Jake Gyllenhaal is quickly becoming an actor who's accustomed to having to do a lot more than memorize lines for his roles.
The "Nightcrawler" star went through a complete physical transformation for his next role in "Southpaw" as a championship prize fighter. The movie is directed by Antonine Fuqua, MTV reported on Saturday.
Gyllenhaal steps into the ring with six pack abs and 15 extra pounds of ripped muscle all around. His bloodied scowl will also convince viewers that he's actually Junior Middleweight Champion Bill "The Great" Hope, who hopes to return to his old self after experiencing a tragedy.
Gyllenhaal joins actors like Denzel Washington, Robert De Niro and Mark Wahlberg who have gone through extreme physical changes for their roles.
Fuqua said Gyllenhaal went so far as to break up with his girlfriend because of his training schedule and hopes that the new role will change viewer's perception of him as a leading man. The director will also be casting Gyllenhaal in "The Man Who Made It Snow."
"I'm so pumped, man," Fuqua told Deadline. "Jake is going to change how people see him. I had him training twice a day in the boxing ring, he did two-a-days seven days a week. I pretty much had him with me and my trainer every day. I took him to almost every fight. I had him train at Floyd Mayweather's gym in Vegas and we watched Floyd's fights, and the Manny Pacquiao fight. He trained in New York at Church Gym with real fighters."
