14 DAY TRIAL // Jake Gyllenhaal is getting major Oscar buzz right now for his role as an adrenaline junkie, sociopathic crime reporter in “Nightcrawler,” a movie for which he lost 25 pounds (11.3 kg), but his next movie promises to be just as surprising.
Gyllenhaal, once considered the go-to guy for romantic comedies, is reinventing himself to show the entire world that which his fans knew from the start: he is a versatile and very talented actor, and just as importantly, he’s willing to suffer for his art, if need be.
In 2015, Gyllenhaal has the movie “Southpaw” coming out, in which he plays a washed up boxer who still has one last fight in him. The first official pic from the film has been released – and his transformation is just as shocking as the one in “Nightcrawler.”
Gyllenhaal packed 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of “pure muscle”
Deadline has the first photo of the actor in character, as Junior Middleweight Champion Billy “The Great” Hope, but you can also find it in the gallery below. For the role, Gyllenhaal packed 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of “pure muscle,” which is impressive in and of itself.
If you consider he dropped 25 pounds (11.3 kg) of his original weight for the previous movie, then you realize that, indeed, Jake is willing to even sacrifice his health if that’s what it takes to render the character he’s playing more convincing.
“Southpaw” is directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) off a script by Kurt Sutter (“Sons of Anarchy”) and will probably bring Gyllenhaal even more critical acclaim. So assuming his performance in “Nightcrawler” doesn’t convince Academy members that he’s worthy of a Best Actor nomination or award, he is definitely in the running for next year.
Jake Gyllenhaal turned into a “beast,” trained like a real fighter
It takes dedication to go from stick thin to such a ripped body, but it also takes pain and sacrifice. In a recent interview with the same media outlet, director Fuqua raved about how “Southpaw” would change the perception the world has of Gyllenhaal because it would show him in a light we’d never seen him before.
He spoke with admiration and respect of an actor who would put everything in his life on hold for months, while preparing for a role. During training, which played out like a real fighter’s training, Jake got punched and hurt more than any other actor, but it was a price he paid willingly.
“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,” Fuqua said.
He wanted Gyllenhaal to turn into a “beast” and he warned him from the start that he would require “everything” of him for the role. Jake delivered. He even broke up with his girlfriend so that he could focus on his training and get in the right state of mind to play a boxer fighting for his daughter, the director explained.
The Academy loves nothing more than a dramatic transformation for a role, so if Gyllenhaal’s performances in “Nightcrawler” and “Southpaw” rise up to the hype, he will be the owner of a brand new, shiny Oscar by early 2016 at the latest.
