Jake Gyllenhaal as a buffed-up boxer in ‘Southpaw’: unrecognizable?

Jake Gyllenhaal

Believe it or not, this is a photo of Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw. Can you see tell that it’s him? I’m seeing Gerard Butler without the port-o-potty. Jake plays a middleweight boxer (named Billy Hope) looking for redemption after a personal tragedy. According to Deadline, Jake packed 15 pounds of muscle onto his existing frame. What’s amazing about this transformation is that Gyllenhaal was about 30 pounds underweight for Nightcrawler, which filmed last October. Jake was nominated for a Spirit Award for that role, and he was reportedly phenomenal in the role of a blood-seeking journalist.

So Jake gained back all his lost weight and added 15 pounds of muscle, in only a few months. Southpaw is currently in post-production. This is the same movie where Rita Ora is “breathtaking” (according to Harvey Weinstein), and I can’t see Rita in an Oscar picture. But that must be what Jake is chasing, right? Awards and accolades. Actors do these major physical transformations (“pulling a Bale”) for a reason, and the Academy loves it.

Director Antoine Fuqua reveals that Jake “train[ed] twice a day in the boxing ring, he did two-a-days seven days a week” with real fighters. He trained in Vegas and NYC and treated this role as a real “sacrifice.” If this movie fares well with critics, Jake will probably nab some nominations. Boxer characters are often viewed sympathetically when award season arrives. Fuqua adds that Jake and his SI-model girlfriend broke up because Jake spent all his time at the gym. Now that’s dedication.

Here’s Jake at LAX on 11/4. He still looks bulked-up but closer to his normal weight.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Here’s Jake last October during the filming of Nightcrawler.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Photos courtesy of Escape Artists, Fame/Flynet & WENN

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46 Responses to “Jake Gyllenhaal as a buffed-up boxer in ‘Southpaw’: unrecognizable?”

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  1. Kiddo says:

    I’m seeing Gerard Butler without the port-o-potty.

    Now I can’t see anything else. Damn you, Bedhead. Also, that was a pretty quick bulk-up. Not everyone can produce muscle mass like that. I wonder if he had ‘help’.

    • pretty says:

      Human Growth Hormons… or steroids… definitely.

    • Adrien says:

      Got help from Mr. Roids.

    • Allison says:

      If Pratt can do it, Jake can do it. Let’s not set double standards.

      And Jake was starting from waify so he could build the muscle however was needed. Especially with that amount of time in the gym with lots of protein, he could have totally done it without roids. He always struck me as someone who was active, holistic, and spiritual. I don’t think he’s roids guy at all.

      • Kiddo says:

        Maybe Pratt had help. How does a Pratt argument come into play?

      • Artemis says:

        Pratt had 6 months and fat to work with. His weight went from chubby to in shape most of the time. Very different from Jake who was underweight so he had to gain a normal weight first and then go into severe workouts to add muscle + his transformation came relatively quickly after the weight loss. That’s a lot to take for a body.

        Pratt’s transformations had a bit more time inbetween them and his body wasn’t suffering all the time.

    • Bedhead says:

      It’s true! Now you can’t unsee it.

      • Kiddo says:

        Please give the poor guy some roughage and fiber. All that straining is not good.

        And also, there will eventually be retribution.

    • Greek Chic says:

      What is port-o-potty????

      • Kiddo says:

        A temporary toilet in a box. The kind you see at events, like concerts or marathons, etc.

      • Greek Chic says:

        @Kiddo So i guess there’s a story about Gerald Butler and a toilet in a box??? Damn i just discovered Celebitchy some months ago, i am behind in gossips… :-/

      • Kiddo says:

        Pfft, no, lol. He Looks like Gerard Butler would if he had been trying to push out a hard poop in a portable toilet. Look at his face.

        *can’t believe I just wrote that, making myself laugh like an idiot. DAMN YOU AGAIN, BEDHEAD*

      • Greek Chic says:

        At first i thought that it would be a diarrhea story (!) at some set of his movies but i found out that GB was banging girls in toillets at Coachella.I didn’t know that…Yikes!

        Hmmm i think GP is easy at pooping…

      • Kiddo says:

        Oh that’s really disgusting. You know more gossip than I want to know.
        Yeuch, sexy times in a stink chamber.

    • AG-UK says:

      Yes I think you can without help… must eat every few hours (would say 6000+ calories a day) all the time and work out like a fool = Hugh Jackman he gets HUGE bigger than Jake but it does take a toll on his lovely looks.

      • Kiddo says:

        It depends a lot on genetics/body type.

      • Bridget says:

        You can without help, but the likelihood that any of these guys are getting as bulked up as they are without any additional help is low. It doesn’t mean that they’re not dedicated gym rats, so much as the chemical assistance helps make their gym time that much more effective.

  2. Artemis says:

    His poor heart. At what point does it become stupid and reckless doing physical transformations instead of ‘Method’ and dedicated? There’s no reason to put your body under such distress for art.

    Also, I don’t believe for one second that quick weight loss/bulking up is done naturally. Don’t they take steroids to aid them in the process of bulking up? Weight loss, well there is plenty of ‘help’ in Hollywood when it comes to that…

    Lastly, his career might be flourishing with all these great roles (he is a great actor to be honest) but he’s deffo sacrificing his good looks for it because papi hasn’t been looking as good as he used to. His body in that first picture looks like an older body that got in shape. This is melting Mickey Rourke-Benjamin Button levels of disturbing. Yikes.

    • lirko says:

      Ya…that level of weight gain /loss is really hard on your organs, right? Also, for most people, muscle is hard to come by…I’m thinking that amount of growth in that time frame…highly unlikely he did it without help

    • kibbles says:

      His weight loss/gain has definitely done something to his face. I guess ageing has something to do with it but I noticed that his face started looking worse after he lost all that weight for Nightcrawler and he hasn’t looked as good since then.

  3. Lilacflowers says:

    I saw Nightcrawler a few weeks ago and this doesn’t even look like the same guy. BTW, he is amazingly creepy in Nightcrawler. A brilliant performance.

    • Gea says:

      Yes, I like his performance in Nightcrawler. I always wondered, Why this guy have such a bad press?

    • Sunny says:

      God, he was so so great in that movie. I am still thinking of his creepy, greedy, grasping, performance.

      Jake is a really good actor. He has been choosing some good roles over the last 3 or 4 years,

      Did you see Enemy?

    • Kali says:

      He is SO GOOD in “Nightcrawler” but I will never ever see that movie again. It’s brilliant but so creepy.

  4. Jess says:

    He looks great but that kind of flip flopping can’t be good for his body, I’ll help him feel better though. 😉

  5. Adrien says:

    Wasn’t this the movie that was first offered to Eminem? BTW, Jake was so good in Nightcrawler. He wasn’t gimmicky, he was really good.

  6. M says:

    Nightcrawler filming lasted only in October. He had more than a few months to Southpaw.

  7. Jenny says:

    He is super thirsting for an Oscar.

    • Anne says:

      Oh, I didn’t want to say it – because good for him for challenging himself and trying different things – but that was my gut reaction too. Too obvious.

      Also, am I the only one who thinks his image has never really recovered from that cheesy Thanksgiving romance with Taylor Swift?

  8. Frida_K says:

    I have a long background in fitness. My stability in life came from the gym when I was a teenager and young adult. When I see hardcore gym guys, I see substitute dads and big brothers. To me, they are really good folks.

    So no shade, although I don’t see a dad or a brother here: ole Jakey is juicing. Mmmhmm. He did not get this way by doing twice-a-days and eating nothing but broiled chicken breast, cottage cheese and tuna fish mix, and/or protein shakes on schedule.

  9. A. Key says:

    Meh, he looks much better as a scrawny kid. This isn’t appealing at all to me.

    Btw, everyone go see Nightcrawler!

  10. Lori says:

    Phyiscally, the best he ever looked was in “love and other drugs”. He looked so good in that movie. I’m not much interested in the roidy or scrawny Jake.

  11. GiGi says:

    I’m glad his face was able to make the rebound (on a purely superficial level, obvs) unlike Matthew McC(sp?) who just never looked the same after Dallas Buyers Club.

    I like that Jake seems to be making some meaty films these days.

  12. Bridget says:

    I don’t think I’d describe Jake G as a guy desperate for an Oscar – he’s been doing interesting stuff like this for a while now (Zodiac, End of Watch, Prisoners) but for some reason the physical stuff is what garners the most attention.

    • Lori says:

      ^^This. I feel like he walked away from the block buster style movies (Prince of Persia) because nobody wanted to see him in that style of role anyway, and performance wise he was getting what he wanted out of it.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      I like that he is doing those kinds of movies…that is completely my style! I’ll take an interesting character based drama over exploding blockbusters any day.

    • Jessica says:

      Agree. He’s making really great films, but they aren’t very Oscar friendly. Enemy, Prisoners and End of Watch didn’t even get any awards buzz despite being some of the best films of their respective years. If awards were his goal he’d have moved away from the interesting, arty films and towards the generic biopics by now.

  13. Blythe says:

    He’s definitely using steroids. There’s no getting around that. He looks good now.

  14. I Choose Me says:

    I love Jake and I’ll watch anything he’s in. Go see Nightcrawler!

  15. Coco says:

    The film sounds interesting and after Prisoners, Enemy and Nightcrawler I will definitely see whatever he is in. This movie has The Weinstein Company behind it tho, I hope Weinstein doesn’t “prostitute” him as much as he is doing with the Cumberboy this year.

  16. Kali says:

    Butler? Hmmm. I honestly thought it was a really buff Scott Foley for quite a while…

  17. Tig says:

    Sorry, but boxer movies are just the pits. I get Oscar voters supposedly love them, but to me that well is totally tapped out( yes, it is a bad pun). I second the ‘roid vote- no way that happens as quickly as it reportedly did.

  18. Antonym says:

    The difference between the Nightcrawler & Southpaw physiques is startling. It’s like Rob Lowe & skinny arms Rob Lowe.