The film Jake Gyllenhaal called “the greatest screenplay ever”
Jake Gyllenhaal has been approaching filmmaking as if it’s second nature for years. Throughout his youth, his performances in films such as Donnie Darko would be pivotal for shaping what he would become later, whether that’s the various reporters in Zodiac or one-half of the homosexual couple in Brokeback Mountain. Although many excellent scripts have been put in front of Gyllenhaal over the years, there’s one movie that he considers one of the most incredible pieces of writing ever.
When first approaching the screen, though, Gyllenhaal didn’t have as much regard for the script as usual. When working alongside Chris Cooper in October Sky, Gyllenhaal would remember being taken aside because he wasn’t listening to the script’s intricacies. By letting the words sink in, Gyllenhaal would approach making films completely differently, ensuring that every emotion was hit with pinpoint accuracy.
Although movies like Spiderman: Far From Home showed what Gyllenhaal could do with the backdrop of a massive blockbuster, Nightcrawler was where he got to make the most of the script he was given. While there are only a few pieces to the puzzle on the page, Gyllenhaal absorbed himself into the character of Lou Bloom, creating a character informed by his need to become one of the most prominent power players in the news industry.
When first presented with the script, Gyllenhaal knew that he wanted to work on the film immediately, telling GQ, “In the case of Nightcrawler, it was, hands down, one of the greatest screenplays I had read. The character that had already been developed profoundly before it had even got to me. I had to do the finishing touches, which is how it should be, but very rarely the way it is.”
While Bloom poses no intimidating figure in the film, the amount of brainpower that he has throughout the film is what makes him a sinister figure. Rather than focus on the physicality of the performance, Gyllenhaal called attention to the fact that Bloom was always looking one step forward, doing whatever he could to film a good story, even if it was at the expense of those around him.
During shooting, Gyllenhaal said that he wanted to bring the fully realised version of the character to every facet of his performance, explaining, “I had this vision of this guy and the way he talked a lot. In the script, the way he talked was so odd. I just thought there couldn’t be anything physically imposing about this guy.”
Throughout the film, that nervous energy is palpable from the moment Bloom steps onscreen. Even when his contemporaries scold him in the field, it’s easy to see Bloom looking to grasp any information he can that will give him the upper hand later.
As heinous as some of the acts were in the film, Gyllenhaal always preferred to look at the creative side of Bloom, saying, “I always looked at it as this beautiful artist learning how to use a camera. The way he was shooting was perverse and sick, but at the same time, you can watch him as an artist, and that’s the thing I’m most proud of in the movie”.
