A Behind-The-Scenes Look At How Jake Gyllenhaal Got So Ripped For ‘Southpaw’

If there’s one thing you notice when you see a trailer for the upcoming boxing movie Southpaw it’s the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal is completely ripped and actually looks like he might know what he’s doing in the ring.

However, it didn’t start out that way. First, Gyllenhaal was in nowhere near the kind of shape you see in the trailers before filming and second, he says he didn’t know anything about boxing either. Bro trained for eight damn months to get ready for this flick.

“I knew nothing about boxing when I started really, and I knew that in order for me to pull it off in any way, I was just gonna have to learn to do it,” the actor, 34, says. “And when I set my mind to something I just won’t stop until I do it. It’s something I pride myself on, and it’s something I hate about myself.”

Another unique aspect of Gyllenhaal’s training was that his director on the film, Antoine Fuqua, trained right alongside him. Training, that we already pointed out, included doing thousands of sit-ups and hours and hours of in-ring training and cardio sessions.

Basically, dude turned into a beast.

Here are a couple of trailers for the film in case you need a little more motivation to help get you through the day. Because, damn, they’ll certainly get that done.

Southpaw hits theaters on July 24th.

H/T People