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Jake Gyllenhaal Is ‘Odd Man Out’ Amid Hollywood’s Leading Men: He’s a ‘Solo Act’
Even as Jake Gyllenhaal‘s former costars Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds make merry with social media antics in support of their anticipated summer blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine, the Road House star appears to have lost all interest in cavorting with his peers for social media.
“Jake is definitely the odd man out of the current crop of leading men who seem to burnish their social media numbers and side hustles ahead of the actual acting work they’re doing,” a studio-level source who has worked on multiple projects with Jake, 43, exclusively tells In Touch. “Even though Jake has an active production company, the thrill of the job for him is acting and being out on the edge artistically. Everything else is kind of noise for him.”
After noting that Jake and Ryan, 47, were very close “five or six years ago,” the insider says “you’d never see Jake get into the crazy business deals and marketing schemes that have made Ryan tens of millions of dollars over the last few years.”
“Jake is 100 percent focused on finding great parts and making them greater sheerly on the strength of his work. The side hustles and Instagram gags are something he tolerates from his peers, but they’re not at all his personal style,” the source continues. “Part of this is that unlike a lot of his leading man peers, Jake grew up in Los Angeles and has been inside of the movie business from a very early age.”
Jake – who has been acting professionally since he was a child – “was here before any of these other guys.” The insider adds, “He’s very sensitive to the phoniness of the business and is striving for authenticity in everything he does — otherwise what’s the point?”
The source explains that Jake’s views on maintaining friendships within the entertainment industry may have changed after his Brokeback Mountain costar Heath Ledger died in 2008. “[Heath’s death] was a moment where Jake frequently wondered out loud if he was cursed,” the insider says. “Those guys became incredibly close during the making of their movie and were both expecting to be friends for the rest of their lives.”
“After Heath died, the wall went up around Jake and he never quite let himself get as close with another co-star as he and Heath did during that film,” the source shares. “Jake lost a brother and he wasn’t quite the same person after that happened.”
Despite his hesitations, Jake did manage to bond with Hugh, 55, when they worked together on 2013’s Prisoners and with Ryan on 2017’s Life. However, the source says that both of those friendships seemingly fizzled.
“Ten years ago Hugh Jackman and Jake were so close they were also talking about making more movies together, but instead, Jake kind of encroached on Hugh’s territory and tried his hand at Broadway. The critics were pleased, but I’m not sure Hugh was,” the insider explains. “And when they made Life together, Ryan and Jake were inseparable, hanging out all the time, and that closeness continued for several months after they made that movie and then it just cut out like a light switch.”
While they “can blame their busy schedules” for drifting apart, the insider points out that Hugh and Ryan’s close friendship makes it “clear that Jake sees himself more as a solo act and doesn’t want to be a part of any one gang for too long.”
While he hasn’t always created strong friendships with his costars, Jake and his big sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, have managed to win over executives and producers when it comes to closing deals on their behalf.
“Maggie is off directing her second film and it’s a massive Frankenstein movie starring Christian Bale – her career behind the camera is on fire. And Jake has recently formed a powerful alliance with J.J. Abrams, who is producing his new miniseries remake of Presumed Innocent,” the source says. “Their parents taught both of them early on how to take meetings and come out of them with a winning result. They also share enviable taste when it comes to good, juicy material, and they have the soft skills to be leaders on movies they work on.”
Many of the leading men in Hollywood “rely on their agents or managers to handle the creative politicking on a project, but Jake is very good at that stuff and it’s served him well.”
“This is not an arrogant or self-centered guy. He wants it to be all about the work and not some invented public persona that he’s constantly trying to monetize,” the insider concludes. “Jake is a showman, but he refuses to be an attention whore, and you have to admire him for that.”
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