The Sundance Film Festival is for seeing indie movies and spotting Robert Redford out in the wild, but it is not for mispronouncing the word melancholy in the presence of Jake Gyllenhaal! When the cast of Velvet Buzzsaw — Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Billy Magnussen, Natalia Dyer, and Zawe Ashton — made an appearance at The Hollywood Reporter’s video studio, director Dan Gilroy began to wax poetic about Russo’s talent. “There’s many sides to Rene that haven’t been shown on film. I wanted the world to see them: soulful, spiritual, she has a touch of me-LANK-ly once in a while —â€
Wait … me-LANK-ly?! Who?! Gyllenhaal interrupts: “It’s melancholy, Dan.†The director quickly corrects himself, offering, “Oh, it’s melancholy! I always get that word wrong.†Gyllenhaal, king of enunciation (and also blushy pink sweaters), is not impressed: “That is not the first time today …â€
Note to self: If you’re on the fence about how to pronounce melancholy, maybe just stick with “sad.â€
Update, February 1: Velvet Buzzsaw director Dan Gilroy totally meant to pronounce melancholy — me-LANK-ly — in a super weird way. “So I’m a big fan of the movie Megamind, and in the movie Will Ferrell mispronounces me-LANK-ly, and he also calls Metro City ‘metrocity,’†Gilroy told NPR. “I’m always laughing with Jake — that was a joke between Jake and I that’s been picked up.â€
Who knew Megamind would have this lasting cultural impact?