Actor Jake Gyllenhaal recently told Coming Soon that the prospect of starring in Disney's live-action adaptation of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Ubisoft video game was attractive to him because it would be unlike anything he had ever filmed before and was not "just like your normal video game adaptation." He compared it to The Usual Suspects, with "ridiculous turns and twists...all over the place."
Obviously, from the looks of his body, much of the preparation for the role was physical, including weight training and studying Parkour or "free running."
"The development of the character was massively physical at first, just getting in shape and doing all that stuff and learning Parkour, learning how to swordfight, learning how to get into the mentality of a warrior, somebody who as written is someone who can really fight. That was a big part of it for me, and I knew that if I got through that, then I knew I'd be halfway there.
Really, it's basically just a lot of training, working out with a lot of running and all different kinds of sports. I'm someone who really doesn't love to be inside so just being outside and running around and training as if I was going to battle, but it also happens to be based on a video game so he has to very agile in a lot of other ways then you would normally... it's not just gladiator-style fighting although we have all of that. It's also having to be able to jump up walls and climb up walls and run on walls and all of those things."
When asked if he planned to continue to make large-scale action-adventure movies like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or go back to making smaller films, Gyllenhaal said:
"Yes, the truth is after doing this it's going to be hard... well, I don't know if it's going to be hard, but it's definitely going to be a different mentality to go back and do much smaller types of movies, but yeah, there's type of high when you make a movie like this, a type of excitement every day that is infectious. There are days that you get tired and some of the people I work with say to me, I'm like, 'Man, I'm going to be exhausted. I'm going to need rest when I get done with this movie,' and they're like, 'You're going to rest for two weeks and you're going to want to make another one like it.' (laughs) And it's kind of true. On my days off, I worked out twice on my Sunday off, because that's where my head is. I'm prepared for whatever comes our way."
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Mike Newell. The film also stars Gemma Arterton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Toby Kebbell, Alfred Molina, Reece Ritchie, Richard Coyle and Steve Toussaint.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time opens May 28, 2010!
Click HERE for pictures from the set!
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