Jake Gyllenhaal considers his visual impairment to be a benefit to his acting profession. The “Nightcrawler” star said that having a distinct viewpoint that he finds beneficial has come from being legally blind.
I have never known anything else. “I can be with myself there when I can’t see in the morning before I put on my glasses,” Gyllenhaal said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. The 43-year-old actor talked about how he used this in a pivotal scene from the 2015 movie “Southpaw,” acting without his contacts to really experience the moment when his character finds out his wife had passed away.
Gyllenhaal, who starred in “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” has previously discussed his 20/1250 vision. He related in a 2017 Telegraph interview how he had been teased as a child because of his corrective spectacles. “I was always a sensitive kid,” he remarked, thinking back to the times when the taunting caused arguments in his early years.
Remarkably, these early run-ins appear to have improved his fight scene performances. Retired UFC fighter Conor McGregor squared off against Gyllenhaal in the Amazon remake of the Patrick Swayze classic “Road House,”
That was a lot of fun, getting to toss Jake Gyllenhaal across the bar. When the movie debuted in March, McGregor told Page Six, “I enjoyed it. The 35-year-old combatant gave Gyllenhaal high marks, pointing out that although the actor suffered some blows during filming, he returned the favor. We got along terrifically. “He was really helpful and patient with me,†McGregor said.