Jake Gyllenhaal blows up in 'Southpaw'
NEW YORK — Even Jake Gyllenhaal’s on-screen daughter was astounded when she saw how ripped he became to play a boxing champion in Southpaw.
“I knew he was going to buff up and have to punch a lot of people. It was kind of freaky seeing that side of him,” says Oona Laurence.
But then, Gyllenhaal went one further and took her in the ring with him. “I got to see how they did it. I’d never experienced boxing before. It was scary but very interesting,” says Laurence, best known for her turn in Broadway's Matilda the Musical.
In Southpaw (in theaters Friday), she’s the adoring and adored offspring of Billy Hope, a fighter whose life and career collapse after the unexpected death of his wife (Rachel McAdams). Laurence and Gyllenhaal met at one of her last auditions. They did a bit of improv. And familial sparks flew.
“We kind of look alike. We have kind of the same nose. A little. When we did the scene, it was very natural and I thought we could be seen as father and daughter,” says Laurence, 12, during a joint interview at the Crosby Street Hotel.
At the heart of the film is the connection between father and daughter, temporarily severed when she’s taken away from him after he suffers a mental breakdown. Every scene, says Gyllenhaal, was there to support that premise. Take the crucial courtroom encounter in which Billy realizes that his kid is going into foster care. Director Antoine Fuqua told the actors to physically keep Gyllenhaal from getting to Laurence.
“Everybody was doing their part to keep us apart. Antoine put four guys — two cops and two stunt guys — and told them to not let me get away. (One guy) hits my head into the table. He had his arm in my back and on my neck and it was hurting so much,” says Gyllenhaal.
If that sounds overly precious, it’s not. Gyllenhaal, 34, isn’t one to wax artistic about his work. But he does strive to keep everything as real and tenable as possible, which meant physically reshaping himself to look like an actual boxer, as opposed to a Hollywood version of one. In person, Gyllenhaal is cerebral and articulate, but he tapped into his other qualities to play Billy.
“As much as I like to talk, which is an annoyance sometimes, I find myself relatively shy, actually. I got to bring that part of who I am to this character,” he says. “Billy was not far away from me at all in a lot of ways. His articulation comes in the ring, so I focused so much on the physical because I knew I would be able to be articulate in the ring and not so much the verbal. I created a lot of physical obstacles for myself. I made it difficult to see or speak. The prosthetics helped with those things.”
Gyllenhaal never cuts corners, says David Ayer, who directed him in 2012’s cop drama End of Watch — the film that redirected and reinvigorated Gyllenhaal’s career after 2010’s ill-advised Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
“You had an actor who was ready for a transformation, just ready for a change in how they see themselves and how they see their career. He’s very savvy,” says Ayer. “He has an intellectual grasp of filmmaking and marketing and the business. It’s not every guy who can see where they’re going, make a sharp turn, and then launch like that. The dude has serious acting horsepower. He’s a good dude.”
Above all, adds McAdams, “He’s very much about the process and the journey and not just the end product. He wants to enjoy what he’s doing and have an epic experience."
Next up for Gyllenhaal: playing the lead in Tom Ford’s thriller Nocturnal Animals, opposite Amy Adams. He’s single, but is the uncle to sister Maggie’s daughters Ramona and Gloria, and hopes to someday have his own passel of kids. Laurence, meanwhile, has wrapped the fantasy drama Pete’s Dragon, co-starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Robert Redford. When she’s not shooting, Laurence goes a regular Manhattan school, and during this conversation, her dad sits nearby, reading a book.
“The emphasis on her education is such an amazing thing,” says Gyllenhaal, who also started out as a child actor whose parents insisted on an education and a normal upbringing around kids his own age. “It shaped me and my priorities. It’s really nice to see that. Growing up as a young kid in a business full of adults is a funny thing. She’s got a good dad, protecting her. I admire that. It’s important to be protected, no matter what.”