‘Strange World’ Interview: Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union

Opening in theaters on November 23 is the new Disney Animation film ‘Strange World’, directed by Don Hall (‘Moana’).

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Searcher Clade, a former explorer who discovers a rare substance used to power the land of Avalonia. His father, the famous explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid) went missing years ago, and the Searcher now lives a simple life as a farmer with his wife Meridian (Gabrielle Union) and son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), who desperately wants to become an explorer like his grandfather.

But when the Seeker discovers that something is destroying the resource, he and his family join an expedition with Avalonia President Callisto Mai (Lucy Liu) to travel to Strange Worlds, where they are finally reunited with the missing Jaegers.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union about their work on ‘Strange World’, the story, their characters and why you should see it in the theater!

Moviefone: First of all, what would the two of you say to moviegoers getting ready to sit back and watch ‘Strange World’ on the big screen?

Jake Gyllenhaal: How’s the popcorn? What will I say? The feeling of being in a movie theater, nothing like that. You finally get there, and this movie is going to be a lot of fun. That’s what I thought.

Gabrielle’s Union: Oh, screw it up. This is an action-adventure family film that is fun for the whole family. It’s all about three different generations of the same family, giving themselves permission to take different paths in life, while at the same time each trying to focus on their own individual desires, hopes, and dreams, and realizing that no matter what the route. you take it, it is perfect for you. We should all celebrate.

But there are great action adventures and beautiful, wild, and strange worlds that we won’t tell you about anymore. Don’t forget to validate and earn extra butter.

MF: Jake, can you talk about the father/son theme of the film and how Searcher comes to terms with his relationship with his father Jaeger, and son Ethan?

JG: Yes, the seeker is completely estranged from his father, because his father was an adventurer, and he never wanted to be one, but his father really wanted him to be. He even became a farmer. The searcher hopes that his son is also a farmer and knows from the start that this is not what his son wants to do.

Thus, he was in the same position as his father. He was caught between these two worlds. In many ways, this film is not just about the strange world that they actually find themselves in, but also the strange world that each of them exists in separately.

They must come together and join forces to be in the same world, to save the world they are in. I love that movie. For me, that’s also the thing that really touched me. It makes me emotional when I think about it and did from the first time I told that story.

MF: Finally, Gabrielle, can you talk about how your character driving skills helped her husband and son on their journey?

GU: Well, thanks for asking. A lot of who Meridian is, is how I live my life. How I love my family, how much I fight for my family to live exactly the way they want, away from unwanted comments. But I also had a life before I became a mother and wife. I have skills, and I have talent.

I can’t always pinpoint it and it’s similar to Meridians. She can use all the things she learned and all the things she is good at, before she became a wife and mother, maybe to help/save her family and her community.