Swashbuckling adventure-epic Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (opens here on May 27) premiered in London at the weekend and we sent our second-best UK-based reporter along to the press conference at the swanky Dorchester Hotel. Here’s his account of what happened:
In person, Jake Gyllenhaal is an incredibly sexy man. Handsome, charming, funny and charismatic: what more could a woman want and/or need? But nay, I’m not a woman, only a man destined to watch from the sidelines.
Mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) and British director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), despite their wealth and skill, fail to draw my eye. Gemma Arterton, ex-Bond girl, is certainly attractive. But she’s no Jake.
I survey my new colleagues on the international press circuit. Two broad groups; the first is a seasoned, slightly sceptical pack who claim to be attending “another bloody kiss-ass session”.
The second group is comprised of people who either seriously believe they have the pulling power of a real celeb or those who seriously believe they are going to pull a real celeb.
And then there is me, representing Flicks, easily the most important and reputable publication here (including Empire magazine, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Times and a little-known outfit called ‘TVNZ’).
Shit, some people brought laptops – didn’t know that was an option. I’m basically a glorified dictaphone stand. And is it just me or does everyone else here have a ‘press kit’?
Nice to know not one penny of the £180 million budget was wasted in air con at the press conference.
It begins, I raise my hand with a question. The microphone goes to some other reporter – this is a pattern that will repeat.
Jake Gyllenhaal on playing Prince Dastan
“I have always wanted to play a prince. Some people might say that I am in a lot of ways a princess and so playing a prince would be fitting.”
In any case, when asked what the biggest challenge of the production was, he replies: “No doubt speaking in a British accent was the hardest part for me. I think it is daunting trying to do any service as an American to such a beautiful, fluid speech pattern that you all have. You know we are just barbarians in comparison.” Diplomatic, also.
What was it like working with ostriches? “It was the most terrifying day of the entire shoot for me,” says Gyllenhaal. “Ostriches are really terrifying animals. Even in their innocence they can tear out your eyeballs and rip out your heart.”
Gemma Arterton on playing Tamina
“I felt particularly uncomfortable about being the only female in the film. But… you get over all of your neuroses pretty quickly because you have just got so much work to do.”
“I feel like I am pretty quite similar to Princess Tamina in many ways” she says. “I am not as graceful or tanned but yeah, just being strong is actually really attractive. I think that’s one of the reasons why Prince Dastan [Gyllenhaal] falls for her. Sometimes I feel like if you are a strong, independent woman it scares people away but, actually, I think it does the opposite.”
The on-screen chemistry…
True to form, the classy Sir Ben Kingsley – who plays Prince Dastan’s dastardly nemesis Nizam – waxes lyrical on the trio’s on-screen chemistry: “It is like three chemicals, if you put them together they will explode, if you keep them apart they won’t explode. There is the emblem of purity in Gemma, there is the throb of the nobility in Jake and there is the angry ingrate in myself.”
Okay, Ben, we’ll go along with that. My raised arm tires, so I switch the right for the left.
Arterton adds: “You gave an eloquent answer. I was just going to say I took the piss out of Jake and he took the piss out of me. I certainly don’t take myself very seriously and I think that Jake is the same so we have fun and I think you can definitely see that in the film.”
Did you enjoy filming in Morocco? Or was it just too damned hot?
Gemma: “One of the best things about this job is that you go to all these places that maybe you wouldn’t have gone to. I always wanted to go to the desert. It was hot which it never is here [in England] so everyone was complaining about the heat and I was quite happy out there just soaking it up.”
“Some of the landscapes there and also it is so diverse in Morocco where we shot. You have the mountains, you have the immense desert and sand but a brilliant place to be, I had fun there.”
Why no 3-D?
Bruckheimer pipes up: “We talked about it for this film, Avatar had not yet come out so we didn’t realise how popular it would be… the studio didn’t want to spend any more, and Avatar was filmed on a sound stage whereas we were in Morocco, which makes two cameras a lot harder”
On creating ancient Persia…
Director Mike Newell: “Jerry did a wonderfully subtle and clever thing to me when he sent me the script. He sent me the script and he sent me also a book of nineteenth century, mostly French paintings of the Middle East. I loved the story because I loved the idea of people finding that what they were told was a fairy story was actually real… research were tremendously important.”
“It was a book of the Orientalists”, confirms Jerry. “Yes. Wonderful pictures. That dropped me right into the feeling for it.”
On all the stunts…
Jake: “Walking onto a set, it was like going into a sporting event, you know, you felt like you were on the team, it took 40 minutes to put on my costume, there were thousands of people there like a mass army. But when it came down to doing the physical stuff you didn’t even think about it because there was so much adrenaline going on. So for me, I was just pretty much excited the whole time, any time I had to jump off anything or beat somebody up, it was just so much fun and in that way different from other films that I’ve done.”
The conference wraps up. I put my hand down.
