Yahoo News Jake Gyllenhaal finished shoot days on The Covenant with rocks thrown at his face
In Guy Ritchie's The Covenant, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a U.S. soldier whose life is saved by Dar Salim's local interpreter after the pair's patrol is ambushed by Taliban forces towards the end of America's military involvement in Afghanistan.
"They don't make movies like this anymore," says Salim, whose previous acting credits include the TV shows Borgen and Game of Thrones. "It's a big action banger that keeps you at the edge of the seat, but at the heart of it is a story about two men from very different cultures who form this unlikely covenant. It has many layers and has some beautiful messages in it as well."
Salim and Gyllenhaal talk about making the film, the painful way the latter ended most shooting days, and the fact that director Guy Ritchie has his own line of barbecue tables.
Everett Collection Jake Gyllenhaal in 'The Covenant'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Dar, when I think about the film I think of you pulling around Jake's injured character on a wooden cart. How tiring was that?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: He pushes too! He pushes too! He does his fair share of pushing and pulling, I would say.
DAR SALIM: I do both. I love the physicality when we shoot a film. It's just helpful. The harder it is for you in real life, the more you can portray and put in the character. I didn't mind that. Actually, that scene, that journey kept growing. It wasn't even really scripted, but Guy early on got inspired by it and realized that is such an important part of the film. So he kept adding on every day a new topography. "Let's go push him there!" I very much enjoyed pushing Jake around, especially because we had guys hired to throw stuff in his face while I was doing it. One was throwing fake blood, and one was throwing little rocks and dust in his face all the time, which obviously was very painful to him and very enjoyable for me.
GYLLENHAAL: Oh, yes, it was quite an enjoyable experience. The best part of it was Guy screaming, "Look into the sun and keep your eyes open at the same time!" Yeah, that was great fun. Guy just kept shooting sequences. The end of the day kind of became a joke because, as we finished the day, I got on the cart and got rocks thrown in my face for a good hour-and-a-half. We finished almost every day that way.
When I asked Guy about the shoot, he kept on saying how much fun everyone had. You're painting a slightly different picture.
GYLLENHAAL: No, it was wonderful pretty much through and through. Yeah, it was physical in different ways, but he has a wonderful crew of people, a true group of professionals who know what they're doing. We had a lot of fun in between takes and in between set-ups. He knows how to make a real community around him. He has a dinner table of sorts where you have your meals, and you come together, and you really discuss the scenes. A lot of the movie was found over the table and over a meal.
SALIM: A table that he built, by the way. It's a grill that he produces and sells, you can buy it online.
GYLLENHAAL: To have your own creative discussions.
Everett Collection Dar Salim and Jake Gyllenhaal in 'The Covenant'
I'm sorry, did you say you can buy Guy Ritchie's table online?
GYLLENHAAL: Yeah.
SALIM: He makes grills.
GYLLENHAAL: He makes a barbecue
I have no idea whether you're pulling my leg or not.
SALIM: No.
GYLLENHAAL: I think it's called the Cashmere Caveman. I swear it is. [He's right.]
Speaking more seriously, this is a fictional film, but it is inspired by a real-life situation and highlights the plight of interpreters who helped U.S. forces and then were unable to get visas to live in America. Is that something which attracted you? And if someone sees this and thinks they want to try and help that situation, is there anything they can do?
GYLLENHAAL: Absolutely, so there are a number of organizations that they can go to. But part of the central thing for this movie, outside of it being highly entertaining, which we knew [it would be], working with Guy, was this idea of the relationships between interpreters and soldiers, right? It's not based on a true story, but it is based on many different true stories, an amalgamation of many relationships, and the idea that no one be left behind. I think there is that idea that this hopefully will shine a light back on a subject matter. Three hundred Afghan interpreters have been killed since 2001, and there are a thousand more awaiting visas to come to America. If it inspires one person to become involved, then it's made our job worth it.
The Covenant is playing in theaters tomorrow.
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.
Related content:
