Has Jake Gyllenhaal gone completely method on us? The 36-year-old actor is making the promotional rounds for his upcoming sci-fi/horror flick, Life, where he plays an astronaut fighting a nasty alien life form picked up from Mars that is set on destroying the earth. In preparation for his role, Jake consulted with astronauts, trauma doctors and even worked with a zero-gravity-movement coach to effectively convey the physical and mental toll that space travel takes on a person. But, as far as the existence of life on other planets, Jake feels that we may not be alone out there. Jake told the New York Daily News that, “I believe there’s so much yet to be explored. I think absolutely, there is no doubt in my mind — whether or not they’re friendly or already here — I think there’s a lot left to explore.”
As for making a movie that sounds like something we’ve all seen a million times before, Jake promises that the film will thrill. He told The Guardian that Life‘s screenplay left him “legitimately terrified.” But, after dramatic turns in serious movies like Nocturnal Animals and Nightcrawler, Jake just wanted a little fun, confessing “after playing role after role where I’ve given a ton of time in preparation, I made a resolution to just enjoy myself making a big, fun movie.”
There was lots of fun on the set, especially between Jake and his Life co-star, Ryan Reynolds. Jake told Variety at the film’s SXSW screening, “We were laughing all the time. None of us, with the exception of me, takes themselves that seriously, so there was a really wonderful spirit on set the whole time.” In fact, Jake and Ryan have developed quite the bromance. Ryan told Good Morning America that “He’s easily the most interesting actor working in Hollywood today.” He went on to say Jake was one of his favorite actors, as well as “one of the kindest guys I’ve ever met. We’re hanging out all the time. We live near each other. I live up in the ‘burbs.” And, to prove his affection for his friend/co-star, Ryan laid down the gauntlet, telling GMA that Jake is a better cook than his wife, actress Blake Lively. “My wife is very good at cooking, and Jake might just be a little bit better. He can throw down. It gets very competitive.” If I were Blake, those would definitely be fighting words. I can’t begin to tell you how many cooking challenges Kevin and I have gone head-to-head on (and I must admit, we’re about 50/50 on wins and losses).
If Jake’s not busy enough, Jake has been burning up the Broadway stage with his performance as painter Georges Seurat in the revival of the Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George. Of his stage work, he told the Daily News he’s “finally found my home in a lot of ways,” adding, “It’s been an incredible journey to Broadway with this piece and unexpected in all the best ways, and it feels like that every night too. It couldn’t really get any better to tell you the truth.” The theater nerd in me is delighted for Jake’s Broadway success. Not sure about Life, but two hours with Jake and Ryan can’t be all bad, right?
Photos: WENN.com, Fame Flynet, Getty Images
Ahh, Jake. I’ve loved him for years and years now. I don’t know if this movie will be one I’ll go see right away, but I’ll eventually find my way to a theatre.
I just watch source code the other day. Again. Never gets old.
Source Code is such an underrated movie. And Jake looked ridiculously hot in it. He is one of my forever crushes… even though he takes himself a bit too seriously at times.
Awe, that bromance sounds adorable, Jake does seem so serious all the time, good for him finding a goofy buddy. I agree with him on aliens, out of the billions of galaxies in the universe and the billions of planets within each galaxy there is bound to be other life, it may not look like our life but no doubt in my mind it exists out there. I only hope we find some proof of life before I die, that would be amazing😄
Yes! There MUST be other life out there. Man, how wild would it be if we did make contact. The impact would be….I don’t think we can comprehend the impact.
I believe aliens exist, but are reconsidering contacting us. When you look at how humans treat each other and how we are destroying this planet, what intelligent species would want to be associated with humans? They probably look at Earth as the crack house of the Galaxy and will contact us when we get our act together
Hahahaha Crack House of the galaxy!!! Absolute perfection.
What makes you think there wouldn’t be greed and avarice on any other planet?
I think the assumption is that if there are aliens and they have the capability to contact/reach us, they would be a *very* advanced civilization, and the theory of civilization is that at its peak, the social organism evolves beyond things like greed and avarice. If an alien civilization is capable of contact, they would be advanced enough to have left behind grubby human traits like greed. All assumption, no way to know for sure, but there is an actual seven-part hypothesis for what alien life could be and one of the possibilities is an enlightened race so far beyond our understanding, they wouldn’t bother with us. We would be like dogs to them.
That or they may decide to do us a favor and wipe us out.
Ha ha we sure are the crack house of the galaxy. We are the ones no one wants to associate with lol. I don’t blame them. We ruined this planet. We treat each other poorly. We create wars for no damn reason. We allow others to starve to death. We believe we are the center of the universe when in actually we are just a speck of dirt no one wants to touch lol.
Excellent comment.
I think intelligence and/or consciousness exists somewhere in the universe. It’s not just us. But who is to say it is carbon-based? We want to anthropomorphise it in some way, but who knows what extra-terrestrial “life” would look like, or even if we could even actually perceive it?
Yeah, if we exist then there must be some sort of LIFE somewhere else. I often find the “We are UNIQUE” mindset somewhat egotistical. That’s why NASA’s latest findings were so important (at least to me).
I read a sci-fi novel once in which the protagonists were in an area of deep space thought most likely to contain life. And they kept getting clues but finding nothing. In the end, they discovered that something they’d interpreted as some kind of celestial light display had developed consciousness. I mean, as likely as a little green man, isn’t it?
Totally agree. I’m a hopeless trekkie. That series really explores all these possibilities. I love anything alien. If we had contact, it would kill us or educate us and make us better people. 😞
I’m of the same opinion. It’s interesting to me how often we depict aliens in shows and movies as somewhat humanoid, or it resembles a mashup of some beastie. Would we even recognize true alien life if we saw it? I’m also with those who think that any intelligent life out there is too far away from us for us to ever encounter them.
Yes! So many aliens in stories end up having limbs, heads, eyes etc., and display an intelligence and sentience that is familiar to us. Always strikes me as particularly unimaginative. Overall the chance that we are alone in the universe is incredibly low. Not sure whether an alien form of life is near or far, but I think it’s a very good point that we might not recognise it if we saw it (or have seen it…)
He’s not wrong. Mathematically speaking, there’s no way we’re alone.
That’s how I see it too. The Drake equation makes me believe it’s out there, intelligent life too, but I dont know if we’ll ever find them.
That’s what I was coming to say. There has to be a few different extraterrestrials out there, some possibly more advanced than us.
Right?? how conceited or ridiculous mathematically as vast as the universe is, As tiny as we are when you think of our location in the solar system.. in space would we have to be to not assume there are other life forms out there
https://futurism.com/videos/detailed-map-date-place-universe/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU
Yeah, and by laws of physics and biology we very likely won’t ever make contact with anything that would be able to commute with us. Findings of dead organic matter with a probe that is on its way for years? Sure. Talking aliens that visit us? No.
Look up the Disclosure Project and people like Leslie Kean, who’s not your typical out-there UFO researcher. It’s probable we’ve already been visited, but why would an advanced race want to talk to us? It’s like watching an animal documentary. You wouldn’t be able to really have a conversation or meaningful relationship with a penguin, no matter how cute it is.
I like the fact that Jake has found a goofy friend. He does seem like the kind of guy that takes himself way too seriously. On another note, I saw Nocturnal Animals last night. The acting was amazing but I’m not sure what I think about it… I remain disturbed.
@Snazzy I watched Nocturnal Animals last night too.
The only thing that got my attention was Jake G (and I love Amy Adams but she was given very little do work with). The other actors, even Shannon, were overacting not because they’re bad, but because the directing was awful.
I am sincerely beffudled by the attention this film got from critics. It’s as if a film student had been given incredible means to make a manicheist film about 2 realities, the rich and priviledged and the others – which, for Ford, are incredibly beautiful men from Texas and overweight women.
I was in need of some escapism… Should have read CB instead 😉
Ya, Jake was amazing. I guess I expected so much more from the others (they were good, but like you said, weren’t given enough to work with) What was it with the gorgeous men and the overweight women? And then the perception of emotion as being weakness, as a repetitive theme … I still need time to process that film. I mean, Ford does take great shots of the sky, but as for the rest, I have to say I much preferred A Single Man. That film broke my heart.
@Snazzy I guess emotion equated with the “creative type”? Which is such a cliché imo. I work with creative people and they draw on much more that just being emotional. They’re brainy, some of them, calculated and genious. It may be a film about emptyness, but I don’t buy it.
Oh I really want to see it. I loved the Single Man. And ehy didn’t Jake do any promotion for Nocturnal Animals or is that only the ompression that I have?
jake’s actually very funny and goofy. he’s only that serious with the press, and it’s a fairly recent thing as well i.e. the last few years.
The Guardian interviewer was something of a douche, being pushy about his personal life- a sentiment expressed by several commenters on the Guardian website.
I think he’s a fantastic actor, and he’s really come into his own in the last few years.
The Taylor Swift question derailed the whole thing but it was, indeed, for such a good actor, an impertinent question. I would have been pissed off too. However, you sensed that he was talking to every single journalist that ever tried to make a fool out of him or produce click-bait through that poor dude.
The interviewer is getting dragged hard in the comments, and rightly so.
Taylor Swift is the least interesting aspect of Jake Gyllenhaal. He took an opportunity to date a famous and attractive woman, then predictably dumped her several months later. His body of work in the last decade is much more fascinating. I also like that even though he got started with Hollywood connections, he isn’t a famewhore and doesn’t play the Hollywood game. He would probably like to win an Oscar, but he isn’t obsessed with it like Leonardo DiCaprio.
It’s more than statistically likely that non-terran life forms exist. Whether they’re intelligent (more or less so than us) or we ever manage to find them is another issue altogether.
Of course there are other intelligent being out there in outer space, problem is; they are way too far from us. Even traveling at the speed of light, it takes thousands of years to reach them, so we will never see an alien.
I don’t understand why we are sending out signals into space with our coordinates. Yeah there are probably other life forms but who says they’re friendly?
Well humans aren’t always the nicest so…
I agree. This is a really stupid move.
I think he’s right though. There’s no way we are alone.
But I’m also happy for him that he found a goof ball of a buddy in Ryan. They did an interview with Kevin McCarthy for Washington DC and it’s just them goofing around the whole time. It was great. I was watching it and I totally want a comedy type film from them…..have Jake loosen up a bit more lol
But I’ll be checking out Life especially because it’s gotten good reviews and people I know who’ve watched it have said it’s good.
That’s the most pretentious title of a movie i’ve heard since “Africa” or “Australia”!
I always think about how awesome would it to find another planet with our elements that can support and sustain intelligent life, but then I’m like maybe aliens are dodging our satellites attempts to find life because we are ridiculous people, who believe global warming is a hoax. And create imaginary border lines so we can further separate ourselves from each other.
I bet aliens are like yeah fuck these people, they will be eliminated by their own ecosystems very soon.
I thought you would have also mentioned the awkward part of the Guardian interview when he I asked about Taylor Swift and he clams up. He’s a very private person and deserves that privacy but that part of the interview was funny.
That part of the interview was ridiculous, and the Guardian commenters weren’t having it – Tim Jonze (the interviewer) is getting called a few names, and I’m not even sorry for him.
he is one of the most interesting actors atm, he picks such brilliant and interesting roles.
it’s a shame about the guardian interview. i’m not one to spend any time defending celebrities’ right to privacy; some loss of it is part and parcel for the privilege, not to mention at least half of pap pics are set up, since you can always tell when that isn’t the case and they were taken by surprise. but jake g isn’t even on social media, and the taylor thing was like 6/7 years ago. it wasn’t very fair to push him on the subject.
re aliens: i’m very much a skeptic of anything that cannot be scientifically proved, but i’m open minded to it. technically, there could be anything out there.
He is amazing in SITPWG. Not many American A list male stars are also bona fide theater actors (Denzel is the only one that comes to my mind, and certainly not in Jake’s age group. Unless Adam driver is an a lister?). It’s a shame the academy refuses to acknowledge him.
Yea. And Denzel and Adam haven’t been in musicals, right? I’m seeing SITPWG on April 9th! I’m SUPER excited!!
He was really good in Nocturnal Animals. He looked convincingly 19 and 38 in that movie. I believe aliens exist and they’ve probably been contacting us for thousands of years. Look up the Disclosure Project and researchers like Leslie Kean. Lots of military and airline people have come out to talk about their sightings. They won’t be making contact until we grow up, probably. It’s probably like watching animals in the wild to us. Or they have contacted us directly and only the military know about it.
If aliens are on their way here, once they see who our president is they will turn around and go right back.
i remember when they were saying years go how they found astroids from space and or mars and they were going to try to see if there was fossilized alien bacteria remnants…. i said to my dad of course there is…. just because an organism doesnt thrive from water, oxygen…etc etc. like humans and earth doesnt mean it doesnt exist….if nasa starts looking at other versions of life and open their minds…. god knows where we’ll be.
like there are some civilizations and life forces where oxygen would be like death to them…. fathom that