Actors Studio Take 2

Tape while Jake was out in LA,  and clean shaven , he and actress Patricia Arquette from Richard Linkletter's movie Boyhood talk about their first acting roles, sting operations and more at the Variety Studio: Actors On Actors presented by Samsung Galaxy

And Jake shares what he thinks about rules.  It is an interesting discussion between actors discussing their craft.  Definitely worth a watch.

Growing Pains

With Jake's play opening tomorrow, it signals a change for Jake. New challenges and more into a different part of his career.

 After career defining highs and less that critical success, Jake found himself in an uneasy place.

 “I wasn’t really listening to myself about the kinds of projects I wanted to do,” he said in a recent interview, reflecting on the past decade. “I had to figure out what kind of an actor I wanted to be and feel confident going for that.”

 And what we have been seeing this past year is Jake working on being the kind of actor he wants to be.

 "Nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for 'Brokeback,' said he still revels in experimenting with his take on characters from scene to scene and performance to performance. But acting rigor is increasingly his goal, and perhaps the respect that comes with it. “Early in your career it’s hard to know everything for yourself, and asking questions isn’t always a welcome thing in Hollywood, where everyone seems like they know what they’re doing,” he said during an interview over tofu salad and squid sashimi at a Japanese restaurant in the West Village.

 “Around the time I hit 30, I asked myself if I was respecting acting as a craft,” ...."and if I was doing the right projects that deserved my attention and where I’m learning in a way that you might not feel at 15. So now it’s like I look at acting more as building little delicate cricket cages, with care and more thought.” In the past 18 months Mr. Gyllenhaal parted ways with his longtime manager, signed with a new agency and began devoting more time to selecting and preparing for projects."

 Projects like EoW, The Enemy and the play are part of Jake's journey. Even Berlinale.  And there seems to be a paradigm shift from acting and the celebrity, to acting and the craft that it is, and with that maturity, commitment, and challenge.

Why did we see Jake up at Columbia so much last spring? He was contact his professors for advice about his role in The Enemy.

On EoW Jake got so involved giving feed back, watching dailies and things like him checking out the camera technology and showed so much commitment that "John Lesher, one of its producers, decided after filming to make Mr. Gyllenhaal an executive producer."

And he's tackling the play the same way. Taking on the challenge that is stretching him and make him give everything and more. He went out and sought the play, pursuing it and it writer and director.

 "It was Terry’s capacity for cruelty that appealed to Mr. Gyllenhaal most of all. 'The intentions of Terry are very different from anything I’ve played before, especially his vicious side,” he said. 'It intrigued me so much, and that was the sign. I want to come home at the end of the day and be wiped out and feel I’ve torn my heart out from acting and feel fulfilled. At this point I don’t have the desire to do anything other than projects that make me feel that way.'"

 It looks like Jake is growing, we will just have wait and see where he ends up.

 And Jake, Break A Leg!!

Quote Source - NY Times.

It Chose Me

‘You know, this really is a strange answer because I didn’t really choose acting, I feel like it chose me.


It was like when I was fifteen years old all of a sudden there was some voice in my head telling me “Learn about acting.” You know, and I started taking classes and with like three different teachers in my hometown in Austin, Texas and it started slowly building.


I feel like my whole career has been sort of a…small steps all the way through.

So it’s been small steps and it’s progressed really nicely and I feel like, as a kid, I was always sitting Indian style with my nose two inches from the television screen and I loved movies to death.


At that age I didn’t know that that’s what I wanted to do and I just knew that I loved to watch, I loved to watch performances and just a big cinema freak as a kid and so it just sort of naturally


…it was weird cause I wanted to be a pro athlete, I wanted to be a professional water skier and at some point that little voice just said, “No, that’s not what you’re gonna do.”
Austin ~ 2007

Pictures: ANJ, OMG, IHJ

Picking Up the Pieces

In the span of less that two weeks, Austin will be seen portraying two roles that can't be more radically different. In The Informers, he is Martin, debauched, indulged, and sexually ambiguous. Who sleeps with whomever seems to be interesting, his friend Graham's girlfriend Christie, Graham's mom Susan, and with Graham himself. Martin it is all about the sex, the drugs, and the scene. Losing a friend is another day in LA, the party just continues.

Check out the newest NSFW trailer for The Informers at Austin Nichols Journal (Spooky's)

Then there is Edward in Prayers for Bobby. Ed Griffith is so far the opposite you could get whiplash from the about face. Portraying a character that was raised with a fundamentalist background and struggles with the fact of his brother's homosexuality, believing it is a sin and keeping his brother's secret until Bobby attempted suicide. As Martin would drink more to dull the feelings, Ed choose faith and religion. A character who's faith comes to question just as his mother's and the rest of the family, when Bobby does succeed in ending his pain and struggle between his upbringing and his true identity, Ed finds resolution with new a understanding and acceptance still based in faith in a loving caring God. The Prayers for Bobby Trailer trailer

Talk about as different as you can get. But both of these roles are chances to showcase incredible skills as an actor, playing such extremes and taking risks for the parts picked. Neither is the starring role but strong supporting ones and never secondary. His choices seem to come from a very artistic and personal viewpoint, what looks interesting, thought provoking, changing. Not just for the audience, but for him as an actor. Austin takes on both roles getting into the character and giving them his fullest commitment. It seems to be Austin's approach to acting, as in the lessons learned from one of his mentor's Markus Flanagan and his book One Less Bitter Actor, focus on the job, and give the best performance you can give for each role you have.

This month, the forces from wherever have pulled together these two roles in such a way in such that it really showcases Austin's talent, craft, and growth as an actor over the past few years. Will it mean more people will take notice ? Let's hope so.



Photographs/Austin Nichols Journal

Remdemption - PoP: Your 5 cents

We've seen the sets, and the star, but what about the story? Know enough of the back story or want a little catch up to see how the Prince of Persia got started. Ok, sure the script is floating out there, do you really have the time read the whole thing, and where's the fun in reading 20 months before the release and knowing everything? So for those who want some PoP lite - this is your no calorie treat



A theme that jumps out is journey of redemption. It seems like redemption is something that Jake is visiting a few of his movies as of late. Brothers, PoP and in a way Rendition.

Redemption is a timeless theme, it is used in countless variations of storytelling. So the question is this, is redemption what Hollywood's writing more of now? Is it a more prominent storyline among more adult roles? Is Jake drawn to a more redemptive storyline as a part of his transition from less boy/man to man on screen?

Fly Me to the Moon

When you thought it looked scrubbed the Moon Project is back on the launch pad with a new writer brought onto the film, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Up and coming writer Dan Mazeau has been hired to redraft the action film about lunar colonization that was originally written director Doug Linman and John Hamburg. Mark Bowden revamped Linman's and Hamburg's script first, now Mazeau challenge is working on a script "based on an original story by Liman, Bowden and Simon Kinberg," Kinberg will be executive producing with Linman, the pair have had box office success with "Mr & Mrs. Smith" and "Jumpers".

So Astronaut Jake will get to suit up soon enough it looks like.

Astronaut, Soldier, Prince, Cowboy, Football Star... sounds like action figures, but in reality recent roles and projects in Jake's career. What little boy didn't dream of being at least one of those? Acting gives the chance to be all things taking some of those boyhood dreams of really being the astronaut, the cowboy, the Prince and bringing it to the role. It is the magic of that sometimes is the spark to such roles, that translated it from the page to the audience. Wonder if Jake will ever get to be the bird he wanted to grow up to be?

Are the astronaut and the Prince boyhood dreams or a way of providing security in his career with big box office projects? Jake has said he admired Matt Damon's career, that of balance big box office with smaller critically acclaimed roles and indie projects. Is he making his own version of the Damon plan?

And if not acting then what for Jake? Would it be serious run at cooking? Or woodworking? Or gardening? Or would be behind the camera? Do you think he would be able to walk away from acting completely? Or would he always keep acting a part of his life?

Less is More

"Knowing when to do nothing is one of the least appreciated of an actor's skill, here's one who learned it early."

Many may scratch their head when they read that Jake was included in Esquire's Performances of the Year for his role in Rendition. "What the heck did he do? He just sat there for most of the movie." Precisely. But sometimes less is more. But how is that a performance? The performance is the subtly of restraint. To convey something from nothing. Many actors can go all out and go over the top to make their characters larger than life, but it is true talent to resonate in the quietness of a character.

Jake has been seen crafting this in his last three films, Brokeback, Zodiac, and Rendition. For all of the bravado of Jack Twist, it was the restraint and quietness of Jack that spoke much more. Heath received praised for his role at Ennis, and rightfully so, but many missed how Jake brought Jack Twist to the screen. Many thought that his performance was less than Heath's but if you look back you can see that Jake is doing much more with the character than just what you see on your first look at Jack.

Zodiac found him using restraint and introspective quietness to portray Robert Graysmith. Again first looking at Zodiac you are drawn to watching Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. Jake's performance at first passing doesn't seem like how you should play a lead, but a secondary part. Then watching interviews with Graysmith you realize wow, Jake found his Graysmith, he captured the essence of this cartoonist. The power of his restraint comes through again.

In Rendition you find him spending most of the movie in a darken room observing. You see Douglass Freeman almost detracted from the rest of the characters, and see Jake's performance an antithesis to his fellow actors. He doesn't want to be there, not wanting to participate, both as Douglas and as Jake. But that is exactly what the audience is supposed to be feeling. While you are busy watching the torture of Anwar, done so well by Omar Metwally, you become frustrated because you want Jake to do something, anything. What has he done? And right there he has caught you - he made you react to character out of doing nothing. You have been brought into the story in another way. And then you see Douglas reach his breaking point and finally doing something to save Anwar. Time, patience and restraint to create the performance.

Jake is creating performances that lend themselves to second and third looks to get the true sense of them. They are so layered that are to be watched over again to be peeled back and discovered.

It is easier to go broad, you can hide more your of weaknesses as an actor, but it is when you hold back and give just enough that you leave the door open for everyone to see the true essence both the performance and the actor. The audience just have to stop and take the time to look.