Jake Gyllenhaal on Tackling the Role of Author/Ex-Marine Tony Swofford: Gyllenhaal says that even though Swofford was available to meet with him, he chose not to do so while he was preparing for the role.
“I went back and forth in my head about do I want to. I’m playing a real person in the movie I’m doing right now and I went back and forth with that, too, every time. I recognized that Bill [Broyles Jr] had written it, the part as ‘Swoff’ in the script, and it wasn’t Anthony Swofford. I knew that this was a story about someone in a period of time, it wasn’t specifically about Tony but it was Tony who had the courage to bring the story out. I just thought I didn’t really want to meet him. I was terrified that I was going to realize that, and I did when I met him, that I thought ‘Oh, I’m nothing like him. I’m nothing like Anthony and Sam’s going to realize when we meet that I’m nothing like him…’
Some of the other actors look like him and I don’t look like him. And when we met, Sam sort of - we were in the middle of rehearsals and Sam was like, ‘We’re going out to lunch with Tony.’ I’m like, ‘With Tony? With who?’ And he’s like, ‘With Tony Swofford.’ I’m like,’ Okay, great, cool.” We went, because he really like popped it on me, and we went to lunch and I couldn’t say a word and I was like in a panic attack immediately because we had been rehearsing for two weeks and I was just like getting into a rhythm of like, ‘Cool, I’m figuring this out.’ I was like, ‘I’m nothing like him.’
But it was a very conscious choice and I told Tony when he came. We both recognized this because he’s such a really magnificent writer and it’s not the only book he’s ever going to write. I think he recognizes that artifice and I think he recognizes it as that piece of myth. I think he really respects actors and I think he’s pretty extraordinary that he did, that he said, ‘Oh okay.’ That he’s not asking me to video tape him and see what his twitches are and where he’s shy and this and that. I wanted to present the closest thing to me as I could in parts. I didn’t want to wear a mask of, or try and imitate somebody. Hopefully [that’s] not what Tony would want either,” explained Gyllenhaal.
Jake Gyllenhaal on Boredom as an Enemy: “I think a soldier’s mind is as great of an enemy in the field as bombs or bullets. I think that’s probably what I feel like the movie is about. That when you use these techniques and you teach someone and you harness a pure time or an instinct in them, and then they’re not allowed to express that, I think the mind is confused by that. And yeah, the boredom then, when the boredom sets in, when you realize we’ve been here for 122 days and we’ve been sitting in the same tent and I’ve done a little too much masturbating, because it’s like you know, I mean it’s true. Sad, but true.
I think it’s more about the soldier’s mind. Sergeant Major Dever, our military advisor, would say, ‘Smooth is fast. Smooth is fast.’ He’d say it like all the time, ‘Smooth is fast,’ because you’d always rush. Your mind would always be like, you’d be putting together your rifles, you know, and we’d be cleaning them and putting them back together, cleaning them and putting them back together. I would always be like, ‘I have to prepare for the scene where I have to put the rifle together so I have to get it really fast.’ He’d always come over to me and put his hand on my shoulder and say. ‘Smooth is fast. Smooth is fast.’
There’s that mentality of you, it’s not about letting your mind get caught up in all of it. As soon as you’re clear then you’ll get it right, when you’re not over thinking it. But yeah, when you’re given the time to think I think it probably can be as dangerous of an enemy.”
Jake Gyllenhaal on “Brokeback Mountain:” “I did ‘Brokeback Mountain’ before I did this movie. Frankly you don’t say no to Ang Lee and you don’t say no to Sam Mendes, and you beg both of them no matter what you’re doing in either of the movies. Whether you’re wearing a Santa cap over your d**k or whether you’re making love to Heath Ledger. You just don’t say no to them, that was why. I think that both stories are written by… I mean the short story of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and the book of ‘Jarhead’ are just two of the most kind of extraordinary pieces of literature."
Page 4: Jake Gyllenhaal on "Brokeback Mountain" and "Chronicles"
