Jake's newest interview in Details makes you wonder...who is he? Or is more like...what's he trying to say he is?
Is he the smiling guy next door seen in so many paparazzi shots, the dark philosopher who buries himself deeper in each successive role, or simply a wily, charismatic chameleon? Take your pick.
As Gyllenhaal's body of work grows, he only gets harder to peg.
"My whole life," he says, "I'd come to a scene and just ask for something real. I'd say, 'Please, just tell me what's going on. All the research, how your character picks up a fork, it'll all come when we know the truth.'" He's talking about a personal and professional evolution that accelerated during the months of his preproduction involvement in 2011's Source Code. The story—a soldier is enabled by technology to relive eight crucial minutes, over and over, until he gets it right and saves the world—resonated deeply with him. "Now the time's come to turn that on myself"—searching, over and over, for the truth—"and it's 'Game on.'"
"Every journey starts with fear," he says. "And I could say that's what I want to embrace now. A real experience. Connection with the people I'm working with, so I'm helping them make something. And I want, overall, to trust what I know is right. There have been many times when I haven't. If that's what you asked, it's what I'm asking myself now: Where is the line? What is the line? 
"I grew up on the other side of the camera," Gyllenhaal says. "And yes, I do love making movies as much as being in them. I love actors, watching what they do, and I do love acting off-camera, and how it helps tell the story. But the camera eventually does turn to you, and then it's a very different question. I don't know if I have the answer to it yet.
Is Jake starting to shake off the cloak and revealing more of himself? Is this beginning of something bigger?
"I haven't cycled in a long time," he preempts. "Ask me where I run."
"Where do—"
"I don't run anymore. Do I take care of my body and take conditioning seriously? Yes. But exercising regularly doesn't fit the energy of the character I'm playing now."
Speaking of cycling .... some Olympic style for Two Wheel Tueday
And now OMG Olympic Style Cycling
OMG Olympics
Big Trike Racing. Grab the helmets and pull on the spandex. It's a serious test of balance, (ok not so much balance) skill, and speed. It's track tricycles. Imagine trying to get a peloton of trikes.
Happy Two Wheel Tuesday.
