But take a look at the awards section for both actors and you’ll see Jake Gyllenhaal with dozens of awards and nominations from film critic societies and actor’s guilds.
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You may not recognise the man.
Jake has left no stone unturned to prepare himself for the role of boxing legend – Billy The Great Hope.
Actors are constantly pushed to the brink by roles that demand them to alter their physique, which often takes a toll on their physical and mental health. Maybe. But my cast and crew will tell you that if there was one thing I was unabashedly passionate about during the making of SOUTHPAW, it was authenticity. I realised quickly that I knew nothing.
Other than Jake, the film also stars power packed performers like Forest Whitaker and Rachel McAdams. His title, his family, his respect, his property, his bank accounts – gone. In the movie industry there’s a tendency to go with the newest thing because it seems like it has a sense of perfection, no flaws. Life is brutal. Punching somebody over 12 rounds in the ring? He wanted to shoot it like a Showtime or HBO fight where he was going to have the real cameraman there. Brutal. And not even an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss! (We will: Rocky, Raging Bull, The Fighter, The Champ, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Body and Soul.).
Bleed, sweat and jab with Billy Hope through his downfall and rise. It’s who he is, and what he goes through, and what he experiences. The film traces the story of how he gets back on his feet against all adversities.
“That’s what’s at the heart of this movie: a guy who’s been through the system, knows how it works, used his rage to beat the system, but ultimately, it’s that same rage that destroys him“. However, the actor is forced to cancel the trip due to his busy schedule. Our DP Mauro Fiore and I joined forces with Todd Palladino and Rick Cypher, who have been shooting fights for HBO Boxing for a collective forty years or so, and shot the matches just as they would have for television, advising us on everything from where the ring girls would stand to how a boxer would walk through the tunnel for his big entrance into an arena.
So, Gyllenhaal began his training – with Fuqua, who has boxed for years, right alongside him.
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Gyllenhaal hasn’t followed an obvious path to stardom. I think that a movie is never made with just one mind. “I spent five months preparing physically and learning the sport of boxing and the techniques of boxing”, he added.
