And now, three things you never knew about Jake Gyllenhaal ...

It's kinda hard to get a handle on Jake Gyllenhaal. He's supremely talented, choosing wildly varying roles, and he's not on the Hollywood scene that much, so it feels like we don't know a lot about him.

On the Independent Spirit Awards brunch on Saturday morning, we caught up with Dan Gilroy, who directed Jake in Nightcrawler, asking him what would we be surprised to know about the actor, who's up for a Golden Globe for his work in the film.

Here's what Gilroy revealed:

Jake is funny

"He's got a tremendous sense of humor. He likes to laugh and he's always looking to make a joke with a little bit of slyness and commentary."

Jake makes a mean Spotify playlist

"He's really into music. He's a musician. Half the time when I'm talking to him, he's like, 'Have you heard this song?' He's very musically inclined, and I think actually that sort of music artistry gets into his performance somehow. ... Anything new, he's listening to. He's always scouring and ... turning me on to something I didn't know about — which is a lot.

Jake's spirit animal? Coyote

"That was his totem animal (in Nightcrawler). He used that because coyotes are lean, and he lost 27 pounds trying to imitate that. But also there's a hunger to a coyote, and I think the character is a very hungry character. It worked really well for him."