'Often, the punches were real:' Jake Gyllenhaal reveals how he transformed his slim physique into muscular brawn for new boxing film Southpaw

By Jo Tweedy For Mailonline

Published: 09:27 EST, 13 July 2015 | Updated: 09:44 EST, 13 July 2015

Hollywood is awash with hard-man actors, all rippling biceps and testosterone. Jake Gyllenhaal almost certainly isn't one of them. 

The actor, 34, has carved a successful career out of more thoughtful roles; Donnie Darko and Brokeback Mountain in his early career and most recently in Nightcrawler, where he shed 30lbs in weight to play a nocturnal LA TV cameraman.

The Nightcrawler weight-loss may have taken his medium-sized frame to near skeletal proportions but new boxing film Southpaw, released at the end of this month, signals the star's most dramatic body transformation yet. 

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Fired-up: Gyllenhaal has revealed how some of the punches, even in well co-ordinated fight scenes, would land...and that the actor in him hoped that the camera grew got a 'good f****** angle' on it

Slim to the ring: Jake's training was especially gruelling because he had previously shed 30 pounds in order to play the role of skinny Lou Bloom in cameraman film Nightcrawler

To play fictional New York boxing bruiser Billy Hope, Gyllenhaal gained 15lbs of sheer muscle. 

And when the cameras rolled, the action was often as brutal in reality as it looks on screen; with the fight scenes relying on heavily improvised fighting.

The LA-born actor revealed to the Guardian that much of the action, which portrays Hope's final, dramatic affair with the boxing ring after the death of his wife (played by Rachel McAdams), needed real punches to create authenticity.

Of filming the fired-up scenes, he said: 'The thing was, whenever I took a real hit, my first thought was "someone better have got a good f****** angle on that"'

Gyllenhaal told BBC Radio 2's breakfast show on Friday that he had been nervous about making a boxing movie because of the 'cliches'. 

'There's so many cliches. There are only two choices with a boxing movie, either winning or losing. The journey there is all about human behaviour...the behaviour had to feel real.' 

Also starring in the film are Forest Whitaker, rapper 50 Cent, Naomie Harris and Rita Ora. 

Jake Gyllenhaal buffs up for heavy-weight role in Southpaw

The film opens at the end of July and Gyllenhaal has been on a trans-Atlantic tour promoting it

Coming soon: Southpaw opens at the end of the month 

Getting the right physique for the role required nearly six months in the gym for Gyllenhaal.

After filming he said: 'I just trained like a boxer. As you learn the skills, that stuff just happens in your mind and in your body.'

Jake had an extra hurdle in that director Antoine Fuqua began production on Southpaw with the filming of Hope's big fights.

'We shot the fights in the first two weeks of the movie, so I trained for basically five months up to those fights. We shot four fights in a row,' Jake told Extra last year.

He also admitted to BBC DJ Chris Evans that the media have been a little too fascinated with how he achieved his super-ripped body, instead of focusing on why he did it, which was to learn how to box to portray the character of Hope as well as possible.

'There's a misunderstanding about the reasons why I particularly do what I do. 

'I didn't know how to box before I started this movie and the way we were going to shoot it was as real as possible. And I just tried to spend almost five hours a day learning how to box.'

He adds: 'Over time, you get into shape...that's the result.'

Fresh-faced and sensitive: Jake has picked diverse roles in his career so far but Southpaw is easily the most brutal since 2005's Jarhead

After Donnie Darko put the actor in the spotlight, Gyllenhaal was cast as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain in 2005, starring alongside the late Heath Ledger

And the film's director, Antoine Fuqua has frequently made it clear just how dedicated the actor was to his role, telling Deadline in 2014: 'I think he broke up with his girlfriend because he was just in the gym every day.'

'He was training like a fighter. I had him sparring, really getting hit.'

'No-one but fighters understand the sacrifice it takes to be a fighter,' the director added.

Romance? Jake was spotted with Brit-born Anna Liban while on his most recent visit

If Gyllenhaal did split with his then girlfriend because of the film, he's certainly reacquainted himself with the fairer sex since; he was spotted in London recently having lunch with a beautiful brunette.

The 34-year-old took the mystery lady to lunch at the Michelin restaurant in Chelsea, where the pair were seen cuddling up to one another as they enjoyed a meal. 

The brunette has been identified as Brit-born Anna Liban, who sources say Jake met while in the capital in June. 

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