Watch: Clarke talks 'Everest' beard brawl
Forget about the epic battle against the elements in Everest.
A big-time beard battle brewed on the set of the mountain action adventure now storming through theaters.
Jason Clarke tells Paste BN that when he showed up on the mountain Everest set, he was surprised that everyone had shaggy beards — even if their real-life characters did not have them in the infamous 1996 storm depicted in the movie.
"When all these dudes walked up with beards, it was like, 'I'm not happy,' " says Clarke.
"There was a beard-off. At the beginning I wasn't happy about it," says Clarke, pointing to Jake Gyllenhaal especially as Scott Fischer. Fischer did not have a beard at the time depicted.
"Jake went full-on with his beard, didn't he?" says Clarke. "I was like, 'Dude what's with the beard?' Scott Fischer didn't have the beard."
Clarke's beard, which is 100% home-grown, was legit as expedition leader Rob Hall.
"Rob (Hall) was famous for having a beard at that time. High-altitude climbers don't have that," says Clarke.
But Gyllenhaal's beard was all about emotional authenticity. And director Baltasar Kormakur was cool with it.
"It helped Jake get a little away from himself in a way," says Kormakur. "I was just trying to make these characters real."