Well, a big thanks to Paul for the heads up about Jake's interview tonight at the New Yorker Festival. John G and I went (it was in a movie theater on 23rd Street, not far from Chelsea Cinemas) and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were surprised afterwards to find that an hour and a half had gone by in a blink. The place was about 90 percent filled, I think. To answer Sophia's question, the beard was still there, and I thought it looked good on him. I wanted to pat his thick dark hair, too, it looked so touchable. He wore jeans and hiking boot-type shoes, and I think a dark sweater (I honestly am blanking on exactly what he had on--how sad is that!). He and the interviewer, David Denby, sat on high-backed stools with arms and had body mics. They were joined half way through by Ed Zwick, the director of "Love and Other Drugs." John and I sat in the third row off to the left, about 20 feet from Jake; although he was on the side nearest us, most of the time we couldn't see his face straight on, since he looked at Denby to answer questions. He was relaxed and really seemed to want to give honest, complete answers. He was funny and modest and hip and sincere, a delight to listen to.
Denby started by reviewing Jake's career as a child actor and asked him how he'd come to it. He was matter-of-fact about it, said he'd been somewhat nervous at auditions but felt at home in movies because of his family. He said "Bubble Boy" taught him the importance of taking risks and to not worry about feeling or looking ridiculous. He approached Donnie Darko very seriously and identified with the character's confused feelings about life and girls. They showed a clip from "Donnie Darko" where he was in a session with his female psychiatrist. Denby joked about Jake's sex life in films and Jake said he must have masturbated in at least four, and Denby said he'd better not run for the Senate in Delaware. Jake said that it didn't matter whether the sex scene was with a man or a woman, it was always awkward because everyone, the crew, director, etc., was in on it and you couldn't help "watching" yourself do it. Denby spoke in glowing terms of the chemistry between Jake and Anne in "Love and Other Drugs," which he's screened. He predicted Jake was going to get a whole lot more attention when that film comes out.
When the talk turned to Brokeback (Denby described it as "flawless"; he also ribbed Jake about his fake moustache), Jake said he'd cried when he read the script and that had been the main reason he wanted to do it. They showed a clip of the Lake Scene, starting with "You know, Jack, I gotta work" and ending with the embrace and Ennis's "I can't stand it no more, Jack." I could see his silhouette in front of the screen, and he kept quite still during it, leaning his mouth on his hand, listening. He described Heath as "such a loving guy" and said there was an "air of love" during the filming, even in the scenes where Jack and Ennis fight, or when he and Heath would fight over how to do a scene. He said the fight where they roll down the hill was for real and Heath was "beating the shit out of me." Recalling the reunion kiss scene, he said that all Heath and he had done was run at each other and bang their mouths together and that whatever big emotions people got out of that scene was because it was there already in the story and script, that that moment was simply bigger than both of them. The fact of Heath's death wasn't mentioned. Jake's scenes with Anne were done in about four days total. He said something about it not being the first time they'd had movie sex, but I don't know what other movie they might have been in together before BBM.
There's more to tell, but it's late here and I need to get to bed. More tomorrow!
Topic: Jake Jake Jake! (Read 3171155 times)