How Boston Is Jake Gyllenhaal? Think Jimmy Fallon, Not Mark Wahlberg
On the scale of how “Boston’’ a celebrity is, Jake Gyllenhaal is more Jimmy Fallon than Mark Wahlberg. It’s more of a Boston-at-heart kind of deal for the non-local.
“Nightcrawler’’ star Jake Gyllenhaal posed for a photograph at The Ritz-Carlton in Boston on Oct. 25.
Gyllenhaal stopped by the Boston Common theater on Oct. 25 to surprise the audience at a preview screening for his new movie “Nightcrawler,’’ and the star revealed to Boston.com some of the ties he has with the city.
Like a true Bostonian, Gyllenhaal spent many summers as a kid vacationing with his family on the Cape and in Martha’s Vineyard. The actor tries to relive those memories whenever he takes a trip to the Boston area.
“Every time I fly over… I land in Boston and drive to the Cape or wherever I go,’’ Gyllenhaal said. “That drive is always where I feel like my heart is here.’’
As one of the more down-to-earth figures in Hollywood, Gyllenhaal doesn’t share too many traits with the stereotypical Masshole. He couldn’t tell you where the nearest T stop is if he tried, but, after chatting with him last weekend, I can say he’s as blunt as any Bostonian fighting for a seat on the Green Line.
Gyllenhaal wouldn’t give me a taste of his Boston accent (“give me three months of preparation, I think I might be able to pull it off,’’ he said), but he was more than willing to give my feeble try a thorough lashing.
“Yeah, that’s horrible,’’ Gyllenhaal joked after hearing my awful attempt. “I think you should stick to writing.’’
Gyllenhaal is probably used to being on the receiving end of some good-natured ribbing from his long-time best friends who hail from Massachusetts. They aren’t afraid to give him the business when it comes to sports and pretty much forced him into becoming a member of Red Sox nation.
“Some of my closest friends all lived and grew up in Boston or around Boston,’’ Gyllenhaal said. “So, just due to the fact that they are all my boys and they’re all Red Sox fans, I’m a Red Sox fan. I have to be. I have no choice even though I live in New York.’’
Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom in a scene from “Nightcrawler.’’
All kidding aside, ’’Nightcrawler’’ is a serious film that critiques the waning ethics in the local news business.
Gyllenhaal plays a creepy, freelance crime journalist named Lou Bloom in the new flick, and the character is more than willing to compromise his moral compass in order to obtain a story.
The actor says that getting into the mindset of Lou was the most difficult aspect of shooting.
“I think that more so the mentality and the mental state of the character was the strangest, most difficult part,’’ Gyllenhaal said. “The choices he makes and basically driving through people was probably more difficult because it’s not necessarily very close to who I am.’’
Gyllenhaal lost over 30 pounds for the role, a grueling task that the actor says influenced his performance in certain ways.
While he doesn’t think that shedding the weight was as hard as getting into the mind of the character, it clearly had an impact on how he approached playing Lou.
“Being hungry was a big part of the character, not only literally, but figuratively,’’ Gyllenhaal said. “This is a guy who didn’t hesitate in driving through people, he was almost a predator, hungry, searching, scavenging for information, but also ambitious and trying to become successful in the kind of conventional way that we consider success.’’
Despite the challenges, Gyllenhaal calls Lou one of the best characters he’s ever played.
He cites writer-director Dan Gilroy’s thought-provoking screenplay as the reason for why he decided to sign onto the picture.
“It was a brilliant screenplay. He says things that I think are… I totally agree with, weirdly,’’ Gyllenhaal said. “If you want to go back to what I ate while I was not eating, it was the words. They were just extraordinary words, enervating and exciting to say.’’
As for what the actor hopes audiences take away from the film, Gyllenhaal sees Lou becoming one of those classic characters that people will be quoting for years to come.
“I hope they walk out quoting Lou, that’s what I really hope,’’ Gyllenhaal said. “I think that the lines he says in this movie are like those classic lines that we will joke about and we love for decades. I secretly hope he seeps into the status quo and some of his lines become what people say and will reference.’’
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