End of Watch, a short story from New York City.

End of Watch, a short story from New York City.

In June 2010 S and I arrived in The Netherlands with the notion of finally ‘settling down’. Yes, it was time to get ‘proper’ jobs. To buy an apartment, maybe have kids and all that malarkey. What could possibly go wrong?

——

“He’s not shaking hands with anyone!” announced the chubby Asian guy from CNN. “They say he’s got a cold, but who knows, maybe he’s just in one of his moods”. A general murmur of disapproval rippled around the room as this revelation sunk in.

There was a cocked eyebrow from the mousy little BBC woman. Folded arms and a huff from the bespectacled, grey-haired man from some Nordic TV station I couldn’t pronounce.

As the new kid on the block, I decided not to comment. Hell, I was just happy to be there. In fact, sitting in New York City’s Crosby Street Hotel waiting for my interview with Jake Gyllenhaal was a surreal moment. At some point, coffee in one hand, a giant aniseed glazed donut in the other, it hit me that this was my job!

After years of teaching English around the world, I’d somehow managed to blag my way into a job writing and voice presenting movie news. And now I was about to do my first press interview with a Hollywood A-lister. The expression I had to pinch myself didn’t even begin to cover it.

End of Watch, a short story from New York City.

The buildup to my arrival in NYC had been somewhat dreamlike. Back in Amsterdam I’d been sent off to a pre-screening of the movie End of Watch, a gritty L.A. cop flick in which Gyllenhaal starred opposite Michael Peña.

The movie was pretty good, a winning combination of ferocious action, sharp dialogue and fully-fleshed characters audiences could care about.  I’d been a huge fan of Gyllenhaal for years, going all the way back to his child star days in City Slickers and A Dangerous Woman. 

There was so much I wanted to discuss with him. I wondered how it felt growing up in a moviemaking family. Moreover, I wanted details from the set of Brokeback Mountain when he worked with the late Heath Ledger.

Furthermore, I would’ve loved to hear about being directed by David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones in Source Code. But all of that was pie in the sky, because I’d only be getting ten minutes in Jake’s company. Hence our conversation would be strictly on End Of Watch. You can’t have everything I suppose.

“This is Leighton Thomas from The Netherlands. He’s with Old Harbour Productions”.

The spacious interview room was a decadent man cave decked out in framed movie posters, leather sofas and lamp-laden shelving. At the far end, to the side of the popcorn machine and minibar, sat a giant mahogany pool table. It seemed to have been abandoned mid game.

And then I caught sight of Jake, sat at the back of the room stretching his limbs in a brown armchair. Behind him, a posse of unknown men munched on sandwiches at a long, glass table. None of them paid me any attention whatsoever.

“Hi” I said tentatively, dropping into the vacant chair opposite Jake. “Hey” he replied with a throaty sniff, reaching for the cup of coffee on the table beside him. “How are you feeling?” I asked, as a lady appeared out of the shadows to hook me up with a microphone.

“Ah, I’m a bit under the weather.

But it’s not so bad, you know, all I gotta do is sit here and talk”.

With a full head of scraggly hair and an equally fulsome beard, this was not the Jake Gyllenhaal I’d expected. Indeed he looked a million miles from the clean cut boy-next-door handsomeness of his many movies. He was also unrecognisable from the shaven-headed tough guy look he’d adopted for End of Watch. “Ok Leighton… you have speed in three, two, one… rolling!”

Before my trip to New York, I’d spent hours in the office watching archive interview footage on the company server. As interesting as the interviews were, I often found myself frustrated by how wasteful and uninventive interviewers had been with their precious time.

Some of it was truly perfunctory, with a hundred and one “What was it like working with {insert actor’s name here}?” in addition to a zillion “Do you see any similarities between yourself and your character?”

End of Watch, a short story from New York City.

With actors having to do 40-50 interviews a day, it is no wonder they get tired, bored and irritable. As a result, I promised myself that I’d do my best to come up with something different. I wanted to surprise Jake by asking some questions nobody else would think of. Thus I began with:

“I heard that you spent months researching the life of an L.A. cop. But be honest, how much of that time actually went on perfecting the wedding dance scene?”  

He looked at me for a second, a wry smile forming at the sides of his mouth. And then he burst into laughter, his eyes closed for just a moment. His top row of front teeth sparkling in the dimness.

Jake Gyllenhaal.

Jake: “You know that wedding dance, we spent hours on that… getting it JUST right. And it was clear from the beginning that I obviously have a distinct sense of style and rhythm and… ha ha! NO… I think we just nailed it in like twenty minutes. The rest of the time was spent learning what it’s like to be an L.A. cop”.

Leighton: “People have made a lot of your look in the movie. I read one review that described you as ‘bald and beefy’. Does it frustrate you that people tend to concentrate on stuff like this?”

He gave me a patient smile followed by a shrug of the shoulders.

Jake: “This is the world we live in. You know, we’re all animals and sometimes we tend to focus on the visual. But I’m not interested in all that. Rather, I try to choose work that speaks to me and find characters and storylines that reel me in.

End of Watch, a short story from New York City.

Jake: “All the rest… the hairstyle, putting on a bit of weight, who’s dating who, it’s all secondary to me. As the character in the play I’m doing now says: It’s all much of a muchness”.

Leighton: “I heard there was some friction on set between yourself and Michael Peña. Is there any truth in that?”

Again Jake remained completely unflustered.

Jake: “As ever these things get blown out of proportion. Sometimes people forget that actors are often just thrown together. Maybe you haven’t worked together before, or you come from different backgrounds. Basically you’re expected to just click and become best friends.

Life doesn’t always work like that, you know? In our case we just had to find our way of doing the job. In the end we did and there really wasn’t any more to it than that”.

Jake & Michael.

“Thank you Leighton!” said the woman, as Jake leaned back in his chair with a manly grunt-stretch. “Hey, did you like the movie?” he asked, locking his eyes firmly into mine. “I did!” I confirmed, mightily relieved that I wasn’t in a situation where I had to lie.

“I think it’s the best thing you’ve done since Brokeback”. He raised both eyebrows at this, pursing his lips together thoughtfully. “Thanks man!” he said and with a long sniff shuffled over to the table to claim one of the few remaining sandwiches.

“Leighton Thomas, End of Watch!” called the scruffy man in the back office.

It was time for me to pick up my flash disk. So I strode out of the press lounge and down the corridor to claim my treasure. As I went, Anna Kendrick suddenly emerged out of a side door in front of me. She had a petite handbag slung over her shoulder, a cup of coffee clutched protectively in both hands. Seconds later she was past me and out the door. “Here you go,” said tech dude and I popped the flash disk into my pocket.

Exiting the hotel into the chilly New York afternoon, I realised that I now had the rest of the day to myself. I could do whatever I wanted before my flight back to Amsterdam the next morning.

Subsequently, I set about planning my afternoon. I was gonna grab a shake at Tick Tock, my favourite NYC diner. Afterwards, I’d take a walk out to West 18^th Street for some browsing at Academy Records.

Free in New York City.

For dinner I’d decided on pizza at Bleecker Street with Simon & Garfunkel on the headphones. Finally, I’d take in the evening’s Manhattan views from the top of The Rockefeller. I remember making my way down the sidewalk as a flurry of yellow taxis zoomed past. One or two of them shrouded in the billowing smoke of a nearby drain. I recall wondering if, professionally at least, this autumnal New York afternoon was as good as it gets.

‘End of Watch’ is the third instalment of my short story series Notes From The Netherlands.

I’ve been living, working and traveling all over the world since 2001. So why not check out my huge library of travel reports from over 40 countries.

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