Dan Gilroy, writer-director of the noir film Nightcrawler, knew his star, Jake Gyllenhaal, had entered an adventurous new phase as an actor. But he didn’t foresee the emergence of a hair tie.
“One day he goes: ‘Can I put my hair up in a bun?’” recalls Gilroy.
“And you’re looking at him like, ‘Oh my god, he’s putting his hair up in a bun’.”
In Nightcrawler, which opens in March next year, Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a fascinating cinematic creature. He’s an LA drifter who’s anything but aimless. He spends his days on the internet, soaking up the motivational lingo of corporate America, and his nights scavenging in the Valley. Coyotes were an inspiration. With wide-eyed wonder and cut-throat ambition, Lou discovers the sordid business of freelance videography for local TV news, filming murders, fires and fatal car crashes.
The bun is only one detail that further inflates Lou’s unique creepiness, but it’s a telling one. It’s an example of Gyllenhaal’s eagerness for experimentation and newfound confidence as an actor.
“There’s a big part of me that just stopped taking things so seriously,” says Gyllenhaal.
Nightcrawler, a darkly comic, enthrallingly disturbing portrait of our universal appetite for lurid tragedy, marks a high point in Gyllenhaal’s maturation. A few years ago, crossing 30 and coming off a few regrettable films like Prince of Persia, the star resolved to return to trusting his instincts.
“It wasn’t too difficult for me to say: I need to start listening to that instinct again. I need to start reading and looking around for what inspires me,” he says.
In an interview after Night-crawler premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, Gyllenhaal exudes earnestness. Part of it is simply “feeling like my own man”, he says. Gyllenhaal, 33, now views many of the directors he works with – Prisoners director Denis Villenueva, Antoine Fuqua (who directed Southpaw with the actor) and Baltasar Kormakur (Everest) – not paternalistically, but like “cinematic brothers”.
“It was like freedom,” he says of the shift. “There was more play.”
In Gilroy, a long-time screenwriter (The Bourne Legacy) and first-time director, Gyllenhaal says he found “a creative soulmate” he was willing to do anything for. He lost considerable weight for the role, and in one scene, was so carried away that he punched a mirror, injuring his hand.
“He’s made a conscious decision to go for unconventional material that challenges him and the audience,” says Gilroy. “He’s one of the most fearless actors alive. I don’t think he’s afraid of failure. I think he’s afraid of mediocrity.”
This period for Gyllenhaal started with David Ayer’s End of Watch and was followed by a turn as an obsessive detective in Prisoners. Gyllenhaal experimented with a tic for the character.
“I’ve never worked with anyone who was walking a tightrope like Jake had to walk,” says co-star Renee Russo of his Nightcrawler performance. “He wasn’t eating and was always hungry. That is such a difficult role and he made it look so easy. You don’t want to look psychotic, completely.”
On the contrary, Gyllenhaal – who clearly relished the character – says: “I love Lou. The things he says!” The actor happily spouts chunks of Lou’s dialogue at length, like: “Who am I? I’m a hard worker. I set high goals and I’ve been told that I’m persistent.”
The scene comes from not a job interview, but a scrap metal yard Lou has just tried to steal from. Gilroy calls Lou an extreme expression of today’s job market “and what choices young people are forced to make to make their mark in the world and to sustain themselves”.
In Gyllenhaal’s eyes, Lou is a warped super-hero, tailored to today’s times: “The things he gets away with are extra-ordinary,” he says. “He’s a success story. This is the ultimate success story for today.” – Sapa-AP