Jake Gyllenhaal In "Proof", featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins, Gyllenhaal played a graduate student in mathematics who tries to convince Paltrow's character to publish a revolutionary proof to a problem puzzling the mathematicians' community. In "Jarhead", Gyllenhaal played a violent U.S. Marine during the first Gulf War. He also auditioned to be Batman for the blockbuster "Batman Begins" and came close to getting the role, but Christian Bale was ultimately chosen for it. In "Brokeback Mountain", Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play young men who meet as sheep herders and embark upon a sexual relationship that begins in the summer of 1963
Jake Gyllenhaal by Denis Villeneuve in 2013 – Gyllenhaal described meeting Villeneuve "as if I'd met an older brother". The first of films to be released, the thriller "Prisoners", starred Gyllenhaal as a detective named Loki in search of the abductor of two young girls, one of which is fathered by Hugh Jackman's character. "Rolling Stone" critic Peter Travers praised Gyllenhaal's "exceptional" performance in the film. In their second collaboration, Gyllenhaal starred in a dual role as a history teacher and his doppelgänger in the thriller "Enemy". In 2014, he produced and starred in the crime thriller "Nightcrawler", receiving a Golden Globe