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| (image via Instagram) |
This is what happens when Riva Marker (the badass president of NineStories) and I invite #CaryJojiFukunaga to rehearsals for our new Broadway musical. Check out this video we made! #SundayintheParkWithGeorge
[Ennis] was the most difficult role to cast. And that seemed to be the perpetual problem as we went on. And even a little bit for [director] Ang [Lee].
"Another actor had committed [to the role of Ennis] and we had suggested Heath. But the studio [Focus Features] didn’t feel he was macho enough.
"I thought that was a rather odd comment. But we just sort of stuck with it. And when that [other] actor backed out — and he did, after three months — I called Heath’s agent. It was interesting.
"Early on, Ang had wanted both the boys to be lifting weights and get all buff. Heath said, ‘You know, I’m the ranch hand [in the film]. I wouldn’t have time to be lifting weights. I’m kind of scrawny and young.’ He said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ So he didn’t.”
Mr. Gyllenhaal will play Seymour, who tries to woo his co-worker Audrey with a carnivorous plant, in a concert production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s long-running Off-Broadway comedy. Taran Killam, the “Saturday Night Live” star, will also make his musical debut, as the psychotic dentist and romantic rival, Orin Scrivello. (In the 1986 film version, the dentist was memorably played by Steve Martin, opposite Rick Moranis’s Seymour.)
The veteran stage actor Chuck Cooper will voice the blood-thirsty plant, and Ellen Greene will play Audrey, the ditzy love interest, as she did in the original stage production and film.
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| Shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal shows off his new ripped, muscled body for Southpaw |
Jake Gyllenhaal won fans for his dedication and commitment in losing 25 pounds to play the sociopathic nocturnal adrenaline junkie and camera man Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. He’s remade himself in a whole different physical fashion to play a championship prize fighter next year in Southpaw, and I’m betting it will have Gyllenhaal in the conversation with past actors who’ve trained to turn in memorable ring performances, a list that includes Raging Bull’s Robert De Niro, The Boxer‘s Daniel Day-Lewis, The Fighter‘s Mark Wahlberg and The Hurricane’s Denzel Washington.
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| Photographed by Nino Muñoz |
At 32, Gyllenhaal’s carved an impressive career, largely due to some unexpected film choices. He’s starred in such movies as Donnie Darko, The Day After Tomorrow, Proof, Jarhead, Zodiac, Rendition and Brothers, among others. In 2006, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain, alongside Heath Ledger.
They’ve been eclectic choices and, aside from a disastrous foray into blockbuster territory (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, anyone?), he’s managed to avoid superhero flicks and franchises.
Gyllenhaal feels Donnie Darko, Brokeback and End of Watch changed his life in various ways.
“These movies are markers on my path and life. We all have them in different ways,” he says. “Mine are a little absurd and happen to be movies, but all I have is the experience of those movies and they’ve all been extraordinary in their own way.”
“These movies are markers on my path and life. We all have them in different ways,” he says. “Mine are a little absurd and happen to be movies, but all I have is the experience of those movies and they’ve all been extraordinary in their own way.”
"Heath and I knew each other for years before that because we had both auditioned for Moulin Rouge together," Gyllenhaal says. After experiencing Ledger's brash, loose sense of humor in person, "I remember thinking, 'I like this guy.' He's just like, super lovable," Gyllenhaal recalls. He later admits Ledger's death hit him extremely hard: "It felt like losing a family member, and it still does to this day."Gyllenhaal also says that the gay rumors that came following Brokeback never bothered him. In fact, "It's a huge compliment," he says.
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Gyllenhaal's way of keeping it fresh can befuddle costars on occasion. The far more common result, however, becomes clear in watching his catalog. For over a decade, actors have been doing some of their best work opposite him—Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Aniston, Tobey Maguire, Heath Ledger.
"It's no accident. Jake takes it all very seriously but also has a very light touch," explains Anne Hathaway, his costar in Love and Other Drugs and Brokeback Mountain. "On Brokeback, my final scene was on the phone with Heath, who was in Venice for Casanova. Jake offered to read Heath's lines. On the last take, he changed the line, ever so slightly. That kicked off something in me, and lo and behold, that's the take in the film."
"I grew up on the other side of the camera," Gyllenhaal says. "And yes, I do love making movies as much as being in them. I love actors, watching what they do, and I do love acting off-camera, and how it helps tell the story. But the camera eventually does turn to you, and then it's a very different question. I don't know if I have the answer to it yet."
The dark visual is half slasher sendup, half 'American Psycho,' (in fact, Bret Easton Ellis tweeted to say that he "really really likes" the video earlier today), a far cry from Gyllenhaal's recent turn in 'Prince of Persia,' or his last video role, playing tennis with Joe Jonas in Vampire Weekend's visual for 'Giving Up the Gun.'
"Jake Gyllenhaal and I had been talking about working together on something, and I got sent 'Time To Dance' by The Shoes, who are my favorite band, so I wanted to bring Jake in on that," explained 'Time to Dance' director Daniel Wolfe, in an interview with Spinner/RPM. "I pitched the idea to him, and he liked it, which was great."
