Jake Gyllenhaal’s 5 Best Performances

His accolades include 1 BAFTA, 1 Oscar nomination and 2 Golden Globe nominations

Jake Gyllenhaal’s career kicked off 1991’s City Slickers. From there grew to be globally known in films such Donnie Darko and The Day After Tomorrow.

Question is, which of his screen appearances show his acting abilities? We at ScreenHeads have put our Gyllenhaal knowledge together and concocted our list of his top 5 performances. Read below and see if you agree…

5. Robert Graysmith in Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher’s mystery thriller tells the real life story of series killer The Zodiac Killer, whose murders took place in the late 60s and early 70s. The Donnie Darko star portrays Robert Graysmith, who in real life wrote the book which the film is based on.

Gyllenhaal portrays Graysmith as a cartoonist turned man obsessed with uncovering the identity of The Zodiac. Gyllenhaal was actually Fincher’s first choice for the role.

4. Quentin Beck/Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

In the sequel to Tom Holland’s first solo outing as the web slinger, Gyllenhaal plays Quentin Beck. A disgraced ex-Stark industries employee, Beck uses his own technology to fool the world into thinking he is the superhero everyone needs.

Almost playing the title character for Spider-Man 2, its fair to say Gyllenhaal flexes a lot better as the villain. He plays the switch from heroic do-gooder to driven sociopath extremely well. Gyllenhaal can now also be credited for being the first person to play this character in a live-action project.

3. Jeff Bauman in Stronger (2017)

A biographical drama directed by David Gordon Green. This tells the story of a man who loses his legs due to being caught in the Boston bombings. Gyllenhaal portrays Bauman as he tries to adjust to life without the ability to walk.

Watching as he plays the emotional blow of the characters trauma is one of the most powerful performances you’ll see. Green socks were worn to digitally erase his legs in various scenes. Gyllenhaal also prepared for the role in various ways; he studied Bauman’s ability to move without using aids, researched the effects of PTSD and also researched the effects of losing one’s legs.

2. Billy Hope in Southpaw (2015)

This drama, directed by Antoine Fuqua, tells the story of fictional boxer Billy Hope as he tries to get his life back on track after his wife is killed and his daughter is taken out of his care.

The role is one of Gyllenhaal’s most challenging roles from a physical standpoint; he trained twice a day, 7 days a week in order to gain fifteen pounds of muscle for the role, just after losing weight for his role in Nightcrawler.

Rapper Eminem was actually the first choice for this role, and even began filming. However, he wished to focus more on his music career and so dropped out, which gave us Gyllenhaal’s involvement and the 21st century’s equivalent to Rocky.

1. Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler (2014)

By far Gyllenhaal’s most intense role yet. Directed by Dan Gilroy, this film tells of the story of a deranged con man who is desperate for work, and so learns the ins and outs of crime journalism which causes him to get….extremely involved in his work let’s say.

Gyllenhaal is terrifying and unnerving as Bloom, creating a character that is far different from his usual ‘boy next door’ or general good guy roles. The actor lost twenty pounds for the role, which was his own choice as he envisioned Bloom as a ‘hungry coyote’.

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Think some of Gyllenhaal’s other performances deserved a spot? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Gyllenhaal can next be seen in Barry Levinson’s Francis and the Godfather.