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Director Antoine Fuqua took a distressing call early in pre-production for the boxing drama Southpaw. It was Terry Claybon, a boxing expert who's trained Fuqua for years. He'd just met Jake Gyllenhaal to see if the actor could fight and he didn't have good news.
In Southpaw, Gyllenhaal needed to play a light heavyweight boxing champ, Billy "The Great" Hope. "He said, 'He's the wrong guy, you picked the wrong guy'," says Fuqua.
Gyllenhaal could hardly be blamed. He'd never boxed and Fuqua was looking for something specific. As a lifetime boxing student and devotee, the Training Day director wanted realism in his film. He'd never directed a feature about the sport he loved so dearly and he really didn't want to make just another boxing movie.

Between Rocky and Raging Bull and any number of lesser imitators, the cinema is a not so secret fan of the drama and metaphors inherent in the sport.
"I thought, 'I need a guy who will give me his heart, train seven days a week, twice a day and eat, sleep, drink and live like a fighter'," he says. And his trusted trainer had just told him Gyllenhaal wasn't it.
Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter had written the script, about a champ's fall from grace and struggle to get his daughter back, for rapper Eminem. And Gyllenhaal wasn't the only name tossed around when Eminem dropped out.
Yet the possibility lingered. Not only did Fuqua think that Gyllenhaal had the physical size and expressive eyes to make this fairly unlikable guy lovable, Harvey Weinstein was also keen on him.
Gyllenhaal was prepared for the challenge. The now 34-year-old actor had just shed 14 kilograms to play a creepy freelance videographer in Nightcrawler and he didn't hesitate to throw himself into the ring. Two weeks after that initial call, Claybon had a much-altered message. "He said, 'You were right. This guy's got heart. He's tough'," recalls Fuqua.
So they started building Billy Hope together. Literally.
Fuqua and Gyllenhaal trained side-by-side twice a day, nearly every day for months with Claybon. They did it all: the tyres, the sparring, the sprints, the long runs and the sit-ups. Fuqua eventually scaled back to once a day, while Gyllenhaal soldiered on.
It didn't ease up on set, either. Fuqua filmed the three-minute rounds straight through, often opting for six-minute takes without the help of body doubles. He and cinematographer Mauro Fiore even enlisted HBO Boxing veterans Todd Palladino and Rick Cypher to shoot the fights.

"We shot it like we would shoot a real fight. We did real rounds. We didn't even stop to light it. When he was exhausted, when his lungs were hurting, when he was spitting blood? That was real," says Fuqua.
Gyllenhaal was devoted to getting it right. "There're a couple shots where he really got hit in the ribs," says Fuqua. "I would go out to stop it and he would wave me off. He wanted to keep going."
Many of those real hits made the final cut. "It just creates depth and adds richness to everything. It never got to be too much," adds Gyllenhaal - even when he was vomiting in the corner.
Although his physical transformation was paramount, the actor also had to immerse himself in the real world of boxing, stealing bits of personalities or experiences from the stories he'd heard from the amateurs in the gym during the five-month preparation.
"The effects it has on fighters are brutal," he says. "Because of that, I'm not just there to see a fight, I'm also there to watch and ask what is each fighter fighting for - to find out what are they trying to prove."
"It took me about a month and a half to come out of this whole thing and this whole experience," says the actor, even though he's still training and wishing he'd had more time to perfect his boxing grace. But he doesn't like to dwell on the blurred line between fiction and reality.
"To me, that's what the craft of acting is. If it looks like magic, you're doing it the right way," says Gyllenhaal.
And he has he bruises to prove it. Associated Press  Southpaw opens on Oct 15


How Gyllenhaal and Fuqua sculpted a boxing great for Southpaw

Forest Whitaker (left) and Jake Gyllenhaal in a still from Southpaw.

Whitaker and Gyllenhaal.

Lifestyle

Arts

Actor and director went the distance to transform Gyllenhaal into a contender for the hotly anticipated fistic release


How Gyllenhaal and Fuqua sculpted a boxing great for Southpaw

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Actor and director went the distance to transform Gyllenhaal into a contender for the hotly anticipated fistic release

Actor and director went the distance to transform Gyllenhaal into a contender for the hotly anticipated fistic release