Post title sounds like the result of an evening out on the beer in the far East. In actual fact it refers to Julina Tatlocks exclusive interview with ‘Source Code’ and ‘Prince of Persia’ star Jake Gyllehaal over at the 30 NINJAS site.
Obviously Mr Gyllenhaal is busy on the global promo trail for ‘Prince of Persia’ at the moment, but good to see plenty of good words for Duncan Jones and ‘Source Code’ along the way. A small extract of the interview:
JULINA: Tell me about the different styles of Duncan Jones, who directed you in Source Code, and Mike Newell.
JAKE: Oh my gosh, every director than I have had the pleasure to work with has been so different in their style. So Mike Newell, just physically … they both happen to be British, but Duncan spent a lot of time growing up in the States and all over the world so he has a different sort of sensibility than Mike. Well, Mike is like six foot five, and Duncan is like five ten or something, so [laughs] that is one major difference. And in a way, their sizes mimic their styles, because Mike is very robust and dramatic in his approach and he’s like (in a gruff British voice), “Oh yes, my dear boy, it’s fantastic,” and there’s always this sort of energy to it. Duncan really creates this space that is much more quiet, and I would say that there is a serenity to the way he directs, and to me it’s fascinating that the two of them could not be more different. That’s actually a really good question. They had two different beasts [to direct], you know? Mike had a movie where there are just so many elements that he had to balance, and I learned from him a really important lesson that every actor should know; he said, “You know what I look at more than the monitor?,” and I said “No, what Mike?” And he pointed to his watch. When I asked ”Really?,” he said, “You never get all the things you want as a director, and you’re always chasing time.” Any actor who is in sync with their director knows you want to try to give your director everything that they want within the day. And that’s something that I really learned with Mike. It is something that I don’t think that actors really know: how much a director is dealing with. So when I went to work with Duncan I brought that mentality with me, and it was like, “What do we need? Did we get that? OK, what do you need from me? Let’s go.”
Head over to 30NINJAS for the full interview, and Jake’s thoughts on working with Duncan. And see previous posts on this ole blog for more on ‘Source Code‘
