Why Jake Gyllenhaal is the Bravest Actor of our Generation

this video is brought to you by mubi get a whole month free at movie.com do Cinema excuse me sir [Music] I'm looking for a job my motto is if you want to win the lottery you have to make the money to buy a ticket you have to make the money to buy a ticket you have to make the money to buy a ticket Jake Gyllenhaal he's one of my favorite actors working today and from a very young age he's been delivering some amazing memorable and relatable performances I wouldn't say he's an underrated actor but in my opinion his work doesn't quite get the recognition it deserves why so in this video we're going to be discussing his filmography from his least famous roles to the most famous ones and find out what makes Jake gyllenal such a great performer and seeing as I'm going to be saying his name a million times like I did with Ryan Gosling let's start with the elephant in a room they'll name Joan Hall I never know if I'm pronouncing it correctly it is a Swedish name is it not it is a Swedish name so shouldn't it be like oh my God the only two places that that is pronounced correctly my last name like you did just now is in Sweden and in Ikea so who is Jake Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin gillenal was born on December 19th of 1980 in Los Angeles because his father was a director and his mother was a screenwriter he was exposed to the art of filmmaking very early on in his life his sister Maggie Gyllenhaal is also an actress who you might know from playing Rachel in Batman The Dark Knight and also plays his sister in Donnie Darko when Jake was 11 he made his acting debut showing off his shoulder popping skills in the comedy movie City Slickers and after that started making appearances in a few of his father's movies some interesting facts Gyllenhaal was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine and was selected as the sexiest man of 2018. I mean you can't deny it bro looks Majestic he also dated Taylor Swift who made a few songs about him after they broke up he dropped out of University after studying Eastern religions and philosophy to focus on his acting career and last but not least he was among the top picks to become Batman and Spider-Man I I auditioned for a lot of Classics that I didn't I'm not in however there's a lesson in that even though he did later play in some Blockbusters like day after tomorrow or Prince of Persia and eventually Mysterio in Spider-Man those are not his best performances instead he played in a lot of independent Art House films and that's exactly where his power lies these more challenging roles like Brokeback Mountain Donnie Darko Nightcrawler End of Watch and many more gave him the opportunity to experiment and grow tremendously as an actor we saw this with Robert Pattinson as well who for some time only wanted to take on Independent Productions like good time high life and the lighthouse it's almost like the lower the box office of gelena's movies the better the performance gets so let's shine some light on his career check out his best performances over the years and see the full evolution of Jake gelino Jake had two major breakthrough roles at the beginning of his career October Sky and Donnie Darko showing two different sides of him October Sky was an immediate hit telling a wholesome story about a boy's passion for rocket science Donnie Darko on the other hand was the complete opposite it wasn't a a box office success on its release and it tells the story of a psychologically troubled teenager and then Donnie Darko came up and I was like oh this feels like my high school experience but when people became tired of seeing the typical high school stories a few years later Donnie Darko became a cult classic these two movies laid the foundations for Jake's acting style because it's oftentimes the subtleties of his facial expressions and the use of his lucious eyes in his performances that we will see a lot more of in his later films started looking at the randomizer chin down looking at him in a particular way I think because of the angle of where the camera was in the close-up and then eventually became you know a choice that my character made every time he saw the rabbit and it's those little things that I've learned to trust over time those little weird instinctual things character-wise that I go oh why is that showing oh I'm going to use that you know to develop his range as an actor even more he went on to play in theater to quote himself every actor I look up to has done theater work so I knew I had to give it a try he practiced with different accents learned how to sing and fast forward to the present he has played on the biggest stages like West End and Broadway now during his teenage years he also made a few romantic dramas playing an emo kid working in a supermarket and then something magical happened you know how Shakespeare created Hamlet Homer wrote the Odyssey while Jake Gyllenhaal created Bubble Boy this movie is really wild and it's basically one big meme but it was actually so good that they had to bring it back for his role as Mysterio in Spider-Man far from home wait wait yes I know but it's not Bubble Boy anymore it's Bubble Man bubble man oh snap in 2002 he had a quick dinner with Jared Leto AKA Paul Allen in a movie Highway before staring in his first Blockbuster movie The Day After Tomorrow another Martini paw his career took a turn in 2005 because this is when we start seeing him take on more risky decisions as an actor and just roles with them showing the world that he can play any character convincingly Brokeback Mountain is often jokingly referred to as the gay cowboy movie but it is more than that it was a pivotal moment for Jake he played a gay character for the first time together with Heath Ledger which was quite a bold career decision but more than 10 years ago a lot of actors didn't want to play a gay role now everybody does he knew he was going to take part in a very important story however in this interview he explained that he didn't fully realize the impact it would have when it was released a story has the power beyond anything that you think you have control over or part of the story is the power and when it goes out into the world it becomes everyone else's and so you have a short time with it and that's my job and my honor to do and then it is everyone else's the movie received three Academy Awards and earned Jake his only Oscar nomination ever for best supporting actor criminal right it's after this movie that Jake realized a true power a story can have and started working even harder and reaching his true potential as an actor so this is where all that power is coming from interesting Jarhead this movie planted a seed not only is it the first of many movies where Jake takes an angry shower by himself and rethinks life it's also the first of many military or police related movies he later plays in such as End of Watch zodiac prisoners Brothers the guilty and his latest movie The Covenant the reason he is drawn to playing military figures is not only because he expresses great admiration for their bravery but in terms of acting he is drawn to roles of people operating under extreme circumstances as it brings out the humanity in people in Jarhead he delivers a very raw performance showing the emotional toll on an individual of living in such a disturbing environment in brother staring Toby Maguire we see him dealing with the PTSD of his brother after fighting in Afghanistan but for End of Watch he took it a step further and actually worked as a police officer in La for several months training with officers and even accompanied them to crime scenes and what I saw just changed me forever to see the work that they do to be with them watching them do their work to be in sometimes very dangerous situations and also beautiful situations to see human behavior at its most tried sometimes changed everything and the way I see the world so I look at that as a very very particular moment in my life and my career something I needed in 2021 he played into guilty which is another really intense role playing an isolated 911 police dispatcher and in 2022 he starred in Ambulance by Michael Bay which is basically a two-hour five-star gthas in an ambulance now with the movie Zodiac another seed was planted because Jake later Masters the genre of the psychological Thriller such as imprisoners enemy Nightcrawler and nocturnal animals it's on this film that Jake learned that filmmaking is a director's medium and that actors serve the director especially in the case of David Fincher who is known for pushing his actors to the extreme it's raining and I run up to this door and I'm trying to get information and we shot the scene twice and we shot it probably over at 50K mix of it I remember I never really got that scene and if I did or if he did I never did which is an interesting thing as an actor one hilarious fact about this movie is that for the close-ups of Jake's Knuckles David Fincher added some hair with CGI because he thought that Jake's hairless Knuckles looked too perfect the thing that Jake does best is his dedication of carving out the characters and fully embodying them a technique called method acting in which an actor strives for complete emotional identification with a character and what's next is probably the greatest Trilogy of back to back Peak Performance prisoners enemy and Nightcrawler prisoners Ryan Gosling actually auditioned for the role of detective Loki and to be honest officer K would have worked just as well Jake and Ryan are two actors that perfectly play characters that are indifferent and emotionally dislocated they both have this humoristic goofy yet stoid personality that makes them literally me but villanov went with Jake in the end because he had experience as a policeman from his previous movies and introduced a whole backstory for the character her he came up with facial tics to show the stress of the character and little details like tattoos and jewelry to make him seem like a real person though subtle performances especially the use of his bright blue eyes is what sets him apart in Donnie Darko he used his sleepy eyes combined with the kubricks there to show his madness he used the eye twitch in prisoners to indicate stress he literally never blinked a Nightcrawler having his eyes wide open like a hungry coyote and in nocturnal animals the constant Devastation in his red teary eyes are juxtaposed with his happy bright eyes when life was still good never lied enemy an enemy Jake took method acting so far that he literally became himself playing his own doppelganger really impressive as he plays both main characters very distinctly from one another all while not trying to be his actual self Nightcrawler I've seen this movie like what four times now and as a cameraman myself I think of this movie every time I'm on the job Jake's pre-production research included heading out after dark with this man Howard rashbloomer Germany junkie I love the breaking news he's a real life Los Angeles Nightcrawler who for 15 years has been roaming these streets and selling his video he started Living a lot at night like a werewolf and put himself on a salad diet to look like a hungry coyote Lou Bloom plays these characters like chess manipulating them for his own good no matter the costs yeah I didn't say what the job was it's a fine opportunity for some lucky someone oftentimes like in this later movie stronger and nocturnal animals he starts off playing this charming guy but over time we see him get more caught up in himself until he explodes and Reveals His True side the performance was so real that a piece of Lou Bloom might still be left inside of him I was just deeply devoted to that character and that story and yeah the the side effects of it it's like it takes a bit of time to shake it off but you know in the end is just acting you know what that reminded me of how long do the characters stay in your head do they ever leave I don't know really all jokes aside if something like this doesn't deserve an Oscar or at least a nomination I don't know what does but it didn't stop there to shake off the disappointment of not receiving an Oscar nomination he went on to play a boxer fighting his way back to the top in Southpaw the physical transformation from Nightcrawler to this is insane but more importantly the preparation shows his discipline and mindset as a great actor Jake and I trained eight hours a day you know for a month and a half two months live like boxers Clean Diet clean lifestyle didn't go out I mean I'd get to the gym you know I think and I'd be the first one there and he'd already run like seven miles you know and learn the choreography and all that yeah it was it was intense I think I look at it all those things as a challenge and you get to learn a new skill and I thought if I work really hard I might not look like a fool you know so I just tried to work as hard as I could he wasn't joking when he said what I believe sir is that good things come to those who work their asses off and that people such as yourself who reach the top of the mountain didn't just fall there the boxer's mentality stuck with him over the years and he's currently filming a UFC movie titled Roadhouse which was partially shot during breaks of actual UFC fights Jake loves a good challenge and to push himself even further he filmed on the slopes of Mount Everest and then he went on an adventure together with Bear Grylls yeah it's uh pretty high but pushing yourself this far eventually takes its stall according to Jake he pushed himself over the edge for the movie stronger this time not physically but on a purely psychological level playing a character who has lost his legs in a bombing that is based on a true story I [ __ ] showed up for you I showed up I was standing there for you I can't do it why do you even want me why I'm such a [ __ ] up acting is like all about imagination and there's a lot of talk about like oh commitment and um uh you know method acting and you know how far do you go and blah blah blah everybody's favorite conversation but it is a conversation that's had a lot and I just believe so deeply in your imagination that's the fun it's like the play it's what you need and I had lost it in that moment and I and it threw me for a number of days because I went so far and I just realized that that's not acting to me anymore in recent years Jill and all's choices don't suggest an obsession with Academy recognition he seems to be more focused on playing characters that represent a challenge for him while also feeling true to himself working with directors he has worked with such as Dan Gilroy from Nightcrawler who wrote the script for felvet bus saw what did or even want I'll tell you what I did like also reuniting with actors such as his body res Ahmed from Nightcrawler we know each other no I don't think so or with actors years work with turning into directors such as baldano from prisoners for his debut titled wildlife and working with completely new directors like bong Joong ho for okja who created parasite but most importantly it was also time to throw out all the seriousness and have fun again see that wasn't so hard [Applause] somebody get this stupid costume off me it is easy to question the projects that Jake has chosen in the last few years but despite this the quality of his performances have never really been lacking till this day I think Demolition and nocturnal animals are its most underrated performances while also being among the lowest box office movies of Jake in demolition he plays a man who tries to turn his life around after his wife passed away but one day he decides to stop whining goes out and touches some grass starts destroying his old house and begins working on himself to become a new man [Music] and nocturnal animals directed by fashion Guru Tom Ford is a movie that manages to kind of reach the Nightcrawler type levels an unrequited love story mixed with the Ambiance of No Country for all of men staring Jake gyllenau on a quest to take revenge it's in these type of movies that jillianal is at his best when a capable director knows how to use him and when he gets the freedom to add layers to the story this is why he's often credited as a producer as well and started his own production company to fund movies in order to let other people tell their story Jilla now has proven that he can literally play any type of character from playing in comedies and fantasy to psychological thrillers and Broadway Productions but what makes his performances feel so real is that he puts a lot of time and effort into figuring out who his characters are off screen from the way they talk to the way they walk even to the way they blink building a full picture that he can then deconstruct for the audience and build it back up and that is what makes Jake Gyllenhaal such a great performer but remember I will never ask you to do anything that I wouldn't do myself [Music] what I believe sir is that good things come to those who work their asses off so no matter how the academy decides to treat him he will always be Jake is gelena [Music] to Kickstart your greatest Gyllenhaal Journey check out the movie podcast and our season Needle on the record which has an entire episode on the music in Donnie Darko including its cover of Tears for Fears Mad World the season looks at Stories Behind Some of Cinema's most iconic Movie music moments and you can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts and to check out some of Maggie's work Lenny abrahamson's Frank is streaming a movie in the US or Spike Jones adaptation is streaming in the Netherlands movie is a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great Cinema a place to discover ambitious new films and singular voices from Iconic directors to emerging hunters and the best thing is that they are all carefully hand-picked by movie curators streaming anytime anywhere or anytime anywhere we work Jewish holidays anytime anywhere you can try movie free for 30 days at movie.com do Cinema it's mubi.com do Cinema for an entire month of great Cinema for free foreign [Music]

Channel: Du Cinema

Views: 805,137

Keywords: jake gyllenhaal, jake gyllenhaal funny moments, jake gyllenhaal movies, jake gyllenhaal ufc, jake gyllenhaal interview, jake gyllenhaal movies 2023, jake gyllenhaal movies list, ryan reynolds funny, ryan reynolds interview, donnie darko, donnie darko explained

Id: B_H3be06mWo

Length: 17min 47sec (1067 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/StableGeniusCovfefe]

Sounds like someone has a crush on David...🥰😍🤩

[u/Physical-Ad-3798]

He'll always be Bubbleboy to me.

[u/ramencents]

Fan made Gyolenhaal maybe 😂