From Louis Bloom To Billy Hope, Jake Gyllenhaal Has Proven Himself A Shape-Shifting Actor

When Southpaw co-star Rachel McAdams witnessed Jake Gyllenhaal’s transformation into boxer Billy Hope, she was stunned. He had completely inhabited his new character, body and soul.

“When I first signed on to the movie, he had just started his training and had long hair in a ponytail and a bushy beard and didn’t even look like a boxer,” the actress told The Independent. “But three months later, to have completely changed and to be so convincing – not just the physical transformation but to become that character in every single way so that it was … part of his DNA; it was in his cells – was phenomenal to watch.”

A lot is being said about Gyllenhaal’s transformation for the film and the grueling road he took to get there. But this is territory the actor has trod before. His career is littered with characters so different it’s hard to believe they’re played by the same man. And for each one, Jake has thrown himself headlong into changing not only his body, but, as McAdams said, his very cells.

For Southpaw, the actor went from a lean 147 pounds to 175 pounds, almost of pure muscle, in six months, E! Online added. To do that, trainer Terry Claybon said Gyllenhaal didn’t get a single day off and worked as hard as any boxer would for a professional match. The transformation took “2,000 sit-ups a day, push-ups, dips, flipping 350 pound tires, and running eight miles five days a week.” When they started, Claybon said Jake “wasn’t in any shape at all.”

But this is just another day on the job for an actor who used to choose more commercial flicks (Prince of Persia, The Day After Tomorrow) but now picks films that push him out of his comfort zone. Gyllenhaal told Variety ahead of Nightcrawler‘s release that, when he turned 30, he realized he wanted to take his job more seriously.

Prior to Southpaw, this epiphany came through in two other standout films that required as much commitment as 2,000 daily press-ups.

For his manic, ambitious, amoral paparazzo Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler, Jake’s transformation was just as dramatic. He trimmed 30 pounds of that already lean frame by keeping himself almost permanently hungry, snacking on little bits of meat, crackers, or salad to achieve that angular, hollow look. Gyllenhaal personally selected Bloom’s 1990s-style wardrobe and went on ride-alongs with real ambulance chasers.

Jake did the same when researching character Brian Taylor in End of Watch. For that film, he actually rode along with Los Angeles police for five months. Before the film’s release, the Guardian reported that Jake’s real-life experience took a violent turn when he witnessed a man shot dead in front of him during a drug bust gone wrong. Gyllenhaal called the experience an “awakening.”

As Southpaw hits the theaters, audiences will see, once again, the end result of Jake’s dogged dedication to embody his characters — this one a light-heavyweight boxing champion, husband, and father seeking redemption. Gyllenhaal’s commitment went so far as to kick out his stunt double and take a bloody hit to the face.

The effect of such transformation, Jake has described in past interviews, is often life-changing. Sometimes, the ghosts of past characters stay with him, long after the cameras have stopped rolling and he’s moved on to the next film.

“I always have nightmares. (But) I don’t really believe in nightmares. I don’t believe the things that scare us are in our dreams. I think they are us communicating with ourselves.”

[Photo Courtesy Robin Marchant/Getty Image]