Jake Gyllenhaal

Is it too early for an Oscar campaign? Never. Last December, we caught a first glimpse of Jake Gyllenhaal in character for Southpaw. He plays a welterweight boxer (meaning he’s heavier than lightweight but not quite to middleweight status) whose life hits a few rock bottoms. His wife gets killed, and he loses custody of their daughter. He has to fight his way back on all levels. Back in 2010, Kurt Sutter talked about the screenplay as a continuation of Eminem’s 8 Mile tale. The movie was originally supposed to star Eminem!

Plans changed, and the movie is now a prestige film. The Weinstein Company acquired the pic, which means Harvey smells Oscar potential. As Pajiba put it, “Southpaw has it all, y’all. It’s Rocky plus a drug-addiction story, a custody battle, a dead wife, another complete body-transformation for Gyllenhaal, and a director (Antoine Fuqua) who got Denzel his Oscar in Training Day.Southpaw is total Oscar bait even though it comes out in July. Some summer movies (2012?s Beasts of the Southern Wild) do make the Oscar lists. And the Academy loves boxers and body transformations, so “check, check.” After Jake lost weight for Nightcrawler and gained weight back for Southpaw, he officially joins the legions of Christan Bale, Jared Leto, and Bradley Cooper in their Oscar-seeking ways.

Jake hasn’t said much about this film yet, but his trainer is talking. Former pro boxer Terry Claybon, spoke with Yahoo! to reveal Jake’s transformation madness. When all was said and done, Jake lost 30 pounds. Then he gained it all back and added 15 more. He worked out with real boxers for six months. For three hours every day, Jake boxed. Then he did “three hours of strengthening, conditioning, and cardio at night.” Every morning, Jake did 1,000 sit-ups. He ended his day with another 1,000. That was before filming even began. Will Jake Gyllenhaal’s gloves reach the same notorious heights as the beige booty shorts? I’m always amazed at how actors will go to such lengths for a gold statuette, but hey. Their bodies, their future metabolisms.

P.S. Jake signed on to this year’s Cannes jury. He joins Sienna Miller, Guillermo del Toro, Sophie Marceau, and Joel and Ethan Cohen.

Here’s the Southpaw trailer, which looks like a tear jerker for sure.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Photos courtesy of Weinstein Films, Fame/Flynet & WENN

Jake Gyllenhaal Touches Down At LAX
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