The supporting actor race is expected to be crowded. Jared Leto, Casey Affleck and Jake Gyllenhaal all underwent dramatic transformations to get into character and their work could mean an Oscar.
Staying in character requires commitment. Among this year’s crop of supporting actor Oscar hopefuls, Jake Gyllenhaal, for his role as a police detective hunting for missing children in “Prisoners,” covered his body with temporary tattoos. In the blue-collar drama “Out of the Furnace,” Casey Affleck got bruised in bare-knuckle boxing sessions. Bradley Cooper endured an unfortunate, but period-appropriate, perm in “American Hustle.” And Jared Leto lost more than 30 pounds and shaved off his eyebrows, among other make-unders, to play a transgender AIDS patient in “Dallas Buyers Club.”
Jake Gyllenhaal in Prisoners
The twisty, suspenseful “Prisoners” is full of thrills, but none more enduring than the way stars Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal ignite against one another. This particular feat of casting leaves audiences wondering why it hasn’t happened before, and perhaps sorry that their shared screen time is so brief in the film that sees Jackman as a frantic father looking to find his missing daughter, and Gyllenhaal as the police detective on the case. The Envelope talked with both men over tea in New York about their particular chemistry, the moral ambiguities of the script, working with director Denis Villenueve and costars Viola Davis and Terrence Howard — and their own personal injuries.
If you’ve been following the entertainment news lately, you may have overheard a little diddy about Jake Gyllenhaal punching a mirror. While filming Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal became so wound up in a scene that he punched a mirror hard enough to require an emergency hospital visit and a few stitches. When we caught up with the actor earlier today to talk about his heroically damaged performance as Detective Loki in Prisoners, we had to ask about the mirror and his hand, which is still bandaged up.
