Gyllenhaal is a free-wheeling actor

Jake Gyllenhaal as Tommy Cahill is the feisty younger brother, a drifter who has just got out of jail and hits on Grace (Natalie Portman) in Jim Sheridan's drama "Brothers".


"Brothers" - The Truth videoclip, featuring Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman.

"Where the movie lives and dies is in the relationship between the two brothers" says Sheridan, who says Maguire and Gyllenhaal deliver in roles that are more grown-up than what they customarily play.

To look convincing as a prisoner of war, Maguire dropped 25 pounds from his already thin frame."He is a vegan, so as far as I am concerned he doesn't eat anyway. He ate less vegan," said Sheridan, who worries about Maguire's extreme diet having a long-term effect.

As an actor "Tobey likes to control a lot. That is the way he lives. He has a cook that cooks for him. His world is very controlled. Even when acting, he is not the kind of guy who would get loose. He's quiet and pensive and thinking about things."
By contrast, Gyllenhaal is a "free-wheeling actor. He is always looking around. He has three or four things going through his head, and normal stars just have one."

It would mean trouble, Sheridan believes, if a director told Gyllenhaal to just stand there and hit his mark. "The way he lives in a scene is to be half there and half out there looking around. I found it completely fascinating."
Source: www.sfgate.com

Natalie Portman talks about her role in "Brothers"

Natalie Portman visiting David Letterman Nov 25 2009.

"Portman is the eye in the hurricane of Brothers, a love-triangle family drama set against - and ignited by - the war in Afghanistan. Director Jim Sheridan's recasting of the 2004 Danish film Brodre for a U.S. context, it bristles with American trauma. Anger and guilt sizzle in every direction - brother-brother, soldier-soldier, father-son and, of course, wife-husband. As Grace Cahill, Portman begins falling for Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), the younger brother of her Marine husband, Sam (Tobey Maguire), who goes missing in Afghanistan but returns from the dead.

Inescapably, Afghanistan is the homewrecker here, but Portman resists casting Brothers as an anti-war - or even war - film.

``I don't think so. And I don't think it really has a political message. It's much more of a family film - and in a way your nation is your family, so it could lead to larger things if you wanted to take it there. But it's not overt.''``(The war) is really interesting, because we are so shielded from it. We've been in this war like, approaching 10 years, and it's so abstract and distant from many of us, but for the people who are engaged, it's so all-consuming in their lives. A terrifying daily reality.''

Tobey Maguire, his wife Jennifer Meyer and son Otis Maguire at the West Hollywood Park. Tobey Maguire does a few 'Spider-man' style pull ups on the horizontal bar at the West Hollywood Park. Source: www.radaronline.com

For all of Maguire's visceral and disturbing Afghanistan scenes, the terrifying realities of bedroom and kitchen are the heart of the film. As Sheridan will say later in the day in his Dublin accent, ``all of my films are about puttin' the family back together.'' With a boozy, bitter military father (Sam Shepard) who torments Tommy, who himself begins to usurp the role of unravelling scion Sam, this family needs some puttin'.


BROTHERS Premiere with Natalie Portman.

"Yeah, it was uncomfortable',' Portman says, "and it was largely improvised and figured out on the day. That's Jim's mastery, that he can create that in the room.''The tension ratchets up as conversation falls silent, and the camera switches between dad Sam's banked rage and the balloon his daughter is rubbing. ``That was really great, because that balloon was almost like a soundtrack, it almost served as foreshadowing music in a tense dramatic scene, like the Jaws dant-dant dant-dant!''Sheridan will also say: ``There were a few girls interested in the role, but I thought Natalie was the best.''Which is interesting. Grace is an orphaned blue-collar military housewife who chose the safety of a rigidly disciplined husband despite the fault-lines running through him and his family. By the time Maguire goes Travis Bickle in his kitchen, we've realized these characters must be torn apart to be reassembled.And the non-damage extends to the family unit. In an era when Hollywood moms, dads and kids vie for best celeb perp-walk, Portman hasn't the faintest whiff of scandal or ugliness in her backstory. She remains very close to her parents. She's no Grace Cahill.``There's actually a line Sam Shepard says in the film', Portman says: `Every family has its own problems.' And everyone has those moments, and you see glimpses of everything, even when (your family's) healthy, you have the explosions and arguments and tensions. Also, you can glean so much from people you talk to, whether they're friends or people you talk to for research.''

And after all, ``obviously most people don't experience in life what they experience in a film - I mean, you play a serial killer I've never understood how a method actor would do that (laughs)''.

Point taken. ``As actors, imagining other people's lives is our job''. So she researched the role by speaking to, she says: ``wives of marines who were sent abroad. They were always saying that the home is your sort of front, and you have to make sure everything is going smoothly. And when your husband calls you (from the war), no matter how much the kids are acting up, no matter what - bill paying or problems at work - `Everything's fine'.

``You have to tell your husband everything's fine. Because in order to go do their job, they have to know that you're doing yours. Because you're just going to upset them and make them feel helpless. Keeping everything together is the spouse at home's job.''Jake Gyllenhaal is shirker Tommy Cahill in "Brothers".

The film is ultimately about re-entry, about aftermath, about coming home from war to find the war got there first. And playing the woman between two feuding brothers, perhaps this actress best knew what peace on the homefront should look like". Source: www.canada.com

Top 50 hot young actors

It's always a hard task summarizing your thoughts and preferences on actors, so this list I make on The movie fanatic's petition was merely approximative, and just indicates my perception right now of which actors can be the more influential in the next years (based on age, critical hype, attractiveness, interesting up and coming projects, etc.) I've put a title of a recent or next film these actors are filming.The limit of age to be considered this generation or young is 35, Leonardo DiCaprio is already established with heaps of interesting roles ahead in his career. (The same with Matt Damon, Christian Bale, etc.)1. Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers)
Jake Gyllenhaal is an even tempered, sporty guy. His method performance as Donnie Darko was enough to curdle our blood and it foreshadowed a brilliance we would fortunately rediscover in Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac.2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception)
Drawn instinctively to a creativity streak, Joseph Gordon-Levitt captures our attention without imposing on our way, he jumps very high scenic turnpikes and shows the scars down the road.3. Emile Hirsch (Hamlet)
Emile Hirsch has a nice matey quality, which he exposed to open view in "The Girl Next Door", he trespassed the 4th wall in "Into the wild", and has rewritten/updated "Hamlet", his last film project.4. Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)
Confidence is one of the main Ryan Gosling's acting weapons. He has this anonymized charm, an inviting seriousness in all his roles that always let us starving for more.
5. James McAvoy (The Last Station)
Atonement was a statement of attainment. His exactness, structured approaching to his craft, and his unmeasurable British charisma win over bedazzled public and critics.6. Daniel Brühl (Inglorious Basterds)
Brühl becomes the incarnation of Nazi laureate soldier's contradictions, as the stubborn Pvt Fredrick Zoller infatuated with Shosanna, a theatre owner Jew survivor woman.7. Paul Dano (Gigantic)
Maybe Dano's ability to convokate positive acknowledgement doesn't reside primarily in sex-appeal, but in his virtue of underplaying complex emotional reactions.8. Gael García Bernal (Letters to Juliet)
García Bernal played a victim of Catholic priest's abuse, and he was in return anointed by press priests. Cruel in "Blindness", soft in "The Science of sleep", he's capable of convening viscerality and sensuality onscreen.9. Michael Angarano (Ceremony)
Angarano's persuasive powers are his childish smile that feels like a gift even in their more disillusioned characters as in Snow Angels, and aplenty sincerity that oversteps the camera's limits.10. James Franco (Howl)
James Franco was eye-catching as Harvey Milk's true love, Scott Smith. His kiss with Sean Penn at New York's subway station and his relationship seen through Castro Camera's windows is a hit for gay rights and love stories.11. Shia Labeouf (Wall Street 2: Money never sleeps)
Seeing beyond his HW conceited person, Labeouf's career is a rounded success after another, he is easily likeable as the hormonal ridden, good hearted average boy, maybe this is the secret of his wide acceptation.
12. Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the world)
Cera is the king of dramatic irony, monotonous niceness, a symbol of teenage self-consciousness, yet a mature act ahead of his years.13. Seth Rogen (Funny People)
Rogen's lovable comedic antics, abandoned bluntness combined with bold slacker attitude turn him into a sort of "anti-dreamboat".14. Anton Yelchin (The Beaver)
Yelchin looks a toddler but he's already an experienced young actor who will grown up facing his new challenge as Porter in The Beaver -directed by Jodie foster- an adolescent terrified of becoming his father.15. Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin: The secret of the Unicorn)
Bell was initially the big promise of British cinema, now a sovereign international actor, free-time writer, who can take up his roles seriously or lightness, always with a distinctive twist.16. Robert Pattinson (The Twilight saga: Eclipse)
He's the up to the minute heartthrob thanks to Twilight franchise and tabloid fodder overreliance that often accompanies his competent acting work.

1. Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers)2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception)
3. Emile Hirsch (Hamlet)4. Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)5. James McAvoy (The Last Station)6. Daniel Brühl (Inglorious Basterds)7. Paul Dano (Gigantic)8. Gael García Bernal (Letters to Juliet)9. Michael Angarano (Ceremony)10. James Franco (Howl)11. Shia Labeouf (Wall Street 2: Money never sleeps)12. Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the world)13. Seth Rogen (Funny People)14. Anton Yelchin (The Beaver)15. Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin: The secret of the Unicorn)16. Robert Pattinson (The Twilight saga: Eclipse)17. Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland)18. Patrick Fugit (Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant)19. Ben Whishaw (Brightstar)20. Ben Foster (Pandorum)21. Dominic Cooper (Tamara Drewe)22. Channing Tatum (Dear John)23. Henry Cavill (Whatever works)24. Ryan Donowho (Cook County)25. Eddie Redmayne (The Yellow Handkerchief)26. Lou Taylor Pucci (Carriers)27. Gaspard Ulliel (The Vintner's Luck)28. Joe Anderson (Becoming Jane)29. Chris Marquette (Infestation)30. Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus)31. Adam Brody (Jennifer's Body)32. Chris Pine (Unstoppable) 33. Aaron Johnson (The Greatest)34. Ben Barnes (Dorian Gray)35. Michael Welch (Unrequited)36. Jensen Ackles (My Bloody Valentine)37. Nicholas Hoult (About a boy)38. Lucas Grabeel (Smoke Break)39. Jim Sturgess (Upside Down)
40. Rupert Grint (Wild Target) 41. Xavier Samuel (The Loved ones)42. Matt O'Leary (Jake's Run) 43. Mark Duplass (True Adolescents)44. Marshall Allman (The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle)45. Luke Treadaway (Heartless)46. Ryan Kwanten (Griff the Invisible) 47. Jay Baruchel (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)48. Eduardo Noriega (Che Guevara)49. Juan José Ballesta (Bruc)50. Jason Fuchs (The last first time)