14 DAY TRIAL // Jake Gyllenhaal is getting super serious and intense (and super Oscar-y) in his new interview with Details magazine, to promote this month’s release “Southpaw,” which sees him play a boxing champ struggling to get back his family (or what’s left of it) and his title.
Because much of the media attention around the film has been focused on Jake’s impressive physical transformation, he knows to expect questions like: how long did you train?, how hard was it to go from “Nightcrawler” to “Southpaw”?, how many sit-ups did you do?, what was your diet like during training?
All these are questions he’s not exactly in the mood to answer anymore, it would seem.
Physical transformation is part of the internal transformation to become the character
Whenever an actor has a movie to promote and especially if said movie is believed to be a runner in the upcoming Oscar race, as is the case with Gyllenhaal’s “Southpaw,” questions on the promo trail focus on the creative process of becoming that character in the movie.
If said character happens to look differently than the actor looks in everyday life, then much focus goes on that transformation. Jake knows that and proof of it is the fact that he’s been ok until now with answering these questions in detail. But no more.
In this Details interview, he says that his physical transformation is only relevant because it represents his internal transformation into the character.
“I believe that. I really do. But I think we all see what we want to see. If you want to see a guy who has gotten into shape, then that’s what you see. But if you want to see what I feel, I think you have to look a little deeper,” he says. “People have a lot of other [stuff] they have to do that’s more interesting and more important, so I don’t blame them for being like, ‘Oh, wait, how many sit-ups did you have to do?’ Or, ‘Oh, wow, what did you eat to lose that much weight?’ But you’re missing the point.”
He’s not saying it directly, but it does seem like he’s arguing that all this talk around his weight loss for “Nightcrawler” and then the weight he gained in muscle mass for “Southpaw” has started to bug him, as if he feels it cheapens the creative act of becoming that character.
It doesn’t, but what it does do is help him promote the movie and further his chances in that Oscar race.
Gyllenhaal and the Oscar snub
Speaking of which, media watchers had Gyllenhaal as a sure bet for a nomination in the Best Actor category last year, for his performance in “Nightcrawler.” He didn’t get it, and many still believe he was one of the biggest snubs of the awards season.
It wasn’t just that he lost a lot of weight for the role that earned him this buzz, either. Gyllenhaal delivered one of the most captivating and chilling performances of the year, as a crime reporter who stops at nothing to get his story.
His physical transformation for the role also got a lot of attention, which translated into his having to talk about it whenever he sat down for an interview.
This would explain why he’s weary of this topic now and why he’s overdosing on seriousness in the Details chat.
