Jake Gyllenhaal’s children’s book includes a Prince Of Persia Easter egg for some reason

According to the actor, the reference to Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time, a movie best known for casting white actor Jake Gyllenhaal as the prince of friggin’ Persia, was a goof by his illustrator Dan Santat. In the book, a 10-year-old aspiring dancer named Leo struggles to dance before an audience at a show called, you guessed it, The Persians. “That was Dan Santat. He snuck that in before printing, and I didn’t approve that,” Gyllenhaal said. “I don’t know where that came from.”

“Dan likes to put in his bits of humor, even misspelling my name at the back and having to put a Post-it, having two A’s at the end.”

The moment in question does offer some light commentary on Gyllenhaal’s acting career. The actor said, “When I described that space, it was the space where there was no farther down to go than the depths of where Leo is in that moment in the book. So I guess that was Dan’s joke on me.”

It does seem like a nice book, though, even if it does include a reminder of Prince Of Persia. Gyllenhaal wrote Secret Society Of Aunts And Uncles with his best friend, Greta Caruso, and based the book on his niece and nephew, who happen to be Maggie Gyllenhaal’s children.