Jake Gyllenhaal Admits That He Sometimes Dresses Like the Characters He Plays

Jake Gyllenhaal gives photographers a smoulder while posing for photographs at a special screening for his latest film Stronger held at Aero Theatre on Wednesday (November 8) in Santa Monica, Calif.

The 38-year-old actor sat down for a Q&A session following a screening of the flick, which sees him playing Jeff Bauman, a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, who lost both of his legs and helped authorities identify the bombers.

Jake recently opened up about dressing like the characters he plays: “When I’m playing a character�”which in my work takes months�”sometimes I end up dressing like that character,” Jake told Esquire. “Like someone will give me my shoes for a character, and I’ll wear those so that when I’m on set or when I’m working or on stage, I know what it feels like. So I find my style is reflective oftentimes of some of the work that I’m doing, characters I’m playing.”

“And then when I’m not, it veers into sort of the uniform of searching. When I was in my 20s starting out, I was trying to figure out what I believed in, what I cared about, even. You know, searching,” Jake added. “I was very self-conscious at that time. I saw somebody doing this, so I tried to emulate it. Now, I don’t think about it as much. I think that’s an inevitable evolution from growing up. Though, my father always told me, “It’s very important to walk into a space and be respectful of the space you walk into.” How you present yourself�”when you go to an event that is honoring somebody you respect or your community�”I think it is a wonderful thing to wear a suit, wherever you can find it or however you can do it.”