Come on, who hasn't been here before?
LOL! What is it with those kind of blinds and eventually, they won't stay up and one side will sag lower than the other and it's either all the way up or all the way down or bust. You keep trying to "fix it" and well - forget it.
And sometimes the "fix" just makes things worse. The attempt can be gallant, such as these civilian-planted flower gardens by pothole vigilantes who tired of waiting on repairs...
But in the case of a few "fix-it" attempts by Jake Gyllenhaal's team after a revealing Seawall/A Life podcast dating back to February earlier this year, it looks like there have been a couple of little flower gardens sprouting up just from that one big pothole.
Such as, you ask?
[Just for background, Jake and Tom Sturridge performed this very emotional set of plays at the The Newman Theater in New York City, from January 26 through March 24 of this year. Following the brief Far From Home promo tour, both actors are back at it for another stint at the Hudson Theater on Broadway, one that began August 8 and runs through September 29.]
So for one, let's take a second look at this quote from the writer of A Life, Nick Payne. The quote comes from the lengthy WNYC podcast that both Nick Payne and Jake took part in earlier this year. This was Nick Payne talking about Jake in his play, A Life:
"He has this tremendous depth...like, the emotional resource - the well of it is huge. And so I knew that I could write a sort of emotionally deep show that's structurally really complex to ask an almost athletic task of him and he would be able to do it with no problem." - Jake Gyllenhaal and Nick Payne on a New Public Theater Production - February 7, 2019
At 16:40:
As pointed out before in our post from February 10, called "Sunday Musings: Is it Morf or Is It More Like Morph?", that statement made it sound like Jake has had a vast array of life experience from which he could draw and bring the role of Abe (as a father-to-be and an offspring who has lost a parent) to life. His statement was very revealing of someone like Jake who is deep in the closet and has a family to hide.
Perhaps the podcast slip could explain why this second round of play promo has super, hyper-focused on a PR-mantra of Jake's that has come around routinely in the past. Give this brief clip from a CBS "Sunday Today" guest stint of Jake's a watch and listen to:
someone for the love of god make jake gyllenhaal a father he’d be such a great one 🥺 pic.twitter.com/l5qHmO5M94— ems (@616MYSTERlO) July 29, 2019
"You know. I am not a father." - Jake on CBS's "Sunday Today" with Willie Geist.
Okay, Jake, got it! (For the 5,459th time). Oh, wait. There was more.
— People (@people) July 25, 2019
In an excerpt from the Daily Fail article above, we are told:
The 38-year-old actor is currently playing a father-to-be in his new one-man Broadway show Seawall/A Life, and said taking on the role has made him realize he'd love to have children of his own someday. - "Jake Gyllenhaal Says He Wants to be Father as He Plays Dad-To-Be in Broadway Show Sealife/A Life" - Daily Mail, July 25, 2019
And there was EOnline:
Jake
Gyllenhaal is dreaming of a day filled with diapers and pacifiers.
While
sitting down with Sunday TODAY's host Willie
Geist to discuss his Broadway play Sea Wall / A Life,
the actor got candid about having a family in the future. "I do hope
to be a father one day," the actor mused.
Perhaps
the baby bug hit while performing onstage. - eonline - Jul 25, 2019
The opening paragraph in a story by Vanity Fair:
His performance in the monologue A Life is intimate and character-free, playing a man facing the parallels between the death of his father and the birth of his newborn child (neither of which, it should be noted, Gyllenhaal has experienced firsthand). - Vanity Fair August 2019
Yes, noted. So why do you keep telling us this...
If People, eonline, PopSugar, and The Daily Fail aren't enough to show this time around that Jake couldn't be more serious about his yen for fatherhood, how about Time magazine?
However,
for six nights a week during a brief stint on Broadway this summer, Gyllenhaal
is transforming into what may be one of his most alien characters yet: a
regular bloke, with the same daunting problems nearly everyone faces, the
departure of a parent and the arrival of a child.
[edit.]
The
actor, 38, has no wife, no child and two living parents, TV director Stephen Gyllenhaal
and screenwriter Naomi Foner. He doesn’t even really, he says, have a home. - In a New Broadway Play, Jake Gyllenhaal Attempts Something Radical: Normalcy via TIME.com
Or the New York Times:
Or the New York Times:
We just lose count at this point, don't we? If we don't know by now, even a mallet to the head isn't going to pound this one home. LOL!
No, it appears obvious that there has been an all-out campaign to re-emphasize that Jake is not a father nor is he married, therefore the play could not possibly consist of material that he could relate to. I think I hear Zayn Malik singing in the distance - ♪♫ "A whole new world!" for Jakers. ;-)
Ahem. It's also interesting how several of the articles made sure to point out that Jake had not suffered the loss of either parent, something which most of his fans already know, but apparently was necessary to repeat in numerous articles.
Most people familiar with Jake's background also are fully aware that there has been no change in his marital or "non-parental" status. To the general population, who go to see his movies and/or plays, Jake is a bachelor, part of the "swinging single" crowd, perhaps currently "dating J. Cadieu", and both of his parents are most obviously alive. Nor does he have any children, right? Yet, look at the heavy-handed, repeated reminders on both subjects.
It's too bad that rather big pothole of a quote from Nick Payne came first, isn't it? Before all of the extra-curricular.
And as for A Life suddenly making Jake realize that he wouldn't mind having a mini-me, it's also too bad that dating back as far as 2006, at the young age of 25, Jake had already been spilling his innermost, personal desire to People:
Well, look at that! In 2006, which was one year before Baby Tile would be born in October of 2007, People was calling him a Family Guy. Because he said what?
"I want a lot of kids. Two or four. Not six. It's torture after four." How about 5 then, Jake? 7? 8? Hmmm. Looks like his train missed its station stop on that trip, doesn't it? LOL!
And what about in 2017 when he told People, once again, that he wanted to be a father?
"I want to continue becoming more of an adult than I already am," he says of his future. "Hopefully with a family of my own." - Jake Gyllenhaal Opens Up About His Desire To Be a Father: I Want a 'Family of My Own'
Oh, and since we're taking this memory lane trip, there was the year 2015 during the whole Southpaw promo (where Jake played a dad, once again, to a daughter):
The 34-year-old actor, who
plays a boxer and grieving father to 13-year old actress Oona Laurence, in
drama 'Southpaw'', hopes his character's personal life one day becomes a
reality for him. He said: "I would love it not to be fictional." - The Mirror UK - Aug 1 2015
And what about the "changes" to the play? This was Nick Payne's play. How many times does one hear about someone else making substantial changes to a playwright's work? Never mind major rewrites for a play that is already only about 45 minutes long with not one word of endorsement or reaction from the original writer? But that's precisely what is being emphasized in this second production of A Life.
How different from the first production this past winter when Nick Payne attended the opening night in February,
In the current summer's run, much of the promo mentions, press interviews, opening night, and pictures have involved director Carrie Cracknell. It's ironic that one of the interviews featuring Cracknell, via Theatermania.com, is entitled "Seawall/A Life Director Would Rather You Forget She Was Ever There". And yet, she's been a highly featured part of the production this summer.
above at a photocall on June 5 with Jake and Tom Sturridge. Nick Payne not in attendance.
above - Broadway Opening Night, Cracknell with Riva Marker (Jake's partner in his production company Nine Stories) and Seawall writer, Simon Stephens. Nick Payne was not in attendance.
The above photo from Jake's Instagram post features director Cracknell during rehearsals. In the podcast linked earlier in the post, starting at 18:41, listen when the interviewer asks Jake,
"As you're working on this piece [A Life], this monologue, and Carrie's working with you, what kind of questions did you have for her, about doing this?"
Jake answers with:
"Uh, you know, it's been a - actually, a relatively long process with Nick for me. I...Nick gave me the piece as just a comment on a show that we did together, the beautiful show he wrote, Constellations."
Jake goes on to say how "for about four years", he "would write him (Nick Payne) and say 'can I do this piece?"
Now, several months later, here's what Cracknell has to say about the origins of how A Life came about, via Theatermania:
I began this conversation with Jake after he'd seen a
show of mine at the National. He had had a long-standing interest in what was
then called The Art of Dying and has become A Life. I had seen The
Art of Dying — the original work that Nick [Payne] made — when he performed
it at the Royal Court, and it was such a sensitive and honest piece by Nick
that at first I think Nick didn't feel that he wanted to revisit it. He
couldn't even really imagine anyone else performing it because he had written
it for himself to perform. And then Jake and I started collaborating with Nick,
and we had this idea for him to start thinking about how it had felt for him to
become a father, as well as talking about the loss of his own father. So he
then went on an extraordinary journey to rewrite the piece and to try and find
a new angle on it so it could fit Jake's voice. It has become a piece that's
written from a totally different direction with the context of loss inside it.
In a way it's about becoming a man — the transition from being a child to the
acceptance of the responsibility of parenthood.
Theatermania, July 25, 2019
Oh?? But I thought earlier this year, Jake said he had been given the piece Art of Dying during the Constellations (another play by Nick Payne) run. And that he proceeded to write Nick Payne every year for four years, pleading for him to let him perform it? Jake was in Constellations in early 2015, so four years later would be 2019. Sounds about right. But this misses other parts of Cracknell's story, doesn't it?
And if one listens to that podcast which was published in February this year, it's clear that by the time the second production began, there has been some re-writing of history going on with regard to the origins of A Life in the press. Does it all go a bit deeper than just about Jake having experienced what a father-to-be is like?
The Art of Dying is the original piece by Nick Payne which he himself performed at the Royal Court Theater in July 2014. His father passed away in 2010 from a heart ailment, and anyone who has suffered the loss of a parent can certainly understand and identify with the grieving process that one goes through.
Because Nick Payne isn't mainstream famous (at least here in the States), we don't know exactly when his daughter was born, but in this article "Wanderlust Writer Nick Payne : Everyone is Sexually Frustrated" from the "Go London" newsletter and dated September 3, 2018, it is stated that he has an 11-month old daughter. So his baby would have been born in late 2017.
Jake states that he first read Art of Dying during the run of Constellations which was in early 2015, although he had already known Nick Payne since 2012 and performed two of his other works: If There Is, I Haven't Found It Yet in 2012 and Constellations in 2015.
This excerpt from the Time.com interview is also very interesting:
Abe [Jake's play character] swings erratically between the two narratives, his father's ill health and his wife's pregnancy, with the only constant being how unprepared he is for either. It requires a lot of tricky tonal shifts, sometimes mid-sentence. But Gyllenhaal revels in it, doing two things at the same time, blurring the edges between them. He asked Payne for more as they developed the script. - In a New Broadway Play, Jake Gyllenhaal Attempts Something Radical: Normalcy August 8, 2019
As "they" developed the script? In other words, Jake had input into the writing of this play when allegedly he had no firsthand experience at either becoming a father, or experiencing the loss of a parent.
Now, what occurred in Jake's life in 2015? His life partner Austin Nichols lost his mother on September 12, 2015, after another battle with cancer. Being that she was Jake's mother-in-law and Jake and Austin have known each other since May 2002, Jake likely knew her from the time they met, meaning approximately thirteen years. Therefore, both men (as well as possibly their older children) were going through a tough time in 2015.
What do we also believe was going on for Jake and Austin in 2015? We believe a Baby Tile was born in late 2015 - Baby Tile Congras. Yep, that was Baby Tile Congras, the one where Margie Nicholson made a comment on Austin's Facebook page just after the New Year and congratulated him on the birth of his new daughter.
And although Jake's team worked frantically trying to argue that she had posted on the wrong Facebook page, creating a "Nicholson" Facebook family scenario seemingly overnight to try and back up their claims, the belief that Jake and Austin did have another child is solidly backed up by Jake's rash of now-familiar trips to the Los Angeles medical center that year:
Aug 24, 2015
Oct 2, 2015
Oct 3, 2015
Nov 11, 2015 (while wearing the Austin shout-out Chicago Bulls cap)
[These visits were looked at a bit more closely in Day 4 - Doctors Orders of our 30 Days Masterpost.]
And then there has been that matter of Jake and Austin sending a shoutout to each of their offspring with a photo op together or like 2018, an Instagram post love-call. And for Baby Tile Congras? Jake and Austin allowed themselves to be "caught" in a photo together at SXSW 2016 on March 12, just a few months after the birth of their daughter.
These moments have been too rare since 2012 for them to be dismissed as "accidents" or "well, they're still friends, after all". That picture above was only the second time Jake and Austin had been in a photo together since the New York City pap walk with the
Oh. *smirk* Sorry, I got excited there for a moment. ;D
But in 2015, Austin was going through two life-changing events and Jake was right there with him. There is the deep loss of losing a parent, the sadness over a grandparent not being able to see a new grandchild, the possible guilt and/or conflict over being excited about the upcoming birth of a child, and then the joy when the new baby arrives. Both men experienced most or all of these emotions. And that is why it is so easy to see why Jake wanted to do Art of Dying, which evolved into A Life.
Note the Time.com quote again: "He asked Payne for more as they developed the script."
And while Art of Dying is Nick Payne's story and no doubt A Life also reflects his feelings about becoming a first time father, how much of A Life is about Jake and Austin? Art of Dying was written about the 2010 passing of Nick Payne's father. He did not become a father until late 2017, so that is significantly later.
Whereas Austin was going through the illness and loss of his mother and the prospect of becoming a father once more, simultaneously in mid-late 2015. And Jake was losing his mother-in-law and also about to become a father as well.
From Time.com again, note what the article says: "But Gyllenhaal revels in it, doing two things at the same time, blurring the edges between them."
In 2015, Jake and Austin were going through both experiences. At the same time.
As Payne said, Jake had a "well" of firsthand experience to draw from - Is it because A Life became more about his and Austin's 2015 story?
There was also this intriguing 2014 quote from the London playwright in the Sydney Morning Herald discussing Jake and his selection of certain projects over others:
"He's been very nice about the work and he's not someone who needs to do a play so he only does the projects he's got a personal interest in." - UK Playwright Nick Payne's Award-Winning 'Constellations' on Broadway with Jake Gyllenhaal, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 15, 2014
From the previously mentioned article in the NY Times entitled "Men Who Aren't Afraid of Tears" dated July 31, 2019:
During rehearsals [of Constellations], Mr. Payne gave him (Jake) an early version of "A Life", a monologue that the playwright had performed himself.
When he read it, Mr. Gyllenhaal said, "I laughed and I wept and I came back to it probably monthly." He had been searching, Ms. Cracknell told me for a project, "more connected to himself than some of the things he's been doing in film recently." - Men Who Aren't Afraid of Tears - New York Times Jul 31 2019
"He was interested in playing and kind of excavating something very, very honest," she said. "and very connected to him." - Carrie Cracknell - Men Who Aren't Afraid of Tears
Excavating = to remove or find by digging. To remove earth that is covering very old objects buried in the ground in order to discover things about the past. - Cambridge dictionary
And so it's not surprising that after a few hints and observations of Jake being able to identify with the feelings of a prospective new parent, that a stronger-than-ever campaign of "I Want a Family Of My Own" accompanied the press interviews during the summer round on Broadway to deflect from what Narnia had written back in February.
And now this author wonders about further details in A Life and how many are from Jake and Austin's personal experience. One last contemplation stems from this quote of Jake's:
Gyllenhaal thinks of different people in his life each time he performs.
“I know it well enough now that if I can make a choice in a millisecond, I can see different things. I know, for instance, when she’s in labor that she’s in the water." - Opening Night: Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge Reveal Secrets About Their Broadway Play , August 9, 2019
"when she's in labor, she's in the water"
Knowing for so long how connected Jake's husband Austin is to water, having learned to water ski since he was two years old, surf, and fish, not to mention his involvement with Oceana and having served on its Media Advisory Board, and currently as a celebrity supporter. Austin and water (the ocean) are a natural pairing, stemming from his mother's water skiing champion past. He loves Barton Springs, TX. His family vacations at Clark Lake, in Michigan. He and Jake are believed to have stayed at Post Ranch Inn, located along Big Sur, CA as well as Tortuga Bay Resort, located along the beach in the Dominican Republic. Water, water, water.
"Water sports are in my blood. My uncle is in the Michigan Water Ski Hall of Fame. I started water skiing competitively when I was 2." - Austin Nichols in Scoop Q & A on People, June 11, 2007
Now, let's go back to the Time Inc. article and see what Jake said:
"I have been at the birth of children I love." - Jake Gyllenhaal in Time.com
"when she's in labor, she's in the water" - Jake Gyllenhaal
And so now it seems very, very plausible that at least one of Jake and Austin's children were born underwater, a birthing practice where the baby is eased into the world from its amniotic sac (water) into warm water. The baby won't drown because his/her lungs are still collapsed and won't breathe in air until brought to the surface. Austin being more adventurous and water-oriented, yes, it is extremely believable that he would love to try a water birth. Hence the phrase, "she's in the water."
Interesting contemplation, isn't it? This study and analysis is not intended to "rob" Nick Payne from his work. He did experience the subject matter of what Art of Dying and A Life are about. Art of Dying was the original work and is the piece which got the wheels in Jake's mind turning. The various stories of how A Life came about and who was involved in merging the two stories together (i.e, the cycle of life and death), hint that Jake had significant input.
Jake having a...
"personal interest in"
Jake...
"he had been searching for a project more connected to himself"
Jake was...
"the emotional resource - the well of it is huge"
Indeed.
at Borders book store, May 4, 2007
the sushi lunch in Los Angeles, January 2012
at Berlinale, February 2012
at the medical center, Beverly Hills CA, 01 29 10
"The Arctic Sunrise is in Wilmington, NC. So awesome. This boat could tell some stories." -
@AUS10NICHOLS twitpic, Jan 23, 2011
the infamous Laker photos 2007
And Jake in 2019:
You don't need no stinkin' curtain when it comes to Narnia D, buddy. ;-)
Jared, ohmygodot, crowdrise, Time, giphy,
devrant, mymodernmet
our playlist: Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
Story of My Life - One Direction
Man in the Middle - Michael Jackson
