Up to this point in his career,
Darko”), in sharply observed American indies (“The Good Girl,” “Lovely
& Amazing”), tense
serial-killer thriller (“Zodiac”), an English-language remake of a
Danish dogma piece (“Brothers”), and an Oscar-winning love story
between two men (“Brokeback Mountain,” opposite
So, what’s this dedicated thespian doing in sixth-century armor, leaping walled citadels in a
“It’s definitely a different type of movie than I’ve
made before,” says Gyllenhaal. “In the past, I looked at acting and
making movies maybe a bit too seriously, and took myself a little bit
too seriously. And I thought it was time to make a movie that was like
the ones I loved when I was a kid.”
Those would be the “Indiana Jones” titles, he says, “The Goonies” and “E.T.”
“And ‘Willow,'” he adds, making note of the 1988 Ron Howard/
“When I think about being a kid, I think about the
wonder of these movies. And I wanted to make a movie like that. And
with ‘Prince of Persia,’ I thought this is a little bit of all those
things mixed into one.”
(Footnote for “Willow” aficionados: Gyllenhaal says that that film’s star,
served as “my inspiration for the hair in this movie” — and more. “Val
really is an inspiration for this character,” he insists.)
“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” opens Friday. It was shot in
For Gyllenhaal, 29, getting into shape for all the
running and jumping, falling and fighting required of his ancient-times
action hero involved a rigorous training regimen.
“It was really, really hard,” he deadpans, on the phone from
“Yeah, it was a day-in, day-out, pride-swallowing
siege that you never fully know about,” he continues, quoting loosely
from another of his favorite films, “
“There’s a lot of acrobatics in the movie, and parkour, and sword
fighting and martial arts. I would work with gymnasts and I would train
in parkour and I’d work with the stunt guys.”
Repetition, he says, was key.
“In order to do a sword fight, to really feel
believable, and dangerous, doing it over and over and over again was a
must. Someone said to me, which I love, ‘There’s nothing that 10,000
repetitions can’t cure.’ “
Watching old
“An absolute genius. He was a massive influence on this part, too.”
Gyllenhaal says that he played the original,
side-scrolling version of “Prince of Persia” when it came out on the
first Mac computer. “I played it when I was a kid, and then took like a
20-year-or-so hiatus from the game,” he says. “I didn’t play ‘Prince of
Persia’ again until I started doing research for the movie, and then I
played it every day, three times a day.
“Like I said, it’s really hard being an actor. Getting paid to get in shape and play video games.”
Gyllenhaal hails from a showbiz family. His father, Stephen, is a director; his mother,
a screenwriter. His older sister, Maggie, was nominated for a
supporting actress Oscar this year for her performance in “Crazy
Heart.” Gyllenhaal’s first film role was as
Since making “Prince of Persia” (yes, he’s signed a
sequel clause, “so if people respond to it, I’m back”), the actor has
starred in two more typically Gyllenhaalian projects:
“Source Code,” “a science-fiction action thriller” with
“Love and Other Drugs,” a romantic comedy with Gyllenhaal as a pharmaceutical salesman who woos
Viagra was invented. … My character is very proficient with the
ladies, so he ends up being able to sell Viagra very, very well. …
“Annie and I definitely got pretty intimate, because
there are a lot of love scenes in the movie, a lot of sexy scenes in
that movie. You have to let it all hang out, so to speak.”
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