Jake Gyllenhaal a bulked-out ‘beast’ in boxing movie ‘Southpaw’

“Southpaw” director Antoine Fuqua promised us we wouldn’t recognize Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie, due out in 2015. And that’s no lie.

A newly released photo reveals Gyllenhaal as a ripped beast who has clearly taken a beating.

He plays Billy “The Great” Hope, a boxer on top of the world until a tragic accident leaves his wife dead and sends him into a downward spiral. He eventually finds a former boxer, Tick, played by Forest Whitaker, who takes him under his wing “so long as he agrees to his strict ethos.”

That’s one serious ethos. Especially impressive considering where Gyllenhaal came from in “Nightcrawler,” a role in which he lost 30 pounds to portray a cunning news cameraman.

Related: Jake Gyllenhaal a convincing creep in ‘Nightcrawler’

The industry website Deadline said the role would likely put Gyllenhaal in the same league as Robert De Niro in Raging Bull and Denzel Washington in The Hurricane.

“We literally turned him into a beast,” Fuqua told the website.

Gannett News Service