The 2015 Jake Gyllenhaal role that was written for Eminem: “That was the moment of pain”
Sports movies continue to be perennially popular, especially over in the US, where they love a winner or a plucky underdog. Perhaps more than any other sub-genre in that category, it’s boxing movies that the public wants to see the most, with a certain ‘Italian Stallion’ probably to blame for that.
Nothing gets Americans quite as excited as two men slapping each other about in shorts. In fact, the very first film to be banned in America was about a boxing match, all the way back at the end of the 1800s, and since then, from Rocky to Million Dollar Baby to The Champ, the simple match-up of a robotic odds-on favourite and a sweaty wannabe willing to leave it all on the canvas has had them flocking to the big screen.
That’s without mentioning those movies that use boxing as a backdrop to drama, like Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, or Southpaw starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The 2015 movie, directed by Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua, was intended as a modern-day counterpart to some of those classic pugilist movies of the past, but it was originally pitched as a vehicle for a very different actor than the Nightcrawler star.
The producers of the film, father and son duo Alan and Peter Riche, originally had their hearts set on rap superstar Eminem to play the lead role of Billy Hope, a boxer who tries to set his life back on track after losing his wife and daughter. They’d been hugely impressed by the musician’s work on his debut movie, 8 Mile, and although he hadn’t made a film since, they believed they could persuade him.
Fuqua, who had already agreed to direct, was dispatched to recruit Eminem, and initially, things went well. The rapper signed on to the project within a day of the meeting, and everyone expected that Marshall Mathers would be starring in the lead, but it wasn’t to be.
Eminem had a change of heart, with Alan Riche telling Business Insider, “We were told that he really loved it, but that he feels he’s a musician first and an actor second, and he had a lot of inner energy going on for his next album, and that’s where his muse was taking him.”
Peter added, “That was the moment of pain. That was the low moment”. This meant the hunt was on for the right actor to play Hope, and several options were mooted, including British Sons of Anarchy hunk Charlie Hunnam. But in the end, it was Gyllenhaal, who Fuqua believed could bulk up convincingly in order to play the boxer, who got the nod, and production went ahead.
Eminem’s connection with Southpaw didn’t end there, though. He was delighted with the end product and with Gyllenhaal’s performance, lending two of his songs and executive producing the soundtrack, and alongside Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker, the movie did, in the end, feature an appearance from a star rapper in the form of 50 Cent himself, Mr Curtis Jackson.
Despite the quality of the cast, the director, and the soundtrack, the film was something of a mixed bag in the eyes of critics once it was released. But that didn’t stop US audiences from flocking to another boxing movie, and it made three times its budget at the box office, earning some $94 million back in gate receipts, although you can’t help but wonder if it would have made more had Eminem not backed out and opened the door for Gyllenhaal.
