Jake Gyllenhaal Talks Film Roles, Getting Slugged in ‘Southpaw’

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal will put his celebrated physical body on the line for a good role.

Details magazine interviewed the blue-eyed star to find out about his recent injury on the set of the upcoming boxing flick “Southpaw."

“I got hit pretty hard in the face. All the producers ran [over]. I don't think out of real worry for me, but just the fact that we were only two weeks into shooting. There is something jarring about being hit in the face. I don't know how to explain it. It wakes me up.”

[Photo credit: Mark Seliger]

In “Southpaw," he plays an angry boxer having to deal with life breaking up around him. The perfect challenge for a dedicated actor.

Director Antoine Fuqua had to fight for Gyllenhaal to be given the lead role. “I said, 'I'm a hundred percent sure. This guy is special.' When I told Jake to go train, it wasn't that he was an amazing boxer. He just has desire to do it. He got gutted out. I said, 'This guy's got fire in him.' People just didn't see it. They're starting to see it now. Jake is coming out of his shell as a man.”

“Southpaw” co-star Rachel McAdams could see Jake's fire as well.

“He was fighting more than a champion boxer would. He was going hundreds of rounds a day to get the shot, day after day. They were always playing hardball — there was never any letting up. I was very worried for him, but I knew he had it under control.”

Gyllenhaal, 34, pulls no punches when it comes to his film choices. He is known for a wide variety of characters, having portrayed everything from a gay cowboy (“Brokeback Mountain") to a confused detective (“Prisoners”) to an insane man making a mark in journalism (“Nightcrawler”).

“There's a period of time in your life, in your twenties, when you're listening to a lot of other people's opinions. You're not sure about what you believe in, and you're moving in a direction that you feel like looks right to other people. And then you think, Wait, what do I feel? What do I want? What moves me? It's not always so pure and clear. It's not like I have my agent on one shoulder and my pure artist on the other.”

[Photo credit: Mark Seliger]

Don't miss the rest of Jake Gyllenhaal's interview in the August issue of Details.