Jake Gyllenhaal does not find acting hard

A decade has come and gone since Jake Gyllenhaal shared an on-screen kiss with the late Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, the film that’s been called a “watershed moment” in mainstream moviemaking. While Eminem dropped out of the project to focus on his music, he executive produced the “Southpaw” soundtrack and recorded songs for it including “Phenomenal” and “Kings Never Die” featuring Gwen Stefani. He was very thin and limp as he just done his film Nightcrawler – in which he played scavenging Louis Bloom who found a career as a nocturnal journalist/cameraman. “Im super-excited to be a part of it and I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for coming out.”. The only way for Billy to get back on track and regain custody of his daughter is to jump back into the ring and literally fight for his life. He said. I’m not sharp enough to just show up and deliver. “So I remember being in the front row with 50 and Jake’s team and Jake got actually hit in the face and we all went [gasps] and I was like, ‘Oh that’s not what my character would do!”

Other actors, who have gone on to score big awards for their transformations, include the likes of Matthew McConaughey who shed 38lbs for his role in Dallas Buyers Club and Christian Bale for his role in 2004 in The Machinist, which saw him drop 63lbs.

The 34-year-old actor stuck to a gruelling regime to portray boxer Billy Hope in the upcoming sports flick, doing 2000 sit-ups a day as well as running eight miles five times a week.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I was, well, forget about what I was talking about ’cause this is a lot better now, ‘” he says to HipHopDX during the Southpaw media day in Los Angeles. The first two weeks of filming were dedicated to shooting the dramatic scenes in the ring, showing him taking real punches while surrounded by a roaring crowd. He didn’t have a stunt double.

In fact Jake was so into the training that even onscreen partner, Rachel McAdams, decided to join in too!

Before you know it, he hits the bottle, loses his title, and gets dumped by his callous management. The rapper met director Antoine Fuqua through LaLa Anthony, who worked out at the gym where the Fuqua and Gyllenhaal were training.

With Gyllenhal and Rachel McAdams in lead roles, Southpaw is set to release on July 24.