Jake Gyllenhaal used to fantasise about being “one with the coyotes”.
When the 33-year-old actor was filming his latest movie Nightcrawler, he spent a lot of time out running to lose weight for his rail-thin character.
And when he hit the Los Angeles wilderness trails at sunset he often found himself up close and personal with the wild dogs, according to a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“The sun was setting and these animals would come out,” Jake told the publication. “I’d have these strange fantasies after mile ten of, like, being one with all the animals.”
Lack of eating and excessive exercise were required in order for the actor to attain the thinnest possible figure to portray the character of Lou Bloom.
Lou is a paparazzo, and Jake saw a lot of similarities with this photographer’s profession and the life of a coyote.
“They are hungry and they are out to get what they are going to get. That was Lou,” he revealed.
Jake’s drastic weight loss was brought about by a lot of chewing gum and existing on things like kale salad. This obviously left him starving.
The choice to liken himself to the “hungry and searching” mentality of a pack animal was a deliberate one, said Jake, who confessed he “made a lot of choices physically”.
The Prisoners star told the publication that loneliness and an awkward time schedule were what often left him exercising alone rather than socialising.
“The running thing, you’re pretty hungry because you’re not eating a lot of food. You’re lonely because you’re not meeting your friends for dinner,” Jake lamented. “People go, ‘Hey you want to meet for dinner after work?’ I go, ‘Well, I’m shooting all night.’ ‘Alright, you want to meet for lunch?’ I’m like, ‘I can’t!’ So I’m gonna go run.”
Jake has previously confessed that his mother was concerned about the pounds he dropped for the movie. The heartthrob told E! News in September that his mom used to moan: “You’re cranky, eat something!”
