Jake Gyllenhaal laughs with embarrassment as he tells me about the first time he met boxing coach Terry Claybon.
The young actor had been hired to play fictional boxer Billy Hope in Antoine Fuqua's bruising drama, Southpaw, and Claybon – who trained Denzel Washington when he starred as real-life boxer Rubin Carter in 1999's The Hurricane – wanted to see him shadowbox.
“I was like, ‘Oh [no]’,” says Gyllenhaal. As he weakly punched the air, Claybon’s jaw dropped. “He let me do it for, maybe, like, a minute-and-a- half – it felt like an eternity – and then he was like, ‘Hell no!’”
Fortunately, Fuqua had faith in Gyllenhaal, and the actor repaid it in spades.
For months, he completed twice-daily training sessions in the gym, went on runs and sparred with professionals. Such was his focus on the role that his relationship with his girlfriend Alyssa Miller fell apart.
The result Gyllenhaal achieves is not only impressive in its right but, when viewed alongside his emaciated appearance in last year's Nightcrawler, it is astonishing. Ripped and nimble, his Billy Hope looks like he could stand his ground against any real-life middleweight.
Anger is Hope's strength – and his weakness. Inside the ring, it makes him unbeatable. Outside, it is his downfall. This fascinated Gyllenhaal, who played a United States Marine in 2005's Jarhead at a time in his life when he constantly felt like, "I wanted to punch my first through a wall".
The 34-year-old remains fascinated by where his anger comes from, and saw playing Hope as a way to explore it safely.
“I’m very curious about what sets me off,” he says. “Sometimes it’s baffling to me. I wonder what those feelings are and I’m interested in them.”
Gyllenhaal doesn’t think of himself as an angry man. He had a privileged childhood in LA, where he and his actress sister Maggie were raised by a film-director father and screenwriter mother, surrounded by colourful industry folk.
One day, Paul Newman took Jake around a racing track, which later got turned by journalists into a story about the Hollywood legend teaching him to drive. “My father really taught me how to drive and he’s getting a really bum rap,” Gyllenhaal once told me.
He concedes that he enjoyed privilege as a child – but “no one”, he says, “had a great childhood, no matter what they say. Even though we all pretend that we want to go back and be children again, I don’t think we would really want to”.
He finds acting to be therapeutic, and looks for material that will take him “to places that are challenging, even for yourself ... I like the idea that you can use your work to make you go, ‘Wow, I never really saw the world this way. I sat wherever I sat in my place, having some sort of judgement, and now I no longer have that’”.
For a while, he stopped listening to himself and lost his way in his career. In 2009, his parents divorced, and he took stock of where he was.
“I was a little unclear about what I wanted to say and how I wanted to even just live my life and where I wanted to be,” he says.
He moved to New York, closer to the world of theatre, which he loves, and shifted his focus to independent films. In 2012, the gritty cop thriller End of Watch marked the beginning of what is becoming a golden period for Gyllenhaal. Films such as the doppelganger head-scratcher Enemy, and the disturbing crime drama Prisoners, hark back to the days before he dabbled in blockbusters such as The Day After Tomorrow and Prince of Persia, and could do something weirder like Donnie Darko.
Scaling down and working with more collaborative filmmakers who give him room to be creative has resulted in some of Gyllenhaal’s finest performances to date.
“There’s been a real artistic freedom,” he says, “particularly with the last number of directors I’ve worked with.”
His new film, the real-life survival story Everest, will open next month's Venice Film Festival. Typically, Gyllenhaal pushed himself to the limit for one scene by allowing himself to be buried in snow for so long that he almost lost his hearing.
Whether Everest can live up to his recent run of movies remains to be seen. There is no question, however, that in rediscovering his voice, Gyllenhaal has become one of the most exciting actors working today.
artslife@thenational.ae
The Breadwinner
Director: Nora Twomey
Starring: Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, Laara Sadiq
Three stars
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
THE BIO: Mohammed Ashiq Ali
Proudest achievement: “I came to a new country and started this shop”
Favourite TV programme: the news
Favourite place in Dubai: Al Fahidi. “They started the metro in 2009 and I didn’t take it yet.”
Family: six sons in Dubai and a daughter in Faisalabad
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Company%20profile%20
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
If you go:
Getting there:
Flying to Guyana requires first reaching New York with either Emirates or Etihad, then connecting with JetBlue or Caribbean Air at JFK airport. Prices start from around Dh7,000.
Getting around:
Wildlife Worldwide offers a range of Guyana itineraries, such as its small group tour, the 15-day ‘Ultimate Guyana Nature Experience’ which features Georgetown, the Iwokrama Rainforest (one of the world’s four remaining pristine tropical rainforests left in the world), the Amerindian village of Surama and the Rupununi Savannah, known for its giant anteaters and river otters; wildlifeworldwide.com
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
RESULTS
Lightweight (female)
Sara El Bakkali bt Anisha Kadka
Bantamweight
Mohammed Adil Al Debi bt Moaz Abdelgawad
Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari
Tips to avoid getting scammed
1) Beware of cheques presented late on Thursday
2) Visit an RTA centre to change registration only after receiving payment
3) Be aware of people asking to test drive the car alone
4) Try not to close the sale at night
5) Don't be rushed into a sale
6) Call 901 if you see any suspicious behaviour
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
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