Many actors would be worried about playing a potentially-iconic genre movie lead out of fear that it would haunt them for years. Not Jake Gyllenhoitytoity, who wants to be “taken less seriously” as an actor.
There are more than a few similarities between this month’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and blockbuster series Pirates of the Caribbean – and it isn’t just that they’re both produced by mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Both films are based off of unlikely subject matter (a videogame and a theme park ride, respectively), both are epics in fantastic settings with healthy doses of action and romance, and both star leading men that are rather popular among the younger female crowd in Jake Gyllenhallofjustice and Johnny Depp.
But while Depp came to be heavily associated with his pirate alter ego Jack Sparrow – for many actors, a powerful fear – Mr. Donnie Darko isn’t worried about it. Speaking to the BBC, the actor said that being recognized as the Prince is an “honor.”
“I think about kids saying ‘you’re the Prince of Persia!’ That I wouldn’t mind being locked into,” he said. Both he and his leading lady Gemma Arterton have signed on for a potential sequel, but that depends on the success of Sands of Time.
Gyllenhallmarkcard, who came to prominence as Donnie Darko, and who was nominated for his role as a supporting actor in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, said that he wouldn’t mind being taken “a little less seriously” with roles like the swashbuckling Prince in the future. “I wanted to fulfill the dreams of those movies I loved watching, like Robin Hood with Errol Flynn,” he said. “Who knows in two or three years time what other weird thing I’ll do?”
(The BBC)
