Intense role for Jake

MANILA, Philippines - Nightcrawler is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the stars of his own story. Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed co-star in the film.

I understand Lou’s appearance wasn’t actually stipulated in the script. Lou being wide-eyed and emaciated was something you came up with after reading the script and having discussion with Dan?

“It wasn’t in the script, but when I met with Dan, there were lots of references in the script to coyotes, and growing up in Los Angeles, something about Lou reminded me of a coyote. I can’t really explain to you what the first instinct was about that, but I can say that while I was reading it, I had this feeling that Lou was the type of person who was hungry. And when I met with Dan we talked about how Los Angeles is in the middle of a desert, and that’s sort of ignored (laughs), but it is.

“So the essence of him was that he’s coyote, he’s hungry. You see them pouncing along the street and they look like they’ll eat anything, any scrap they could find. They smell blood and they’ll move to it… and that’s Lou. So I did make myself like a coyote and made myself hungry and I lost weight. I would run at night for a long time, for eight to 15 miles. I’d run to set sometimes and I ended up isolating myself over a period of time, because that’s what they are like. They work in packs but they’re mostly alone, and even that. He’s preying on desperate people and that was that.”

Did you shadow stringers for Nightcrawler?

“I did, it was this set of brothers who are well-known. But I went with them and Dan and Robert Elswit our cinematographer. We followed them around for a few nights. It’s interesting because this movie, I say that it’s a birth of an entrepreneur, but I also think its birth of a cinematographer because he’s a cameraman. So, to be here with the cinematographer in the research phase was fascinating. And Robert is actually my godfather, so that was very interesting (laughs). It’s was very familiar.”

You’ve made some really interesting choices as actor lately, with this Enemy and Prisoners, and then upcoming Everest and Southpaw. I can imagine there are a number of factors, but what is it about a project that makes you want to jump on-board?

“It’s ever changing for me. There’s no real answer to why I pick something. I have no plan. Sometimes, I’m moved by the human being who wants to tell the story, sometimes something connected to me with them for some reason. When I met Denis Villeneuve before I did Enemy, we sat down… and the script, I didn’t totally understand. It was a Spanish translation into English, and there were things and concepts that I thought were really beautiful about it, but I didn’t know at that time exactly what he was saying. When I sat down and I had my first meeting with him I went, ‘Oh, the universe is telling me I have to make movie with this guy. We’re of like minds, and that’s it.’ So I just dove into the unknown with him, and that spawned a relationship that then spawned anther movie, Prisoners. I think it’s feeling. You’re an artist, and that’s about feelings, you know (laughs)? So you have to trust that.”

You immersed yourself in the Nightcrawler character for a number of months. Was it easy to leave behind when you wrapped?

“I love this character, and that will sound sick to anyone who watches that movie (laughs). But maybe that’s because I loved the process and I loved Dan Gilroy and I love the script. I think he’s made an extraordinary film, so part of me is always there, but now he’s fully gone. It does take a couple months to fully flush out, but after a while it’s gone. But I do really love the character. When I would finish shooting a scene or I’d worked on a monologue for a long time, I would always be so sad because they were so well written, and I’d think to myself, ‘I don’t know when I’ll next be able to say words that are this well written.’ But at the time it does effect you. We shot the whole movie at night, so we weren’t really sleeping a lot.”

(Released by Captive Cinema, Nightcrawler is now showing nationwide.)