | Sep 9, 2005 6:28:53 PM
Holy cow!! I cannot wait to see this movie. I love anything with Jake in it... and this sounds too good to be true!
Posted by: duane | Sep 9, 2005 6:36:36 PM
Love the head shot with the translucent specular lighting...downright goosebump enducing! He's such a hottie!
Posted by: Mike P | Sep 9, 2005 6:54:37 PM
love the shots! by turns smouldering and mischievous. who's the photographer pls?
Posted by: yohji | Sep 9, 2005 8:09:53 PM
Hopefully I will be seeing this on Monday at the Toronto Film Festival! Can't wait, looks like it'll be good!
Posted by: Brooklyn | Sep 9, 2005 9:24:09 PM
puke.
Posted by: CriticalRN | Sep 9, 2005 10:00:23 PM
God that sounds hot.
Posted by: Ky | Sep 9, 2005 11:37:32 PM
I'm worried for you, Andy. All these expectations, what if the movie *gasp* isn't very good?
Posted by: Henry Holland | Sep 10, 2005 12:03:29 AM
Cutest. Boy. Ever.
Posted by: bmw | Sep 10, 2005 1:03:53 AM
"It's one of the riskiest things I've done in my career...At a certain point you just take a deep breath and dive in. And then the water’s freezing, and you jump out as fast as you can.”
Barf.
Tell it to every gay actor who's ever done a hetero sex scene.
Posted by: JOE | Sep 10, 2005 1:50:24 AM
If United don't beat City in the derby tomorrow, I will crawl in a hole and die.
Posted by: Becks07 | Sep 10, 2005 2:12:53 AM
He's a major Hollywood actor playing the bottom (according to this he's portrayed as taking it from Heath on all fours) in a highly-publicized picture. That is a risk. Is there a bigger taboo than that? We didn't see Cruise or Pitt or Leo or name that hottie do something like that when they were trying to build a big Hollywood career. This is breakthough stuff. And, yeah, that first pic especially is just so very, very hot. Having Gyllenhaal do this film is a dream come true.
Posted by: JS | Sep 10, 2005 4:15:40 AM
hate to shatter your dream but during love scenes everyones excused from the set cept maybe the director and the cameraoperator obviously :)
Posted by: Mac Adkins | Sep 10, 2005 10:47:56 AM
Jake has a lot of guts to do this role.
I hear from studio friends that Jake would like to publicly come out now but is being dissuaded by the Hollywood marketing/image machine as bad for his career.
I think this movie is going to be ground-breaking.
Posted by: Joe | Sep 10, 2005 11:59:17 AM
To most straight guys, the single most frightening image of gay sex is being taken by force roughly from behind. Whether us gays like that fact or not, it is deeply ingrained in the macho psyche that this is the ultimate in humiliation. Jake and Heath's sex scene is not far from being exactly that. It's the roughness and lust in the scene that makes it shocking, not the amount of skin showing (which is minimal).
Overall, the acting kudos go to Heath, but this is clearly a breakthrough scene for Jake and cinema in general.
Posted by: Dave | Sep 10, 2005 2:51:52 PM
Do you see Jake face while he's being taken from behind?
Posted by: Guess Who? | Sep 10, 2005 3:02:28 PM
“Uh, I don’t really remember much of that day,” says Gyllenhaal, laughing. He spent much of it cutting the tension by joking with Ledger about who was going to do what to whom. “It’s one of the riskiest things I’ve done in my career,”
It has always been my opinion that actors should never have "off-screen" speaking roles. Nothing ruins a fantasy as quickly as a dose of reality, so I'll feed my fantasy a litte....
What if... What Jake meant to say is that this scene had him so excited that the whole day was a blur. He had to make jokes to keep anyone from knowing how deeply he was touched by the emotional aspect of the scene. It was the riskiest scene he's ever done, because he exposes so much of his inner self in it.
Now, I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie, because it meant so much to Jake Gyllenhaal to play this part.
Posted by: jay | Sep 10, 2005 3:22:27 PM
JS and Dave:
I agree with you that the role is a big career risk for JG. What I object to is the "you dive in and then jump out as fast as you can" stuff. Peter Sarsgaard ("Kinsey") is just about the only straight actor I can think of who didn't feel the need to say something about how unpleasant it was to do a gay sex scene in order to make sure the audience knows HE'S REALLY STRAIGHT.
Posted by: JOE | Sep 10, 2005 3:39:00 PM
Joe:
I absolutely agree with you about straight actors' need to remind us "they really are straight". Hal Sparks has been rather irritating in making similar comments about his Michael Novotny role in QAF. And I doubt that Gyllenhaal could even remotely pull off a character as gay as Emmett Honeycutt from QAF...that role takes a real gay man (like Peter Paige) to do.
But to say that gay actors playing straight is no different that Jakes' Brokeback scene just doesn't fly when viewed through a mainstream straight lens. And though Jake may be distancing himself from the scene, he did jump into it with everything he had.
Yes, it does show on his face...
Posted by: Dave | Sep 10, 2005 4:09:17 PM
DAVE, I'm assuming from your comments that you've seen the film - have you written a review? If so, I'd love to read it.
Posted by: Bithysith | Sep 10, 2005 5:17:25 PM
Oh forget it... I just clicked on your name and found your review.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it... sounds like the film packs quite an emotional punch.
Posted by: Bithysith | Sep 10, 2005 8:17:19 PM
I am in Toronto and just saw this. It's incredible. It's not even that hot sexually (although the guys are), but it's very emotionally charged and extremely moving. Commendation to both actors for not "gaying it up" as many do.
Posted by: matt | Sep 10, 2005 9:12:40 PM
Dave -
Agreed on all counts.
My perspective - and I should have made this clear from the beginning - also comes from the fact that I was a professional actor for many years, and of course actors are trained to dive in and embrace all sorts of characters who are very different from themselves. You don't need to be homicidal to play Othello, for example; you don't even need to be male to play female or vice versa, so JG's comment struck me as self-aggrandizing and offensively coy. Being brave and exploring and embracing unfamiliar behaviors and threatening parts of one's self are all part of the "job description" of an actor.
NEVERTHELESS (and not to beat a dead horse) I CAN'T WAIT to see the flick and I'm thrilled that it's getting such good reviews from you and others who've already seen it. December 9 can't come fast enough.
Cheers!
Posted by: JOE | Sep 10, 2005 10:26:38 PM
I saw the film last night at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The tag line of the film: "Love is a force of nature". Ang Lee captures the nuances of a relationship between two men love one another but continue to lead a straight lifestyle due to circumstances of time and place.
It's a beautiful love story. I was engaged in watching this 20 year span relationship of Jack (Jake Gyllenhall) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) develop onscreen. Ang Lee captured the first encounter between Jake and Ennis with an eroticism that is charged with red hot passion. Any gay man can remember their first time be it: awkward, clumsy and/or highly charged and passionate. After watching this film, the ups and downs were heartwrenching for me. I still fine myself thinking about the film - Very few films resonate with me like "Brokeback Mountain"
Ang Lee and the cast did a fine job and I hope they earn a festival prize here in Toronto this week. They deserve it.
Posted by: Aeyrick | Sep 11, 2005 10:38:52 PM
I forgot to mention. Here in Toronto, one of the cable stations, and a major sponsor of the film festival "Rogers", has a live stream of press conferences.
Go here to watch online:
http://www.rogerstelevision.com/asx/16/TIFF.asx
Tuesday, September 13th @ 9:00am is the scheduled "Brokeback Mountain" press conference.
Scheduled to attend:
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, and director Ang Lee who flew in Toronto only to fly out the same day to return to Venice to receive the Golden Lion! He flys back to Toronto, and hopefully, he'll claim a prize here in Toronto as well.
Posted by: Aeyrick | Sep 11, 2005 10:50:12 PM