Academy Award-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhall is without doubt one of the uncommon appearing varieties who can star in each Roadhouse, a remake of the basic Patrick Swayze movie, and star on Broadway in Othello reverse Denzel Washington inside the span of a yr. Whereas it has helped him construct an eclectic resume, it has additionally helped him develop as an actor in sudden methods. In a dialog with The Hollywood Reporter, Gyllenhall speaks about why he seeks roles that “freak” him out and one essential approach he picked up from starring in Highway Home.
Gyllenhall was born with a lazy eye that has since corrected, however he’s just about blind with out carrying sturdy contact lenses (he has 20/1250 imaginative and prescient). He believes this helps him as an actor, noting, “I prefer to suppose it’s advantageous. I’ve by no means recognized the rest. After I can’t see within the morning, earlier than I placed on my glasses, it’s a spot the place I might be with myself.” Notably, Gyllenhaal carried out the scene within the 2015 boxing film Southpaw through which his character learns about his spouse’s dying with out his contact lenses to “power himself to hear extra carefully.”
Jake Gyllenhaal on Going through His Fears and Perfecting the Artwork of Efficiency
As for what steers Gyllenhaal towards his tasks — starting from Zodiac to Nocturnal Animals to Spider-Man: Far From Dwelling to Highway Home and extra, he admits to choosing roles that “freak me out a bit… The sensation I need to have is, can I do it? That it’s going to ask of me issues that I don’t learn about myself but.”
For instance, one of many issues that Gyllenhaal didn’t know that he may do was a basic “trailer line” — the kind of quips {that a} character says that find yourself featured prominently in a movie’s advertising. He explains, “To ship a line that goes right into a trailer, with the precise gusto and perception, and even with the absurdity of it, it’s a mastery. There’s that factor, the digicam’s pushing in and I’m all the time like, ‘Oh wow, that is if you see Bruce Willis do the road, the factor. And now I’m doing the factor. Like, oh God.’” It’s a sort of fashion that Gyllenhall needed to make occur for a movie like Roadhouse. He continues, “It requires this ease, however focus. I’m in awe of people that can do it.”
