HOLLYWOOD star Jake Gyllenhaal dons his armour and travels through desert as the brave Dastan in the epic adventure Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. First News caught up with Jake to talk about sword-fighting, jumping off buildings and why this film was so much fun to make.

How would you describe your character, Dastan in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time?

I see my character as a cross between Rafael Nadal, Mick Jagger and Dennis the Menace.It’s all about having fun.

Is it fair to say this film is something different for you? Is that why you decided to take it on?

Mostly it was just the fact that I love watching this type of film, so it’s hard to deny yourself the opportunity to be up there on screen acting in one of them. There are all sorts of different aspects to acting but, if you’re a very physical person as I am, it’s great to just jump around for once, to leap off buildings, ride horses, play with swords and get into a lot of fights. It’s really great fun. The other thing is that if you’re going to do a huge movie, then do it with people who know how to do it, and there’s no-one better than Jerry Bruckheimer.

It seems like Dastan has a bit of Indiana Jones in him. Was that your intention?

Oh yes, definitely, along with Dennis the Menace and all the rest. I like that Dastan’s a mischief-maker, a bit of a curmudgeon (bad-tempered person), that he nearly always thinks he’s right and that he’s quite sarcastic and wry and above all very cheeky. 

You’ve played various characters based on real people, but where do you begin with a fictitious 6th century Persian prince? 

There’s lots of pretentious research I could tell you about, but it really did start with the accent and also with projecting my voice. For a movie like this to be successful, you need a grand scale to everything, a bigness, something theatrical. I worked with a voice coach, and she brought in these ancient texts. I would stand at one end of the pool in Los Angeles, she’d stand at the other end, and I would shout things like: “Over the wall, men! Over the wall!” It was like doing theatre. It put a bit more fire inside, made me feel a bit more like a warrior. There was a lot of physical work too.

What did that involve?

It was six months of training and what was important about it to me was that it was very functional. Everything I did was so I could do the same thing on set, not just to look good. I wore a flak jacket to work out and carried an extra 9kg when I went on a run to simulate the armour, which is very heavy. Whenever I ran I’d also carry something in my hand to get used to running with a sword. I also did lots of boxing to make sure I was even on both sides, because Dastan often fights with
two swords at once and everything has
to be symmetrical.

Did you think about getting a stuntman to do the difficult bits for you?

No, I always want to do as much as I can myself. And I’m a bit of a perfectionist
when it comes to fight sequences. I want
to get every move down perfectly, and I refuse to accept anything less than that.

You’ve made some big films, but it seems like Prince of Persia is on a different scale…

I just thought: “Wow!” Even during the rehearsals, when I got to see pictures of what the production designer was planning, it has just blown my mind – everything from the amazing costumes to these huge sets and the locations in Morocco. And it’s not just the size of the film and it’s not just the scope, it’s also the detail in the costumes and sets. You can turn a corner on a set and it’s somewhere we will probably never shoot, but the detail’s still there – incredible carvings or beautiful tiles. 

The film shares the same producer as Pirates of the Caribbean. Do you think this film has the same wide appeal?

I think that Pirates of the Caribbean was more than just an adaptation of the theme park ride and this will be more than just an adaptation of the Prince of Persia video game, though obviously that was the starting point. It’s definitely a lot of fun and it’s a great tale, but it’s also got interesting characters and has a real epic feel to it. We’ve never said this film is only for kids or only for the video game fans. We always envisioned it as having a very wide appeal!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is out on Disney DVD and Blu-ray from
13 September.

Check out some amazing clips of the film online at www.firstnews.co.uk