Matt Damon: Masculine Crisis, Sexual Identity

Michael Douglas, Luciana and Matt Damon at the Emmy Awards, on 22nd September 2013

Outstanding Miniseries or Movie: *Behind the Candelabra • HBO (Winner)

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie:
*Michael Douglas - Behind the Candelabra (winner), Matt Damon (nominated)

Scott Thorson, a young bisexual man raised in foster homes, is introduced to flamboyant entertainment giant Liberace and quickly finds himself in a romantic relationship with the legendary pianist. Swaddled in wealth and excess, Scott and Liberace have a long affair, one that eventually Scott begins to find suffocating. Kept away from the outside world by the flashily effeminate yet deeply closeted Liberace, and submitting to extreme makeovers and even plastic surgery at the behest of his lover, Scott eventually rebels. When Liberace finds himself a new lover, Scott is tossed on the street. He then seeks legal redress for what he feels he has lost. But throughout, the bond between the young man and the star never completely tears.

For a brief honeymoon period—the phrase is appropriate, because the homoerotic undercurrents are explicit—Tom Ripley is intoxicated by what he thinks is his new life. He moves in with Dickie and Marge, and together they spend what Mr. Greenleaf is paying Tom for his living expenses. He sings with Dickie in jazz clubs, lives "la dolce vita" with Dickie and Marge, keeps Dickie's guilty secrets about Silvana and closely studies how Dickie speaks, acts and dresses. (When asked, Tom readily admits that his greatest talents are for lying, impersonation and forging handwriting.) His Ripley is simultaneously compelling and repugnant, a deep well of emotions and an inscrutable cipher, a tragic hero and a monster you're glad to leave behind. That Damon manages to embody all these qualities, and still have viewers concerned when the Italian police or the efficient detective (Philip Baker Hall) hired by the Greenleaf family get too close, is a rare achievement. Source: www.blu-ray.com

Tom ultimately deprives Herbert Greenleaf of his son and heir and then forges the suicide note and will that deliver Dickie’s inheritance into Tom’s hands. But unlike Macbeth, who meets his nemesis in Macduff, Ripley does get away with murder and usurpation, fully enlisting the reader’s “terrified sympathy” in the process, a process that begins because “Tom knew just what to say to a father like Mr. Greenleaf”.

Once again, Tom demonstrates his imaginative genius, a power Arthur Brittan (1989) sees arising out of necessity when “dignity is lost” due to the “dehumanizing influences of technology and industrial society”. Devalued by a society that reduces him to “living from week to week”, Tom reasserts his lost dignity in his manipulation of first Herbert Greenleaf, then Dickie, and finally the social and legal norms to win the crown for himself. At the novel’s end, Tom envisions a literal sailing into the sunset to Crete since “it was no joke. It was his! Dickie’s money and his freedom. And the freedom, like everything else, seemed combined, his and Dickie’s combined.”

The lack of any mentoring through the father figure to aid in forming values that define the masculine and foster success in life constitutes a major crisis in Tom Ripley’s character. Arthur Brittan (1989) focuses on this crisis when discussing Male Crisis Theory, which identifies the problem as being “that men find it difficult to identify with appropriate role models. If such models are absent, or partially absent,” and “men suffer from an acute sense of gender confusion.” Whatever their differences about mentoring boys as they grow to adulthood, both William Pollak (1998) and Christina Hoff Sommers (2000) concur on the very unhealthy impact of an absent father in the life of a young man. Pollak endorses the “generative father” whose care for the next generation promotes the “fundamental father-son connection for a lifetime” and thus cements a “profound and lasting impact” on sons. Sommers argues for the father’s central role in “helping sons develop a conscience and a sense of responsible manhood,” thereby playing “an indispensable civilizing role in the social ecosystem”. Clearly, Highsmith and Palahniuk create characters sorely in need of such generativity from a man and devastatingly crippled by the absence of “responsible manhood” in their lives.

Tom is an orphan, labeled as a sissy by his tormentor, Aunt Dottie. Tom Ripley gets the notice he yearns for by murdering Dickie Greenleaf, assuming his identity, and finally by outwitting every representative of the social order. Tom secures his independence and the successful lifestyle he so admires, but at the price of forever imagining “policemen waiting for him on every pier”. Source: michael-miller.wiki.uml.edu

Emile Hirsch & Holliday Grainger in Bonnie & Clyde miniseries, Bonnie Parker's real story

Almost half a century after Faye Dunaway famously played her as a hard-bitten killer, a new investigation has revealed that while Clyde Barrow revelled in his crimes, Bonnie often fought to stem the bloodshed.

“In so many ways she was innocent,” says Dr Beatrice Colin, lecturer in creative writing at the University of Strathclyde, who wrote the drama The True Story of Bonnie Parker, on BBC Radio 4 this week.

“Bonnie was the one who would ask Clyde to kidnap people rather than kill them, often driving them hundred of miles away then bundling them out of their cars across county lines. “Yes, she was involved with a very violent man but she was just naïve, and, you have to remember, she was very young too.”

Unfortunately Bonnie’s name was tarnished for ever when, on Easter Sunday 1934, Clyde opened fire on two highway patrolmen who stopped his car on Route 114 in Texas. She had certainly joined a gang of robbers who were complicit in the killing of numerous police and civilians, but Bonnie never fired a gun.

That didn’t stop the warped image of this sadistic, cigar-smoking hellcat capturing the imagination of the press and later inspiring the 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Dunaway.

The Radio 4 drama begins to dispel the myth and reconstruct her image as a woman who just fell in love with the wrong man. “They were Romeo and Juliet with guns,” insists Dr Colin. “The one account we have of her killing someone was later discredited, and in fact we have another account of that same killing and that’s when she was actually seen to help the dying men, cradling them in her arms.” Source: www.mirror.co.uk

The four-hour two-part Bonnie & Clyde mini is set to air Sunday, December 8th and Monday, December 9th at 9 PM simultaneously on A&E, Lifetime and History. Emile Hirsch (Into The Wild) and Holliday Grainger (The Borgias) star in the title roles of outlaw couple Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The killer cast also includes Holly Hunter as Bonnie’s mother, Emma Parker, and William Hurt as Frank Hamer, the Texas Ranger pursuing the Barrow gang. Bonnie & Clyde follows Barrow, Parker and the notorious Barrow Gang as they sweep through the Central and Southern United States committing small-time robberies and daring bank heists, leaving murdered police officers and civilians in their wake. Source: www.deadline.com

Jake Gyllenhaal living in the cinematic world in "Prisoners" (MTV Interview)

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Gyllenhaal has made a business of starring in mid-sized, well-received projects like "Source Code," "End of Watch," and this week's "Prisoners." In the new thriller from director Denis Villeneuve, Gyllenhaal plays an ace detective haunted by his only unsolved case, the disappearance of two young girls.

An example of that is "Prisoners." Gyllenhaal's character, Detective Loki, obviously shares a profession with the character he played in "End of Watch," a similarity that scares away most actors, who are often afraid of repeating themselves. For Gyllenhaal, it just meant that he had to explore the role further.

What ultimately helped him make up his mind was a conversation with Villeneuve, who had just directed him in another TIFF film, "Enemy."

"[Villeneuve] offered me this film saying, 'I know this about you. I know you can do this.' I went, 'I'm going to trust this man and this relationship,' " Gyllenhaal recalled. "And this character is so different from the other. Just because he's a cop doesn't mean anything." "Prisoners" opens in theaters on Friday. Source: www.mtv.com

Gyllenhaal: I think Denis and I also both deeply believe in the unconscious and the power of the unconscious and we live in the cinematic world, at least in popular cinema where everything needs to be supposedly explained or brought to the surface structurally and consciously so that people understand what's happening. But I think we long for that as an audience, that unconscious connection and the choices we make suddenly and his attention to detail.

Denis has taught me a deeply important thing—he’s helped me discover the unconscious connection between the director and the audience. And he allowed me to explore these ideas because we both understood and respect that idea and you could see that in his work directing “Prisoners.” That attention to detail, particularly in places where only a handful of people could be able to masterfully guide that story and keep that tension, I think that's because we were working in a kind of elevated harmony. Without a doubt that added to this experience. Source: blogs.indiewire.com

Jake Gyllenhaal - "Nightcrawler", Live with Kelly & Michael interview

Jake Gyllenhaal - Inside The Actors Studio

Bold Films is financing “Nightcrawler,” which begins shooting Oct. 6 in Los Angeles in Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut. Gyllenhaal plays a man who discovers the nocturnal world of freelance crime journalism in Los Angeles. “We really had no choice but to shoot this in Los Angeles, because it’s set in L.A and it’s a quintessentially Los Angeles kind of project in that the city is very much a character in the movie,” said producer David Lancaster. “It’s a similar situation to ‘Drive,’ where it’s essential to set the movie in L.A. And we also got the tax credit.” Source: variety.com

Jake Gyllenhaal at the Sirius XM Publicity Show, on September 18, 2013 in New York City


Jake Gyllenhaal has been everywhere promoting Prisoners, which is set to hit theaters this weekend. During his visit to Live! With Kelly and Michael this week, he shared everything from his thoughts on twerking to whether or not he's OK with PDA. Find out what he said!

Jake Gyllenhaal with co-stars Hugh Jackman, Melissa Leo, Maria Bello and Paul Dano at 'Prisoners' Luncheon Hosted By Warner Bros. and The Peggy Siegal Co., on September 19, 2013 in New York City

Jake Gyllenhaal: afraid of snakes in "Prisoners"

“I knew there was a snake scene,” says Jake Gyllenhaal, but after a decade plus in the business, he thought he knew the drill.

“You’re playing a cop who walks into a room filled with snakes, which is creepy,” Gyllenhaal says. “But as an actor, you know it will all be CGI.”

Not so on “Prisoners” (opening Friday), a gritty film about two kidnapped girls and the cop who vows to save them. “I’m in the room and the director grabs six or seven or maybe 10 real, slithering snakes out of a bag and tosses them.

“I’m pretending I’m not afraid of them,” adds Gyllenhaal. “I’m about to pee in my pants. The snakes were everywhere. They were crawling into little holes they found and getting lost in the walls.” Source: www.suntimes.com


Junket interview with Jake Gyllenhaal (Loki) on "Prisoners".

Jake Gyllenhaal enjoys tits

Aside from the film itself he talks about his co-star and friend, Heath Ledger, and how his death "...felt like losing a family member, and it still does to this day."

Jake Gyllenhaal - Los Angeles Times portrait

After the critical and commercial success of "Brokeback Mountain" there came the inevitable questioning of Gyllenhaal's sexuality, since he plays a gay cowboy in the film. Gyllenhaal commented on the rumors during his talk with Lipton, and said, "It's a huge compliment," but what he prefers is "tits and ass."

Since his "Brokeback" days he has been romantically linked to a number of Hollywood starlets such as Reese Witherspoon and Taylor Swift.

Jake Gyllenhaal (with Maria Bello and Hugh Jackman) attending "Prisoners" Los Angeles Premiere on September 12, 2013

His "Inside the Actor's Studio" appearance coincides with the release of his upcoming movie "Prisoners" which co-stars Hugh Jackman and is already receiving Oscar talk for multiple categories, including nominations for the cast. Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Matt Damon: The Talented Mr Ripley in Blu-Ray, Rounders Anniversary, "Bewildered" video

Matt Damon ("Bewildered Video")

Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

'The Talented Mr. Ripley' Blu-ray released in September: Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is a bright and charismatic sociopath who makes his way in mid-50s New York City as a men's room attendant and sometimes pianist, though his real skill is in impersonating other people, forging handwriting, and running second-rate scams. After being mistaken for a Princeton student, Tom meets the shipping tycoon father of Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), who has traveled to the coast of Italy, where he's living a carefree life with his father's money and his beautiful girlfriend, Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). Source: www.highdefdigest.com

Matt Damon as Mike McDermott in "Rounders" (1998) directed by John Dahl.

Directed by indie stalwart John Dahl and written by David Levien and Brian Koppelman (the duo who went on to write "Ocean's Thirteen" for Steven Soderbergh, among other films), "Rounders" was the No. 1 movie in North American during its opening weekend, with $8.4 million in ticket sales. Overall, however, it was a disappointment for the studio, earning only $22.9 million during its initial theatrical run.

"It eventually made it into the black on video. Well into the black," Damon told HuffPost Entertainment in an interview last year. "Harvey Weinstein called me years ago and he was like, 'Matt, 'Rounders' is in the black. I thought you'd like to know.' I was like, 'No fucking way.' He was like, 'Yes, you did it. I knew we made a good movie.'"

Indeed, they did. "Rounders," which also co-starred Edward Norton, Gretchen Mol, John Turturro, Martin Landau and John Malkovich (plus "Mindy Project" star Chris Messina in his first onscreen role), has become a cult favorite in the last 15 years, thanks to its prescient storyline (interest in competitive poker tournaments grew after the film's release) and quote-ready script. (Malkovich, in particular, unloads corker after corker in a thick Russian accent.) Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Jake Gyllenhaal in V Man photoshoot

Jake Gyllenhaal 'Prisoners' Portraits - Toronto Film Festival

Jake Gyllenhaal on the cover of V Man magazine (Fall/Winter) 2013.

On discoveries as an actor: “More and more, I’ve tried to ask myself about myself … that’s one of the reasons I love other actors, I discover what I want to talk about when I begin to exchange with someone else. You constantly stay alive, stay awake, listen to yourself.”

On life after filming End of Watch: “I made a number of changes in my life … I moved from Los Angeles to New York City, really to be closer to my family, and also – I had made a lot of promises to myself about getting back to theater, which is what I love, and I really wanted to follow that… so I just made this sort of big move out East, which is the opposite move people usually make, and I basically took some time.”

Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in Hollywood Reporter magazine (Toronto Festival Daily), September 2013

Prisoners co-star Hugh Jackman on Jake: “What always impressed me about Jake was his steadfast commitment to connection, His work ethic is like mine: he loves to explore, dig and extract every ounce of depth in a scene. He has the courage to follow his instincts and helps create an atmosphere where anything is possible. He is open, always striving for truth and complexity. What he has pulled off in Prisoners is extraordinary.” Source: vman.com