Inspiration #2

I need to feel better.

Jake Gyllenhaal makes me feel better.

I'm going to talk about Jake Gyllenhaal.

He's my favourite actor. Ever.

Once, in high school, someone asked me which actor I thought was most attractive, and all my favourite actors then were comedic actors and they ent pretty. I couldn't answer, because I didn't really look at actors like it.

Until Jake.

The first film I saw of his was Donnie Darko. We were analysing shows at uni, there was a theme but I can't remember. Someone did Requiem Of A Dream. We did an episode of Wire In The Blood which involved Barbies in bondage? Sign of what this serial killer had done to his victims. Anyway, someone else picked the cinema scene in Donnie Darko, where he learns about time travel from Frank?

It freaked me out, but the time travel aspect intrigued me, even if Frank's eye was disgusting. First pschological thriller I ever bought (I hate horrors. They don't scare me, but they wind me up. I don't like the way my nerves are on edge from the music or something). It was so good. Kind of like reading a Scarlett Thomas, where you sit back and go 'what?' and then watch again to understand. And again and again and get the directors cut and a book analysing the film.

I can't remember the next Jake film I saw. But as I watched his films, I noticed something about him. About the way he picks scripts. We need to disregard Bubble Boy, but otherwise, all his films have something 'different' in the scripting. And edge or an idea not explored. He likes working on films that are based on books (Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead) or biographies, reports of things that have actually happened (Jarhead, Zodiac, Rendition), he'll portray the writers, or sometimes he'll work on films that have huge ideologies, the significance of Catcher In The Rye to the American teen, the idea of finding a proof to work out the next prime number in any given sequence without working out the multiples (The Good Girl, Proof) ... every film he does is thought-provoking in some way. And he is a hottie, so it's aesthetically and mentally satisfying.

Basically, I want to marry Jake Gyllenhaal. But if I met him, I'd be worried he wouldn't be as inspiring as his work. Apparently he does plays in London a lot too? I'd love to go find one and check him out. Like, see him craft something on stage, in real time. He and his sister seem pretty down to earth about the whole Hollywood thing too, which I guess is down to having a script-writing mother and a director father. And an acting Godmother (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Oh, and he was so humble about losing one of his best friends, when everyone in Hollywood was clambouring to give a Heath Ledger soundbit, everyone on Brothers said he was too upset to talk. And he took on another man's kids when he started seeing Reese Witherspoon ... that makes him such a huge hero in my eyes.

Why can't I meet Jake Gyllenhaal, goddammit? Or at least someone like him.