Jake Gyllenhaal Thinks He's "90 Percent Water" and That's Why He's a Great Actor

Read his bizarre Esquire interview

By Brett Malec Jun 03, 2015 6:00 PMTags
Boxing Fight, Jake GyllenhaalBryan Steffy/Getty Images for SHOWTIME

It's no secret that Jake Gyllenhaal is 100-percent committed when he takes on a movie role.

In a new interview with Esquire U.K., the 34-year-old actor reveals the secret to how he fully commits to the characters he plays in big screen hits like End of Watch, Nightcrawler and his upcoming Southpaw.

"As an actor, it's easy to become disconnected from reality, but I can also spend five months in an environment that most people would never get access to. So, it's actually a great way of engaging with the world," he tells the mag. "I'm not saying what I go through compares to what actual cops or boxers experience every day. There's a hierarchy of importance, and actors are way down. I get that my job is absurd. I'm hyper-aware of how ridiculous it is. But at the same time, I take it extraordinarily seriously! Because as absurd as it is, it can also breed empathy."

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

Gyllenhaal goes on to give some interesting thoughts on how his genetic makeup plays a key role in transforming into characters.

"I believe deeply in the unconscious," he says. "That you literally accumulate the molecules of the space that you're in. We're like 90 percent water, so naturally we are going to be affected by the moon when it's full: if the sea is, why wouldn't we be? That seems scientific to me. So, if you spend enough time in whatever environment your character would exist in—the way I spent six months with police officers—then the molecules of that environment must transfer somehow. And then you put it on screen, and people go, ‘I feel something that I don't normally feel.'"

Um, OK...

Gyllenhaal's Broadway co-star and rumored girlfriend Ruth Wilson also gushes about him in the article. "He's really generous," Wilson tells Esquire. "He cares. Not just about the work, but about people. If I was ill, he'd provide me with pills and recommend a doctor. And he really brings you into his world. He was born into acting and show business, he knows everyone and everything about it. But he includes you. And I want to say, he's a really great singer."