No body doubles for ‘Southpaw’

CEBU, Philippines – Jake Gyllenhaal worked extremely hard to get into fighting shape to play boxer Billy Hope in “Southpaw.”

More than his physical transformation though, the actor is proud of how the Antoine Fuqua-helmed movie turned out.

“I’m very proud of it,” Gyllenhaal told Access Hollywood of at the film’s junket. “I’m proud of the fact that it’s a movie that seems like a boxing film, but really is a family movie about the relationship between a father and a daughter, which moves me so much.”

“Everybody worked so hard on the movie,” he added. “And they worked so hard making those relationships real and I think we made a beautiful movie so I’m really proud of it.”

Gyllenhaal confessed his boxing knowledge was slim prior to signing on for the drama, and he didn’t know how to box.

The 34-year-old immediately threw himself into training.

“I spent five months training for the movie and I trained twice a day,” he said. “I figured I’d make five months into 10 months if I did that.”

Adding, “And I was just basically scared that I’d look like an idiot, so I worked as hard as I could. Fear is sometimes a good motivating thing.”

Six weeks before filming started, Gyllenhaal began to officially get into “fight mode.”

“We got down to light heavyweight weight, then the first day of shooting we approached it like you would a fight,” he said of his co-star and onscreen rival fighter Miguel Gomez. “We were back in the room, we got our hands wrapped, we didn’t see each other.”

“We shot the last fight first, so Miguel and I didn’t see each other,” he continued. “We had both of our trainers there. We walked out just like we do in a fight. Everything was done in real time and we fought.”

Filming the fight was not without its share of bumps and bruises, as body doubles were not used.

“I got hit pretty hard,” he said. “We were getting hit constantly –sometimes really hard, sometimes not.”

“Southpaw,” which also stars Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker and 50 Cent, is now showing in Philippine theaters.