Exclusive Prince of Persia Interview: Jake Gyllenhaal on How His Face Nearly Got Chopped Off With an Ax During Shooting — and the Inspired Insanity of Training With Parkour Legend David Belle » 30ninjas

Exclusive Prince of Persia Interview: Jake Gyllenhaal on How His Face Nearly Got Chopped Off With an Ax During Shooting — and the Inspired Insanity of Training With Parkour Legend David Belle

Share on Facebook posted 05-05-10 by Julina Tatlock

There’s been a lively back and forth on message boards about whether Jake Gyllenhaal can make the difference in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time by transforming it into that rarest of cinematic phenomena: a great action film based on a video game (cough — Uwe Boll — cough). And while I agree that one actor may not be able to tip the scales from terrible to great, one really good actor can make the difference between serviceable and great. I think Jake could be just that actor, because everything he’s done has a genuine spontaneity to it, regardless of tone. From October Sky to Brothers, from Brokeback to Jarhead, Jake’s got a natural ease to him that ultimately relaxes you, even when his character is under immense pressure. He’s also clearly got an eye for good material, considering the high-caliber writing from his past films. Plus, let’s be honest, it’s May and we’re jonesing for some Bruckheimeresque action — and if the action’s performed by a kick-ass actor kicking ass, it’s a safe bet it’ll be an entertaining two hours.

The Fights Are Real and Dangerous — That’s What Makes Them Fun

JULINA TATLOCK: The action in films like Prince of Persia, which is based in fantasy and is so huge, can potentially give you the feeling that the heroes are invincible because they survive so many insane assaults. But what makes it work in films like Raiders of the Lost Ark is that though the hero might survive a temple full of poisonous snakes, you can tell that when Harrison Ford, as Indiana, gets hit, that the punches really hurt, so you still feel like he’s in jeopardy. Did you have any concerns about keeping it real in this film? Can you give me a specific scene or stunt?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Everything. Everything we did, the discussions were about: Is it real? Does it look real? Could it actually be done [in real life]? I mean, a lot of things can be [digitally] enhanced, and I think there are moments in the movie that are definitely enhanced, but I think that, in the end, it’s old-school in its ways. The fights are real, and they were dangerous, and that was really important to me, always. I never wanted him to be able to pull everything off. And I don’t think any of the stunts in the movie really look like they were totally pulled off — if that makes any sense.

JULINA: Yeah, it does.

JAKE: The wonderful aspect of it, too, was that we were on the move a lot, and we were coming up with different things all the time. And as a result, I was learning a lot of the choreography as we went and there were a lot of mistakes made. Those mistakes actually are incorporated into the movie.

JULINA: Oh, interesting.

JAKE: I remember this one scene where I got pulled from first unit to second unit really, really quickly, and we had this big fight scene with Toby Kebbell, who plays my brother in the movie. We had it choreographed, and he had worked on it a lot, but I had had very little time to work on it. But my character was sort of, you know, up against the wall at that point. And so I was literally just defending myself from his entire choreographed fight. I would remember it piece by piece kind of, but not really the whole thing, and the whole thing has the feeling of me going like, “Holy Shit!” The whole thing is me just being like, “Got it! Made that! OK, back over here, OK, we’re here, holy fuck! Wow, I punched him! Wow! Okay!” You know? It’s all real.

There was one moment, too, where my stunt guy — I had practiced with him a lot of the time, and then I come in and when I was doing it there’s one wipe across my face where I’m supposed to duck, and he has an ax, and the ax comes at my face –

JULINA: Oh my God!

JAKE: – and, like, literally with two hand-held cameras, [second Unit Director]Alexander Witt got the best angle: With nothing enhanced in it, you see he actually almost cut my face off. It’s great.

JULINA: [Laughs]

JAKE: It all feels like that, and I was game for that, and that’s what’s fun. [Laughs] I think I even remember, we did the big wide shot of it, and by the end I had made so many mistakes every time I would do it that I would just, I just ended up laughing at the end. You know, it was ridiculous, but all those things had that feeling. I would get to set and they would be like, “Okay, so, um, follow me up to the top of this building,” and I’d be like, “What are we doing?” and they’re like, “You’re jumping off of it!” and I’d be like, “What?”
[Laughs] So then I had to [jump]. And then here come the guys on the opposite side, and I’m — this is the second time I’ve tried this jump, and I’m just gonna do it. And that’s the feeling of the movie. It’s not, “I know exactly what I’m doing all the time.” Not at all. Not in any way. And I think that’s why it’s superfun. I took a photograph of myself after I did my first huge jump. Because I didn’t know on that day that we were gonna do the jump, and I was ecstatic that I had done it, and I was like, “I got it, I got it.” I just took my phone and took a picture of just, like, this massive smile on my face.

The Casual Jake Is a Facade For a Hard-Working Actor Who Likes To Help Shape the Script

JULINA: What’s your ideal time to come onto a film? When you’re able to do one or two drafts of rewrites and have a large part in its development, or does it not really matter? Do you have criteria of how much time you like to have with the script?

JAKE: Ideally?

JULINA: Yeah, ideally.

JAKE: Yeah, that’s what you said. [Laughs] I think, ideally, I do like to be with the material for a long time. And I liken it to rehearsing fight choreography or trying to figure out an accent. I’m definitely not an actor that picks it up immediately and can roll with it. I need to go over it over and over and over again, and that’s something I’ve learned [about myself] over time. I like to be there for a few drafts before it becomes the final shooting version because, particularly if you’re in a majority of the scenes of the movie, you’re part of the steering of the ship, so you just need to know that ship really well and where it’s going. I get off on that too — that’s what I enjoy. That’s why it’s been fun working with Doug, and with Simon [Kinberg] on [the Untitled Moon Project] developing this movie together, because they’re really collaborative and we’ve been through different versions discussing things all the time, and all of that discussion goes into whatever the final version is. Even if the scenes you’ve discussed for years don’t end up in the final version of the movie, somehow they’re there, you know? So I like to be a part of it, and I also think it’s really bonding to be doing that with all the filmmakers. You’re with your director and you’re with your writers — you’re listening to how they work, and how they change things, and what makes them nervous, and how you can make them feel comfortable, on the day. You know, with some directors — most directors — I like to know what they have to have the day before [we shoot a given scene], so that they can start their day. I like to know how you can give them what they want.

JULINA: When we interviewed Simon Kinberg, he talked about writing for specific actors, and we asked him what he felt were the most important characteristics when he was writing for you. Can you guess what he said?

JAKE: No. [Laughs]

JULINA: [Laughs] It wasn’t bad! He said the most important thing when writing for you was that your character be smart.

JAKE: Yeah, definitely. Intelligence is definitely a key to it. I think to write a character that’s hopefully smarter than the actor playing them, that’s when it gets hard, you know.

JULINA: Well, the challenge with someone like Cole, the protagonist of the Moon movie, is that he’s either a rocket scientist or a salesman who loves rocket science — I haven’t read the latest draft, but he’s gotta talk the talk, whether he can actually do it himself or not.

JAKE: It’s true; it’s the ambition even more than the intelligence. But yeah. It takes great intelligence to convince people to join the fray.

JULINA: Full disclosure by the way: my husband is John Gill, John Freeman Gill, who wrote some of the early versions of Doug’s Moon movie.

JAKE: [Laughs] That’s crazy. Who hasn’t at this point, by the way, right?

“Everyone Was Freaked Out That I Had No Wires On”

JULINA: Well, exactly! Flipping back to Prince of Persia for a minute: You were in production all over the world for a while — what went wrong? Did you get hurt at all while you were shooting the film, or was there anything that was incredibly difficult?

JAKE: No. Nothing went incredibly wrong. I mean, I definitely was injured at times, different things, but nothing that was like a halt in production. I was working with the best stuntmen in the world.

JULINA: You worked with David Belle! How cool was that?

JAKE: [Laughs]

JULINA: Was that really cool?

JAKE: Insane. I mean, just to find him was even insane: He has no cell phone. We had to search him out and find him on the streets of Paris and be like: “Jerry Bruckheimer would like to talk to you.” [Laughs] It was really funny; it’s this funny kind of [in a sing-song, thick French accent] “Is OK, non problem,” but he’s the sweetest, coolest guy, for someone who does — it’s like it is with all these guys who are incredible martial artists: When you meet them they are so kindhearted. You expect them to be these superduper fierce tough dudes, and they are, but they are just kind, ’cause they know they can kick your ass. But David was amazing. One of my favorite things in the movie was when we were shooting a lot of rooftop chase sequences between the real rooftops in Morocco, in different casbahs [North African fortresses] and on stages in London, and there was this sequence where I did a jump, without any wires, on stage. I had four or five different guards chasing after me, and one of the guards was supposed to miss — jump just short — and I was supposed to make it and the other three or four guards were supposed to make it. So I jumped and I made it. Everyone was freaked out that I had no wires on, and I had way too much fun. Then the guy who was following me jumped, and he hit his face on the casbah and his hat flew off and went flying 30 feet in the air. He hurt his jaw, but it’s in the movie, and it looks amazing! He’s OK — he’s actually fine, but it looks really not fun when you see it. Those types of things happen, and you flirt with that type of danger, and there are times when — particularly jumping all those big jumps — in order to make it look really cool, it has to be a little bit dangerous.

JULINA: There’s a lot of fighting in the movie. Did you have a favorite weapon that you used?

JAKE: I always fight with two swords, that’s what I fight with — that’s my style.

JULINA: Across your back.

JAKE: Yeah, across my back, yeah [sucks teeth, sighs] … pretty cool. There were a couple of missed opportunities with that, where I was supposed to coolly pull them out of my back and I couldn’t reach them. I’m like, “I’m gonna kick your ass … in one second … when I can grab both of these … give me another second … hold on one more second …” [laughs]. But that was it, just two swords. That’s my style — and I can run away from anybody.

Miss Part 1 of our exclusive interview with Jake Gyllenhaal? Check it out below!

Previous | Part 2 of 2 | Next