About "A Poet From Hollywood"

The Gyllenhaals. Even their name sounds mythical. I could easily picture an ancient wood in which the family lives, in sync with nature while they chop away the squirrel’s tree to extend the already big treehouse. All the animals in the wood look up to them, eventhough the family are stealing their food and ruining their habitat. Then everything comes crashing down when the son makes it big and the truth comes out. The other squirrels learned to write and they wrote books.

Yesterday I finished reading Cantara Christopher’s book “A Poet From Hollywood”. I find it hard to say much about it; I just feel like a spectator to that part of her life. Sure, I have my own opinion on some things. Strangely, Stephen Gyllenhaal’s behaviour doesn’t mean anything at all to me, it’s Cantara’s behaviour that annoys me. For me it’s easier to relate to Becky Heineke than to Cantara and Stephen? Well, I feel we know so little about him and I have not been offended by him in any way, I don’t know how to feel or what to think about him. He’s definitely disconnected with the rest of the world, but not even slightly as weird as some of my own friends. Maybe that didn’t come across in the book. Stephen feels unreal to me. Pretty much like Jake, as a matter of fact.

Cantara’s book is a very one-sided retelling of events. In the end I’m not even sure what the book is about. Is it about Stephen Gyllenhaal trying to become a poet? Is it about Stephen Gyllenhaal in general? Or is it about someone’s view on Stephen Gyllenhaal? In this paragraph I’ve written his full name so often, I lost any appetite in him I had left, if I had any in the first place.

What did stand out to me is the same thing that stood out in Becky’s book. That might have to do with it being about Jake, or maybe not at about Jake at all. It’s in every way a strange insight into someone or maybe rather not an insight in him at all. What does it say about him? Nothing much, except that he gets upset easily, or maybe not at all.

I’m talking about this:

From ‘I’m Stalking Jake’ at the height of Babygate said by Ally, former IHJ writer:

“…Jake was mad.” If you want to know why Jake was mad, read “I’m Stalking Jake”.

From ‘A Poet From Hollywood’ about Stephen’s poetry bundle that was about to be published:

“Jake-doesn’t-like-the-cover.”

 What is it about both phrases that made them stick in my mind? Not because it seems out of character for Jake. I would even say it’s very much in character. What I think is funny about it is that in both cases it doesn’t concern Jake directly. In Babygate it concerned the Gyllengaards and in the poetry case it concerned Stephen the poet. It’s nice to see Jake cares, but every time he seems to be the one feeling the strongest about everything, or people are always exaggerating about his feelings. Fact remains, we never get to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, which gives the message “Jake is really upset” a strange ironic undertone, because he never seems upset enough to say so in person. I know in both cases the situation isn’t such in which we can hear Jake say the words. That however, brings us to the next weird thing.

Neither of the books are actually about Jake and yet it’s Jake who started it all by playing a gay Cowboy. On top of that, both books tell about an era in the Hollywood Gyllenhaal’s history that was probably a turning point for the family in many ways. Two books suddenly shed, in a second hand view, a light on the family’s private matters which they had always managed to keep under wraps. Suddenly the perception of a noble, down-to-earth, perfect and close Hollywood family is shattered. Not just because of the books.

That brings me to the following phrase in Cantara’s book:

“Or was Team Gyllenhaal merely a shrewdly manufactured image of that glamur?”

It looks like it, Cantara.

That remark reminded me of what was said during the commentary on Moonlight Mile. It had the writer, Dustin Hoffman and Jake talking about a scene were Joe (the main character in the movie) walks in on his “parents-in-law” fighting. Jake tells how familiar that was to him, because his own parents were constantly fighting when he was young. What struck me was Dustin Hoffman’s reaction: “Becareful, because your parents might watch this.” I thought it was strange for him to say that. I would have told him to becareful to put something like that in public, but Hoffman was specifically worried about what his parents might say about Jake revealing that. It suggests it was a Hollywood public secret that the Gyllenhaals were keeping up appearances.

What I always did and what I also tried to do with Jake is trying to get an idea of who he is in person. Not ever before did I have so much trouble getting a sense of someone. First you’ve got the Gyllenbabble which even I can’t understand. Then you’ve got him hiding as much as possible and not reacting to rumors and gossips. Of course he’s entitled to his privacy, and he isn’t obliged to react to rumors and gossips. Problem with Jake is, he doesn’t give anything.

Case in point, Heath Ledger’s death. I appreciate the fact that his relationship to Heath was very personal and private. I don’t need to hear if and how he grieved. However, a small word would have been nice, but we got nothing. Not really. It makes him look like a cold person who doesn’t really care about his lost “friend”. I’m sure he did, and I’m sure he still does, but he leaves it all to others. It fed some rumors he was closer to Heath than he probably was, it also fed some rumors that suggested their friendship was a total farce, which I don’t believe either. My impression is he doesn’t know how to talk about it.

Here’s one specific answer from Jake on the question: “Are you uncomfortable remembering him in public?”

"Yes," he said, pausing. "Brokeback Mountainwas painful. Any time you go into pain, I don't think you necessarily want to go back. But the results of that film, and how the public responded to it so hugely, were worth it. Walking through any kind of pain is usually worth it. As close as we all became making that movie, for all those other people, it didn't extend much farther than [the movie itself], so that experience of work could be easily talked about for publications. The experience Heath and I had was also shared publicly with all the press and publicity we did. But what we shared as friends, though I respect the interest that so many people have in the mourning and grieving process and how it feels to other people, I feel like -- and I don't mean this in an unkind way -- but I don't think it's anybody's business but his and mine. So in that sense, to really respect him -- and also the way he felt about his life and his private life and what he cared about, because he was a deeply caring and loving human being -- every time anybody asks me any question about him, it would be like he was sitting next to me, and I know he would roll his eyes, because that's the way he was. It was between us."

It’s remarkable how he talks around his own feelings not giving anything away. I can understand what he’s saying (for a change), but just saying: “Yes, I miss him” or something would have made it a bit more personal, but wouldn’t have given anything away. Is that really a problem, saying he misses Heath? Or doesn’t he? See my point? He does this every time.

I really believe he can handle this side of his job much better than he does. Maybe he should go talking about Jason (Mraz). The only rumor about him is that he’s gay, to which Jake can relate. Jason can tell him how to give something without really giving anything, yet everybody seems pretty happy with the little he’s given while Jake is still massively hunted to get anything out of him.

It’s all broken, nothing really quite works. No control over the paps, no control over his fandom, not enough control over his talent and hardly any control over his friends and family (it still sounds like Naomi dictates all life).

Anyway, the book. To me it confirmed in a way how I already thought of them; there’s more than meets the eye, which is a given since hardly anything meets the “public” eye. Even after having read “A Poet from Hollywood” I didn’t learn much about them. That the word private for the family is written with a capital Private is now confirmed. That Stephen can be weird is also confirmed. That Stephen is unreliable is something we learned and chances are that Jake is too, which means that Taylor Swift was right all the time. That was not the conclusion I was aiming for.

 I must say, those Gyllenhaals inspire people to write. At least two books have been written and I’m writing blog after blog about those critters. What amuses me about this blog, and slightly scares me, is that I’ve been writing about the Gyllenhaals in a rather intimate way, eventhough I know nothing about them. Apparently, they regard every word uttered about them online as an insult. So this turns out to be one massive insult.




I would like to close this rant with the following:
"Although the mother of two and grandmother of one is understandably protective of her family’s privacy, her voice changes when she mentions the Gyllenhaal clan."

“My family is my greatest joy,” she said.

Source: School of Cinematic Arts News

Fun note: Originally I wanted to put a picture of Naomi in the bottom accompanying her quote, but she was a pain in the ass. (image jumping up and down the page) So here's Maggie instead with mums higher up.