The Persia Principle

Mere hours from the London premiere of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Jake Gyllenhaal is in fine nonsensical form.

"I grew my hair for six months for the movie," he tells me. "And then my trainer and I went through a rigorous shampooing and conditioning regime. Then I started feeling sexy in preparation for the role. Because I don't really care about what kind of muscles I have. I feel sexy when I feel good inside. Or when my hair is long. Whatever."
Hang on a minute. Can this really be Jake Gyllenhaal, the serious and seriously talented young actor from Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac? Isn't he supposed to be a Buddhist who plants trees in Mozambique every year? Wasn't he part of earnest John Kerry's presidential team? Didn't he transfer from Harvard and graduate from Columbia alongside his sister Maggie? Doesn't he prefer a good play in London to the title role on Spiderman 2?
"All true," he smiles. "But I have been trying to take myself a little less seriously. I think as a younger person I thought being super serious was the only way to be a great actor. With experience I completely disagree. Some of the best actors I've worked with have fun all the time."
To this end, you can currently catch Mr. Gyllenhaal letting his hair down (literally and figuratively) in Prince of Persia; Sands of Time, the latest summer offering from Jerry Bruckheimer and the team that brought you the Pirates of the Caribbean sequence. A grand old-fashioned swashbuckler, the Mike Newell directed project significantly improves on Gore Verbinski's work with a rollicking rendition of the gamer's favourite.
"When I think back to working on something like Brokeback Mountain with Ang (Lee) and Heath (Ledger), it couldn't be more different," says Mr. Gyllenhaal. "That's an intimate set, in every way possible I guess. Working for Jerry Bruckheimer nothing is intimate but it has its own unique energy. When you drive past miles of set in the middle of the desert and there are hundreds of cars that belong to crew members who've been working on this thing for hours already, it's like being in the star athlete arriving at the Olympics. It feeds you. It gets your adrenalin going. And it's a huge responsibility: every move you make affects one hundred other people."
The scale of Bruckheimer Inc. might have floored the 29 year-old if he weren't so accustomed to the business. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten when he appeared as Billy Crystal's son in City Slickers. Jamie Lee Curtis is his godmother. His equally famous sister Maggie is married to fellow actor Peter Sarsgaard, who played alongside Jake in Sam Mendes' Jarhead.
"We'll call each other up," says Jake. "And try to figure out where we are. Maggie will be in London shooting Nanny McPhee and I'll have been there last month. It's crazy. My family can't keep track of each other. But she's amazing. I just love her so much. She's an incredible sister and an incredible mom. It was amazing when she got the Academy Award nomination because I had seen her do all that incredible work and I knew how good she was."
He claims the clan are nothing like a show business dynasty and that between shoots he's pretty much the same fellow he's been since adolescence.
"My best friends are all people I've grew up with," he says. "My best friend in the world is a chef and he lives in Martha's Vineyard. He and I are pretty athletic so we travel together and go biking and that sort of thing. I'm not a clubbing person; I like to be outside in the daylight. I download music all the time and pay for it."
Unsurprisingly, eyebrows were raised when Disney announced that Jake Gyllenhaal would be donning sandals and sword to play Dastan in the big screen adaptation of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. While nobody doubted Mr. Gyllenhaal's abilities, few had previously regarded him as having action hero potential.
"Generally speaking," says Gyllenhaal, "it's important for me to make choices that make people feel uncomfortable. I mean, I'm an actor, so I want to be liked. I don't necessarily enjoy bothering people but I do think it's important. If you are trying to please everybody you can only be miserable."
He is, therefore, properly giddy about Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, a career curveball that saw him buff up and ride around on horseback saving princesses and their magic time-travelling daggers.
"I didn't even make the connection between the game and the script at first," he admits. "But once I did I spent time playing it. I'd call the stunt guys and trainers in and show them something to see if we could do it. They'd be like 'Well, we don't think you can do it, but we'll find a guy'. How often do you get to do that at work?"
He will, nonetheless, return to smaller, worthier vessels once he's finished press duties on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
"I've already made two more movies since we wrapped," he says. "One with Ed Zwick and another with Duncan Jones who has just blown me away. I think very soon everybody is going to realise that Duncan Jones is the next great director from his generation."
So he's back to being a serious young man, then?
"Yeah, but now I'm having fun on the inside."