EXCLUSIVE: Jake Gyllenhaal won fans for his dedication and commitment in losing 25 pounds to play the sociopathic nocturnal adrenaline junkie and camera man Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. He’s remade himself in a whole different physical fashion to play a championship prize fighter next year in Southpaw, and I’m betting it will have Gyllenhaal in the conversation with past actors who’ve trained to turn in memorable ring performances, a list that includes Raging Bull’s Robert De Niro, The Boxer‘s Daniel Day-Lewis, The Fighter‘s Mark Wahlberg and The Hurricane’s Denzel Washington.
Here, Deadline exclusively reveals the first image of Gyllenhaal from the Antoine Fuqua-directed Kurt Sutter-scripted Southpaw; it is clear Gyllenhaal has turned himself into a jacked, ripped beast, gaining 15 pounds of pure muscle. Gyllenhaal plays Junior Middleweight Champion Billy “The Great” Hope, a lefty champ who loses everything in a personal tragedy and is forced to fight his way to redemption.
There is a proud tradition of actors putting themselves through grueling preparation for their roles.
Gyllenhaal’s back-to-back shape-shifting in Nightcrawler and Southpaw seems the most radical since the weight shed that Matthew McConaughey went through going from Magic Mike to his Oscar-winning turn in Dallas Buyers Club and Emmy-nominated role in True Detective.
Gyllenhaal, who puts the Southpaw physique on display next year when The Weinstein Company releases the film, just received a Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor this past week for Nightcrawler.
When I interviewed Fuqua about his work with Denzel Washington in The Equalizer, he couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for how much he feels Gyllenhaal will change perception of himself as leading man (they’ve since agreed to re-team on The Man Who Made It Snow).
“I’m so pumped, man,” Fuqua said. “Jake is going to change how people see him. I had him training twice a day in the boxing ring, he did two-a-days seven days a week. I pretty much had him with me and my trainer every day. I took him to almost every fight. I had him train at Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Vegas and we watched Floyd’s fights, and the Manny Pacquiao fight. He trained in New York at Church Gym with real fighters. We literally turned him into a beast… Jake, my god, he’s a very electric, powerful fighter in this movie, and a guy who fights for his daughter. I’m confident that this will change how people see Jake, as a leading man.
“He sure has grown up. I love this guy. I met Jake years ago before he did End of Watch, and I saw something in him. I told him he needed to do more masculine films because I could see he had this power in him, and good size, and great expressive eyes. When I met him I said, ‘You’ve got to start doing that.’ And I watched him start. Working with him was a great experience because he’s so committed and gives his heart. You’re going to see in this movie, how far he has come. I asked this guy from day one, ‘I need you in the gym every day. I need you to train every day.’ And I said, ‘The word is sacrifice.’
“Literally. I think he broke up with his girlfriend because he was just in the gym every day,” Fuqua said. “He was training like a fighter. I had him sparring, really getting hit. I put him in situations where I wanted to see what he was made of. No one but fighters understand the sacrifice it takes to be a fighter.”
Looks from the first image like Gyllenhaal understands.
Jesus Christ. Like Matthew Fox in “Alex Cross.”
Matthew M in Magic Mike is no match for those abs in Jake’s Southpaw first look.
It’s hard to make a direct comparison, because Matt is being shot to look “sexy,” whereas Jake is being shot to look “beastly” and scary. Jake is flexing so hard it looks like he’s about to have a stroke, and is being lit and shot dramatically to show off every line on his skin. You obviously do not do that when you are trying to make someone look “pretty,” especially an older person like Matt; you go much softer to make their face look smooth and bright, and you sacrifice some muscle definition in the process.
That said, I do think Jake does look really defined. Maybe too much so to be an actual fighter, actually! His “walking around” physique, or at very most his Prince of Persia or Jarhead one, is more what the real-life athletes tend to have. They’re not there to sell Soloflexes!
“proud tradition”? That’s not healthy for the body to lose and gain weight like actors in Hollywood do, which is why Tom Hanks has diabetes. But way to glorify it!
My exact thought. I’m sure he was on pure protein and ‘supplements’ diet to jack up his testosterone. That’s nothing to be proud of, plus, his kidneys are probably over taxed from the massive amounts of protein in such a short period of time.
Quite honestly, who wants to watch the glorifying of boxing? Two men bashing in each others brains, I’m sure it’s fabulous entertainment….for morons.
I’ve met Mohamed Ali — what a shame.
You know nothing about protein and kidney function and how individual amino acids breakdown into there metabolites. Give me a single study that proves that protein alone will destroy the kidneys, and I will retract my comment.
Changing your body doesn’t make you a good actor or a leading man.
True, but he’s a good actor also so…
Doing these extreme things to his body – is Not acting. Personally, I think it’s kind of a mental sickness.
Please explain to me how you act being a trained boxer whitout actually training like a boxer. I think all actors would love to hear your advice…..
And let us not forget Christian Bale zigging and zagging from The Fighter and American Hustle, in between his three meg-pumped turns as Batman. Or Tom Hanks in Castaway… Just sayin’…
You left out the Machinist. Probably the craziest physical transformation Bale did
well said.
Wow, Jake Gyllenhaal literally has more muscle definition than Rob Gronkowski, Calvin Johnson, or J.J. Watt. In this picture, he makes Bo Jackson look like a 12-year-old girl. He has better muscle definition than athlete in the NFL, NBA, or NHL. Wonder how that happened.
He may be leaner than Gronk or JJ Watt, be he is nowhere near as big. And Calvin Johnson is just as lean. Angle and lighting.
It’s a great script. Congrats to John and Peter for sticking with it after Eminiem fell out.
Peter was there from the beginning, it was his original idea with Alan, and am thrilled for them, and sticking with it from inception until it is released.
Who is John?
Dude can’t act. But he can lose weight and gain weight and work act. Still can’t act though.
Have you seen Nightcrawler? Prisoners? Both great performances. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Gyllenhaal is on par with DiCaprio at this point.
(Watch Enemy, End Of Watch and Zodiac+++)
Agreed! He’s quite fine in both. Great in Zodiac as well. He goes out of his way to court interesting projects, more than you can say for some.
I haven’t seen Nightcrawler and plan to but How’s his work in prisoners aything special? It’s very typical of the stuff he always does. I don’t think he can’t act. I think he’s fine. Nothing exceptional in that movie though.
Not sure baiting awards with weight gain or loss constitutes good acting on its own but like cross dressing it seems to work for Academy members who often display a lot of stupidity in their choices.
I agree!!
Jake is a good actor and I don’t know why you have to be hating on him.
Have you seen Brokeback? Or Donnie Darko? Or Zodiac or Prisoners or Nightcrawler? Do you even know any acting? Bashing at someone so dedicated just to make yourself feel good. Get a life!
Oh please, Gyllenhaal is one of the very few who can really, and I mean really act
October Sky,Donnie Darko,Moonlight Mile,Brokeback Mountain,Jarhead,Zodiac,Source Code,End of Watch,Prisoners,Enemy and Nightcrawler.
He is one of the best actors of his generation, if not the best.
Sorry if I am a little behind the times, but I liked him in “The Day After Tomorrow”. His acting was perhaps not at the quality he has achieved recently, but he was very passable, IMO.
Which is why you remain anonymous cuz you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.
Nightcrawler, Zodiac, Prisoners, & yes Brokeback proves he does have some good acting chomps. Prisoners is a very underrated movie & he pulled out a great performance in it.
As the saying goes, He who makes a beast of himself…
It’s fair to fault an actor for not trying enough, not for what they absolutely cannot change. I think prior to End of Watch, JG just didn’t act enough for these times. He tended to be the glue, a teamplayer, too subtle. Even his aging into the monied class in Brokeback, didn’t call attention to itself like Ledger’s facial callous. A hardened, pretty man is still “pretty”. That’s what Fuqua wants to erase with his “masculine films”. And JG’s intricate double-act in Enemy, is not even something Japan’s best could pull off: Yakusho in Doppelganger (2003).
It’s only one picture but it has me interested.
Nightcrawler was a game changer for JG. I wish agents wouldn’t run for the hollywood hills every time we producers call with a script attached to a first time director. His performance in Nightcrawler will garner an Oscar nom.
Fuqua.. I’ve never seen someone talk so much about themselves when talking about another person. It was all “I did this” “I told him that.” Blah. blah. Look at me! look at me!
Damn bro… ego, much?
I thought the same. The way he talks is very telling.
If i were his girlfriend, he could go to the gym all he liked! I would then exercise him a little more when he got home.
Damn, pippa M is gettin’ her funk on.
Is this the same project that Eminem was being considered for a couple of years ago? Seems like a major step up with Gyllenhaal.
He gives one of the year’s best performances in Nightcrawler (obviously not Oscar material, but still a great portrayal). He has become an actor I will watch a film for regardless of the content (Yes, even an Antoine Fuqua movie, apparently).
I can’t quit this guy!!
People do this all the time, athletes, boxers, actors, regular people, you name it, you meet them almost everyday, people transform themselves by working out. The biggest loser show for instance. MMA fighters, happens all the time. This is his job. He gets paid millions for the part. I am more interested in who this guy, the boxer and his story, never heard of him and I tried to look it up on the net and found nothing other than this minor mention.
Love Fuqua’s masculine influence on his stories and actors, even the women. Jake will benefit, seriously. Even as middle-of-the-road as “The Equalizer” was, Denzel was a great sight. Looks like its working for Jake, too.
I’ve followed Jake’s career from the start. He’s unbelievably talented as an actor. I just hope he gives his body a rest for a while, because all this gaining and losing weight is not healthy for him, and the biggest pay check in the world will not compensate for poor health. We want Jake’s talent around for as long as possible, so he needs to be looking after himself.
jesus christ man.
Nightcrawler started principal photography on October 6, 2013 in Los Angeles. Gyllenhaal lost 20 pounds for his role. Southpaw principal photography and production began on June 16, 2014. So that leaves a limited amount of time for him to train. jesus crhist man, thats nuts. Even with steroids and trainers it takes a lot of will and determination.
Matt M. Is no match for the transformations christian bale has made! Just google it!
Let’s not forget Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby on the “actors who’ve trained to turn in memorable ring performances” list.
it’s not Jake in the picture
Wow, pretty impressive.
“more masculine films”….wtf?