Jake Gyllenhaal lost around 20 pounds for his latest film role, Nightcrawler, that he’s currently shooting. His extreme weight loss makes him look like some sort of bizarro combo of Jared Leto and Christian Bale with a dash of Scott Disick:
Here’s what he said about losing the weight (from E! News via E Online):
I can only approach things from a mental place. Like I’m playing a character who’s hungry, figuratively and literally, who’s driven in ways to do things and succeed at any cost. And I think that defines a generation in a lot of way so I wanted to get their mentally and then have it transform me physically, because I am not one to rely on science as much as I am on just sort of instinct. That’s sort of the character.
Why is it that when guys lose weight for film roles it’s because they’re playing mentally unstable characters (like Christian Bale in The Machinist) whereas women are just always expected to lose weight no matter the role? Yeah, I went there. Just throwing that question out.
I read somewhere once that when Tom Hanks lost weight for Castaway he did it by eating a few handfuls of rice every day. And that Christian Bale lost his weight for the aforementioned role by only eating apples or something equally ridiculous. But it worked. It’s kind of horrifying how well.
More photos of skinny Gyll are below.
The strangest freak wants an oscar-rrr. Oooohhh..