Anatomy of a Junket

6th May 2010, London. Today I am on my way to the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane for an afternoon of round table interviews with the cast and crew of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Now what is a Round Table interview? Well it's one of a few types of interview journalists get invited to do to promote a film. So this month here is a brief overview of how one of these works.
Types of Inteview

1. Phoner - This is a interview conducted over the phone with the 'Talent' (Actor, Actress, Producer, Director etc.), usally around 10-15 minutes and requires the right equipment to record.
2. Round Table - More of this in a minute, but basically you have a group of journalists (Any size group from 3 - 15) sitting around a table talking to the talent for an alloted amount of time.
3. 1 on 1 - Usually held in a room with just you, the talent, a camera man and possibly a Publicist or Agent. This is just you face to face with the talent asking your questions direct and uninterrupted and the preferred choice of most journalists.
4. Press Conference - This is where you are in a large room filled with various journalists from various different places and a long table up the front where the talent sit and you put your hand up to pose questions to the panel. (Think the final press scene in Notting Hill only usually we all have seats)
   

So todays Prince of Persia Junket is a round table with (Deep breath) Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arteton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Director Mike Newell & Prince of Persia Creator Jordan Merchner. So on arrival at the hotel we head into the press check in where we are sent to a 'holding room' before the interviews. Now ususally you are looking at small groups of about 4 or 5 of you around a table and there's usually a few journo's milling about drinking the free water/soft drinks and eating cookies that are provided. Not today though. For today has what seems like the whole of the press fraternity from around the world. These holding rooms aren't large either, so we are all shoe horned in and sat around waiting for our time.

After various nods and hello's to fellow British Journalists who we see at the various screenings and Press Conferences, I find myself sat next to a delightful French journalist who is regaling me with stories about how crazy the Black Eyed Peas are to interview (She works for a TV Channel in France). After this brief but fun conversation my group is called for (I am on table 7 of 12), so off we go down the corridor to our room, which is a bedroom that has been converted for the interview.

Now in our group (There are 10 of us all in all), we have a truly international flavour. The countries represented are: Turkey, Malasia, Germany, Scotland, France, Finland, Italy, Myself for England, Ireland and Poland. We all make light conversation while awaiting our first guest. much of the talk is around how there has been no food around so a lot of us are hungry, which leads to joking comments about handing the film a 1 star review in punishment (With journo's though, you never know if they are indeed joking). Also where we are all from and in the midst of conversation about Gemma Arteton it is talked about whether she is dating a stuntman she met on the set of Quantam of Solace, also that she comes from my hometown (Gravesend) to which everyone suggests I should tell her. We then all fall silent as the Disney PR comes in and lets us know that first up for us is indeed Gemma.

Gemma Arteton sashays into the room like a proper film star (However I can see the local girl glint in her eye...) and sits herself down and the questioning begins. We have 20 minutes with each of the talent, which seems like a decent amount of time, but with 10 journalists all pushing to get their questions in, it's not long at all.

So the first Question that we pitched to Gemma was how was the experience of The Prince of Persia and working with Jake?

'It Was Immense' (Click for audio)

The questions about what it was like to kiss Jake were asked (Which was passed off with the usual 'It's part of the job') and then the conversation rolled around to her coming from Gravesend, at which point it is brought up I am also from Gravesend which brings an excited intake of breath from Gemma and anexcited response...

'Gravesend Massive'

Which leads me onto the question - Gemma has been in 2 Hollywood blockbusters now (Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans), Done Bond (Quantam of Solace), been in a classic Britsh comedy staple (St.Trinnians remake), done Indie (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), recently been in Theatre (The Little Dog Laughed) so out side of winning an Oscar has her career peaked?

'There's So Much More I Can Do...'

The discussions and questions ramble on and we discuss things like whether this will be the next Pirates of the Carribean and if Gemma would do a sequel (Yes she would, in fact she'd love to do it.) So the next question was about what challenges Gemma faced during filming.

'It's called Rebounding'

Then questions around being glamourous and the legend of Gemma's 12 fingers (She had 2 removed when she was young), then the question about checking her own press ('Why do it? It's so depressing..). Then the myth of getting married to a stuntman is dispelled (He's not astuntman or Daniel Craig's stunt double, it's a private part of my life), then the recent tabloid obsession over tattoo. Then soon after a couple of more questions the PA shuffles in and winds stuff up. So thanks Gemma, you were great.

Next for us is the films star Jake Gyllenhaal. Unlike Gemma he strolls into the room dressed casually and sits down and asks for a cup of tea from his PA. The interview commences with various female journalists suddenly very alert and hanging off Jake's every word. Our Finnish friend is slightly embarrassed as she has been given a Finland scarf to hand over to Jake, but we all her and Jake to do the exchange he gracefully agrees and we try yo get him to wear the scarf to the Premiere to be held the next day. He's ready to go so we hit him with the question, 'Prince of Persia is a departure from his usual types of roles so why do this now?'

'I Loved Indiana Jones, The Goonies...'

So then the convcersation turns to the game itself which he used to play then 'I had about a 20 year break' until the script for this came along. I then got the chance to ask Jake about how you prepare for a film when all you have for reference is a video game...

'It's so weird I woke up and had a British accent..'

So the conversation rolls around to discussions on Jake's workout regime and his 'hot bod' and what a big deal it has become. So we asked about the Jake effect and his Parkour training, and the stunts on set...

'The Producers Would Flip out'

So continuing on the theme of unwanted fame I asked a question which has been being debated online on the Social Networks primarily Twitter. There is a user on Twitter going by the name of @JBGyllenhaal who was pretending to be Jake. So I asked about the hassle (He had Jonathan Ross @wossy declare he was fake) and had protected his tweets. So I directed the question to see if it was him. (It since turns out he has had his account cancelled, but he has returned with @JBGyllenhaal2)

'I Don't Twitter'

Then the discussion turns to sequels and what Jake will do after he retires from acting ('Run for Governor of California, that's what every good actor should do'), then goes onto to talk about his love of food and finishes up by talking about his family and how proud he is of his sister Maggie and the career he has made for herself in her own right.

Then as soon as he arrives the PA turns up to whisk him away, but not before a few of us get a chance to get a photo with him.

So it was next the turn of Director Mike Newell (Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince), who came into discuss how he got involved in The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It turns out that Jerry Bruckhiemer asked him to direct the film and he loved the script. He was more surprised the Jerry knew who he was. We also find out that he knew Jake since he was young via a connection with his parents. We realise very quickly that Mike Newell can talk, and talk. But he is a great interview. He then proceeds to tell us about the pressure involved in making a Bruckhiemer production.

'Michael Khan'

Then the subject of making the film in 3-D, which a lot of big movies have been converted to recently. However Prince of Persia is not being in this format so we asked Mike why this was..

'3-D'

Once again our time comes and goes and Mike Newell moves onto his next room for the next bout with Journalists. So Mike is followed by Jordan Merchner who is the brains and creator behind the game. He is obviously not used to doing press and seems more than a bit nervous and so the questions tend to centre around how he created the game and how he thinks it has turned out going to the big screen (Unfortunately the shound didn't come out very well on this interview so we can't put any in).

So Finally we get Sir Ben Kingsley who comes into the room with an aura of greatness about him and everyone in the room sits upright and ups their game as we are now faced with the prospect of a 'proper' actor (Oscar winning no less) and therefore there will be no messing around in this one.

We are caught off guard as our fears are not warranted, Ben kingsley is charming, down to earth but totally loves his profession and it comes across in his answers, so we started off by asking about being the bad guy and if he had a favorite film of his (It's like asking which is your favorite child.. You can't). He then goes onto to tlk a lot more about his children So I decided to ask about him taking on a more physical role and getting involved in the action scenes.

'Fast Dangerous Dances'

So we had Sir Ben Kingsley waxing lyrical about the film and it suddenly dawned on me that if I ever needed someone to do PR for me then I'm hiring Sir Ben as he absolutely sells the film. We came out by the end thinking that The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a sweeping Shakespearean Epic. It's not by the way, this is a Bruckhiemer film. Back to the questions and the next one up for Sir Ben is what is more challenging, playing a good character or a bad one?

'Magnificently Intelligent Gestures'

Sir Ben then tells us that he 'Starts picking colours like an artist' when choosing films and it comes from the moment he starts on the script. Then we ask 'the' question, do you prefer Ben or Sir Ben? (Penelope Cruz still emails him Sir)

'Extraordinary Embrace'

So our time is running out and we want to know how he came to have the name Ben Kingsley as it wasn't his original name.

'The Most Powerful Spice Trader In East Africa'

There is time for just one more question and as today is the day of the UK general Election he is asked about that. The answer he gives I will hear later that night exactly word for word the same on the Election coverage on BBC One as he stands next to Bruce Forsyth (Who turns to the crowd and does Nice to see you... on a live election broadcast!) about how he voted this morning.

And with thatit's all over. We have been there for the best part of 2 hours and we now all get up to leave pick up our bag of Prince of Persia goodies and then fill out an embargo form to stop us publishing any of this until now. So, here it is.

Hopefully that has given you a slightly better insight into how a Junket works, maybe in the future I will cover one of the other types but for now I'm heading off to find something new to talk about next month. See you at the movies...

Our Prince of Persia review can be found HERE . You can follow us on Twitter @Screen1ne, please follow this blog column and below is the picture we got with Jake! Until Next time.