Jake Gyllenhaal is no stranger to the Toronto International Film Festival, having become a festival staple the past couple of years, but this year the actor told Cheryl Hickey he finally understands why the red carpets can get so chaotic.
“It’s funny,”; Jake says. “I was thinking about it last night and I was talking to a few people on the carpet…the people who were doing interviews with me and I said, “I understand now why everyone’s so eager,’ because there’s somebody behind them, their bosses or someone saying “you need to get the story’.”;
In the film, the actor plays Lou, a “nightcrawler”; who relies on apolice radio to help him be the first news cameraman on the scene of some of Los Angeles’ most grisly accidents. The actor tells Cheryl the role not only cleared up why some people were knocking over the velvet ropes to talk to him, but it also sparked an inner debate about society’s journalistic intent.
Explaining that the film is “a comment on where we are in terms of media and also an issue that documentarians and even journalists deal with at times, which is when do you get in, when do you jump in, when do you help?”; Adding, “your intent, your journalistic intent – what is it?”;
Disagreeing with Jake describing the cinematic experience as “fun,”; Cheryl and the 34-year-old actor shared a similar outside perspective: Jake’s during the shooting of this film and Cheryl’s during her time at Global News.
“I had done this other film “End of Watch”; years back and I had been on the streets a lot, I was on the streets for four months, two to three nights a week in cruisers and often times I’d see these stringers,”; the actor says adding, “this time, you know I went with the stringers to the crime scenes or to the accident scenes and we would be on the outside, not being able to be let in.”;
The actor also opened up to our host about his “hungry and skinny”; inspiration for what his character Lou would look like.”;I grew up in L.A. and coyotes are this strange fixture at night,”; he says. “Occasionally you’ll be driving around and…you’d be looking out your side window and you’d see…this lone coyote and he’d just stare at you in this crazy way, looking hungry and skinny.”;
Tune-in tonight for more of Jake’s interview with Cheryl at 7:30 p.m. ET.