In his new boxing movie, Southpaw coming out this week, Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope, a prize fighter battered by gloved fists and some of life’s hardest imaginable knocks.
Southpaw is not so much a film about boxing as it is a sweaty and bloody.It is meditation on mistreatment, and how it can cause a human’s soul to be too comfortable on the canvas.
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For his current role in Southpaw the talented star drop most of his body fat.
He was gruelling his body by training for six hours every day for six months to get down to 175lbs (79kg) – 15lbs (7kg).
For his role in last year’s Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal dropped 30lbs (13.6kg) for the part of gaunt paparazzo Lou Bloom.
He once admitted he lived on a diet of kale salad and chewing gum, while running 15 miles every night to get into character.
Christian Bale lost 63lbs (28.6kg) in four months for his part in 2004 film The Machinist, and Matthew McConaughey lost 38lbs (17kg) for his Oscar-winning Dallas Buyers Club role.
In 2013, Tom Hanks told that in past film roles which involved him having to manipulate his weight contributed to him developing Type 2 diabetes. He told the BBC at the time he had ruled out future roles requiring drastic weight gain following his diagnosis.
“I’ve talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles and – just out of the sheer physical toll on one’s knees and shoulders – no-one wants to do it again, ” he said.
Gyllenhaal told BBC : “When I did Nightcrawler I went to a doctor first. It wasn’t like I was doing what Christian did in The Machinist, but I was very careful about it. It affects your body, but I try to be as safe as I can. Sometimes things get a little dangerous, but you always have to be mindful.
“There tends to be a narrative of actors taking risks that I think is dangerous to put out there, particularly as young actors thinking about [their] craft, ” he added. “There’s a fine line you have to know that these things are done with preparation.”
