Jake Gyllenhaal Smolders On ‘Esquire UK,’ Goes Shirtless In Public And Discusses His Insane Workout Routine
Jake Gyllenhaal is Esquire UK’s latest coverboy. The 34-year-old actor covers the July 2015 issue of the men’s magazine. Photographed by Eric Ray, Jake wears a navy blue blazer and matching trouser pants with a white button down shirt.
Gyllenhaal not only smolders on the cover of the magazine. He also looks dapper inside the issue, as previously noted via Fashion & Style Magazine. Gyllenhaal is currently promoting his new film Southpaw, where he plays a boxer named Billy Hope.
The star describes his character as “a guy that couldn’t deal with his own shame. The director Ed Zwick [Love & Other Drugs (2010)] told me this wonderful thing: ‘Everything you learn is through shame.’ It’s so true. There’s those moments where you face humiliation, they’re so freeing if you can get through them.”
The buff actor also treated himself to a little vacation in Amalfi, Italy. As previously reported via the Daily Mail, Jake went shirtless as he showed off his buff new body. He spent some time in the sun with his long-term friend Greta Caruso, 31.
Here’s some shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal to kick off your weekend http://t.co/KbFLj4lPxH pic.twitter.com/bqKxhT0Was
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) May 29, 2015
How did he get so buff? He had to bulk up for his new role. Gyllenhaal’s new workout routine included 3-hour long workout sessions, 1,000 sit-ups and some serious weight training for four to five months. Rachel McAdams told E! News that she was a little scared by Gyllenhaal’s training.
“I was a little scared too! He’s a beast. He’s a real animal. I haven’t seen it yet so I can’t totally comment but just watching from the sidelines he just worked so hard. I think his work is going to reflect that. It was extraordinary.”
Rachel said that Jake was impressively committed to his role.
“He’d get up in the morning and run eight miles and then run twice a day and then rehearse. He was a machine.”
Jake Gyllenhaal opened up about how he prepared for his role in Southpaw. The Oscar-nominated actor spoke to People magazine about his intense workout sessions. According to Jake, he’s never boxed or watched a boxing session before, so he had to learn about the sport before he trained for it.
“I knew very little about the science, the techniques of boxing before we started. My thought was, if I trained twice a day, I can make five months, 10 months [of training]. That’s what we did. I spent all my time surrounded by Antoine [Fuqua, the director], my trainer and [the fighters] I was boxing with.”
Fans now know how Gyllenhaal physically prepared for his role, but how did he prepare mentally? He told Esquire UK about how he “immersed” himself in Billy Hope’s spirit.
“That’s what I like to do – immerse myself in the world and soak up the molecules in the space that I train in, practice in. I feel in general people’s fascination is on the physical, which I understand, but I also feel like it’s not why I do what I do.”
You can read the rest of Jake Gyllenhaal’s interview at Esquire.co.uk. Southpaw hits theaters across the country on July 24.
[Image: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]
