Jake Gyllenhaal today declared British audiences the best, saying they were “the first group who really understood me as an artist”.
The US actor told Esquire magazine the positive feedback he received when he performed in the West End more than a decade ago encouraged him to follow his acting dreams.
Gyllenhaal is tipped for an Oscar for his latest role in the forthcoming Southpaw. He trained “like a beast” for the film, in which he did his own stunts and improvised fight sequences.
The actor, now 34, starred in This Is Our Youth at the Garrick Theatre in 2002. He said: “People told me, ‘You’re good at this, you should keep doing it’. There was a sense of potential ... You didn’t have to be the absolute best, but they could smell talent and they appreciated it, as long as you committed yourself.”
In the same year his breakthrough film, Donnie Darko — in which he starred with sister Maggie — developed a cult following in the UK. In the US, however, the response was lukewarm.
He said: “Street artists were doing art about it, it had this cult following. There was such a different response. British audiences were the first group who really understood me as an artist.” Declaring himself an Anglophile, he added: “Pretty much all of my friends are Brits.” Southpaw is due to be released in July. According to its director Antoine Fuqua, such was Gyllenhaal’s dedication to the role he “trained like a beast”, went to Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas and even lost a girlfriend, reported to be Alyssa Miller, in the process.
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Fuqua said: “Jake gave up whatever life he had to live the life of a fighter. That’s a sacrifice. He even broke up with his girlfriend because he was at the ring every day.” Gyllenhaal uses physicality to get to the mindset of a character, saying: “It’s what I love most about my job ... I didn’t do a boxing movie to do a boxing movie, if you know what I mean.”
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He changed his approach to filmmaking when he spent time with LA police for 2012’s End Of Watch. He said: “As an actor, it’s easy to become disconnected from reality, but I can also spend five months in an environment that most people would never get access to.
“I’m not saying what I go through compares to what actual cops or boxers experience. There’s a hierarchy of importance, and actors are way down. I get that my job is absurd. I’m hyper-aware of how ridiculous it is. But at the same time, I take it extraordinarily seriously! Because as absurd as it is, it can also breed empathy.”
Gyllenhaal recently appeared on Broadway, receiving rave reviews for Constellations. His co-star in the show, British actress Ruth Wilson, said of him: “He’s really generous, he cares. Not just about the work, but about people. And he really brings you into his world. He was born into acting and showbusiness, he knows everyone and everything about it. But he includes you.
“And he’s a really great singer. He knows all the lyrics to Drake songs. And Motown and Springsteen.”
Read the full interview in the Esquire July 2015 issue - on sale Thursday May 27. Also available as a digital edition.
Read the full interview at esquire.co.uk
