‘I wanted to do Jeff a service... to me he is superhuman’
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal tells Jacob Stolworthy of his challenge playing double-amputee Jeff Bauman in real-life drama Stronger, why Nightcrawler is a comedy and his ‘instinct’ for picking roles
The definition of “character actor” reads as “one who specialises in playing eccentric or unusual people rather than leading roles”. While perennial lead star Jake Gyllenhaal could never technically be labelled as such, there’s no denying his status as a performer who fluidly bridges the gap by fronting films playing these precise types of roles. In this way, Gyllenhaal is in a league of his own.
Another factor setting Gyllenhaal apart from the rest is an old-fashioned passion for the craft, something easy to discern after mere minutes in the company of an actor who evidently cares as much about his little-seen early roles (2001 comedy Bubble Boy) as he does the ones that — in an alternate world — would have won him every award going (here’s looking at you, Nightcrawler).
It’s perhaps no stretch to say that Gyllenhaal’s enthusiasm has hit a new peak following his latest role in Stronger, a passion project-ofsorts telling the real-life story of civilian Jeff Bauman who had both his legs amputated following the tragic
Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. The actor also produces from John Pollono’s screenplay based on Bauman’s own memoir.
Unlike Patriots Day, Peter Berg’s 2016 dramatisation of the ensuing manhunt, Stronger focuses on the very human story of one man’s recalibration following his life-altering injury. While no stranger to changing his physicality for a role (he reportedly piled on 45 pounds for boxing drama Southpaw in 2015), Gyllenhaal was posed with a bigger challenge he rates as one of the most important he’s faced in his career.
“I felt a responsibility to Jeff all the way along,” Gyllenhaal explains. “He’s a real human being who’s still here and is vibrant and thoughtful (so) I think all of those aspects made it a real challenge for me. I wanted to do him service. Trying to conceptualise what it’s like to not only lose your limbs but also (to do it) in a way that Jeff did — I really feel like he’s superhuman.”
Gyllenhaal’s respect for Bauman is sincere. The duo spent a year together before filming began, striking up a camaraderie which enabled the actor to deliver what could well be one of the year’s most formative performances. Rather than make what could have been a Lifetime-style film layered with faux schmaltz, director David Gordon Green opted for an authenticity best exemplified in a key scene showing the removal of Bauman’s bandages post-amputation: the camera — fixing on Gyllenhaal and Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslaney playing Bauman’s girlfriend, Erin Hurley — hones in on nothing but their raw emotion.
Gyllenhaal nods. “That (scene) was based on an incredible moment where Jeff said he didn’t want to have either him or Erin see his legs when they did it.
“That was just so moving. David would roll the camera for very long takes and there would be a moment where these boundaries disappeared and dissolved and we were living in the moment.”
The result is the film’s best scene. While sporadically coaxing your tear ducts, Stronger is unexpectedly also very funny — something that drew Gyllenhaal to the project in the first place.
“The reason I wanted to do the movie is because I was laughing when I first read the screenplay,” he reveals. “I surprisingly found myself cracking up four pages in, then I was moved and then I’d be cracking up again.
“That was what got me wanting to play the character. Jeff
is one of the funniest people I know.”
This point brings to bear the fact that — save for the aforementioned Bubble Boy from filmmaker Blair Hayes — comedy has been largely absent from the 36-year-old’s filmography since his screen debut as a child in 1991’s City Slickers.
Having formed an exclusive club of intriguing characters ever since his first leading role in 1999 drama October Sky, cinema-goers are still yet to see Gyllenhaal throw himself headfirst into the genre.
“You don’t want to either,” he quips, levelling why this may be the case.
“I think I gravitate towards a certain type of depth of character. For me, you want to feel the time spent while you’re making a film is meaningful for whatever reason and I just don’t have the desire to, for instance, make a film that feels like it’s existing on the surface. But if it’s comedic and it has something to say, then I would love to be a part of it.”
You could argue, I suggest, that Dan Gilroy’s acclaimed 2014 thriller Nightcrawler is a comedy. In it, he plays Lou Bloom, a stringer who prowls LA streets after hours to document violent events in exchange for money from a local TV news station.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he agrees. “I did always think a number of those scenes were hilarious.
“People tell me (Bloom) is creepy but he’s hilarious to me in a lot of ways too. He’s a social commentary on so many things. It was very interesting to say, ‘I’m going to approach one take as if I’m going to attack (Riz Ahmed’s character) and then one take as if I’m slowly befriending him’ and I think a character that allows me to make those kinds of choices makes my job more fun.”
The memorable roles don’t stop at Bauman and Bloom: eponymous teen Donnie Darko, LAPD cop Brian Taylor (End of Watch) and Brokeback Mountain’s sexually confused cowboy Jack Twist are just three of the actor’s many defining roles. With demand in no danger of waning, has Gyllenhaal adopted a code for picking which scripts he’ll next dedicate months of his life to?
“It’s my instinct, I guess. (Roles do) have to have a sense of irony and some sort of edge on which to sort of skate. These characters always have to have a myriad of sides to them with the possibility for me to say, ‘This take I can go here and that take I can go there’.”
While showing a knack for dishing out equal love to every one of his past films, Gyllenhaal displays a sincere bemusement to discover that not only does his interviewer own a copy of 2004 disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow on DVD (no apologies here) but that psychological thriller Enemy (2013) remains Denis Villeneuve’s best film despite the recent release of Blade Runner 2049.
Having played numerous high-profile roles, it’s no surprise to him that journalists are quick to talk about films such as these as chapters or turning points in his life. For Gyllenhaal, however, it’s the experiences behind-the-scenes that mark personal milestones. “When I see my performances it’s not just about the results, it’s about the experience. I just did this Broadway show Sunday in the Park with George which marks something for me that’s huge,” he states, also citing Nightcrawler as a key moment (“I was experimenting with a number of ideas and techniques... and I loved those words so much; I was sad to let them go). He pauses for a long time. “I remember when I was working on (2005 war drama) Jarhead with Sam Mendes — he was the first director that powered me as an actor, really took no excuses for my insecurities and just asked for a leader. I think that was, at a young age, a huge lesson.”
This particular experience recently came full circle for Gyllenhaal following Stronger’s premiere at Spaulding rehabilitation centre in Boston earlier this year during an encounter with the father of Michelle Kerr, the physical therapist who got Bauman walking again.
“He’s about 90 — he looked at me, put his hand out and said, ‘Are you the star of the picture?’ I shook his hand and I said, ‘Yes sir, I am’. I think there’s something very honourable in that. I felt that way with Sam.”
Gyllenhaal’s already completed two roles that look set to embolden his status as both leading man and character actor.
He’ll next star opposite Carey Mulligan in Wildfire, the directorial debut of Paul Dano charting the breakdown of a marriage through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy as well as dark Western comedy The Sister Brothers from A Prophet director Jacques Audiard. “It’s been 20 years I’ve been doing this which is extraordinary,” he tells me. “I’m beyond lucky to do it... just don’t tell anybody, I’m a little superstitious.”
Stronger is in cinemas today