Jake Gyllenhaal makes his musical Broadway debut in the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Sunday in the Park with George, set to begin previews at the historic Hudson Theatre on February 11.
The official opening of the limited run production (ten weeks only) is February 23rd.
Gyllenhaal shared this video via Facebook featuring a run-though of “Finishing The Hat.”
Watch below:
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
• The brilliant indie film Moonlight received 6 Golden Globe nominations which means even more of the world will be exposed to one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t seen it yet, GO!
• Politico is reporting that upwards of 20 GOP Electoral College members are considering not casting their votes for Donald Trump on December 19th. The most EC members to change their votes in one year was 6 in 1808.
• More from the Electoral College – 40 members have asked for an intelligence briefing before December 19th regarding information that Russia actively moved to help elect Donald Trump.
• Oklahoma lawmakers have approved a bill that would require businesses to post anti-abortion signs in their bathrooms.
• Following an acclaimed 4 night concert production at City Center this past October, Jake Gyllenhaal heads back to Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George for ten weeks at the Hudson Theater.
Diana Ossana, the screenwriter for the highly acclaimed film version of Brokeback Mountain, recently appeared on The Michelangelo Signorile Show to talk on the film’s 10th anniversary.
During the chat, the writer shared that Heath Ledger was at one point considered not “macho” enough.
[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.”
You can rent the devastatingly moving film with exceptional work by both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal on iTunes.
Talk about a tough acting assignment: how you gonna make Jake Gyllenhaal “nerdy?”
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.
My PAGEANT buddy, Dick Scanlan, will helm the Encores! production, which will play three performances on July 1-2.
Jake starred opposite Ruth Wilson in the well-received Broadway play “Constellations” this past season.
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.
Check out the pic above that shows his more slight, wiry frame as night-time adrenaline junkie in his current Nightcrawler next to a newly released pic from Southpaw.
GQ Australia delivers this month with a cover story and photo shoot with the fab Jake Gyllenhaal,
In the interview, Jake talks about his eclectic choice of projects and how they’ve affected the trajectory of his career. He refers to Brokeback Mountain as a “marker” on his path:
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.”
On an episode of Inside the Actors Studio set to air at 8 pm on September 19, Jake Gyllenhaal addresses rumors that he’s gay, and says he misses Heath Ledger every day.
Bravo writes:
“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.
And when it comes to what does turn him on, Jake is pretty direct: “Tits and ass.”
Jake Gyllenhaal’s episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio airs Thursday September 19 on Bravo.
Wow – how handsome does Jake Gyllenhaal look on the cover of DETAILS Magazine? Loving the full beard!
Jake takes things very seriously in the interview getting down to the issues of not only his work but his appreciation of his costars and how they all mesh together.
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.”
