Gyllenhaal Turns Stunt Designer For Persia

Prince Of Persia star Jake Gyllenhaal convinced the film’s stunt arrangers to incorporate fight moves directly from the original games

Interviewed in the new issue of SFX , Prince Of Persia star Jake Gyllenhaal reveals how his research – ie, playing the Prince Of Persia games – lead to him becoming a bit of a stunt designer on the film.

Had you ever played the Prince Of Persia videogames?

“I played the original game. I then played The Sands Of Time and its subsequent spawn while I was preparing for the movie. With The Sands Of Time I would bring in the stuntmen sometimes and be like, ‘Check out this move! Can we figure out how we can duplicate this thing?’ They’d be like, ‘Sure,’ and it would get incorporated. So I played it then. I played a lot of videogames when I was a kid. I was stuck with the original Nintendo and all the games that went with it, like Metroid and Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. ” [Laughs.]

Read more about Prince Of Persia (including interviews with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Mike Newell and stars Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhall in our seven-page feature in SFX #195, in the shops next Wednesday 7 April.

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.