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Jake Gyllenhaal Gets Jacked Up, Beaten Down in First 'Southpaw' Trailer

After drastically slimming down for his role as a freakishly stoic paparazzo in last year’s Oscar-nominated Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal has gotten all jacked up and volatile for the boxing drama Southpaw.

In the film’s trailer — which you can watch above — Gyllenhaal continues his streak of going all-in for his performances, here playing Billy Hope, a champion boxer and family man whose temper costs him everything. Rachel McAdams plays his wife, who gets caught in the cross-fire of a hotel shooting; her death begins a downward spiral that costs Billy his daughter, career, and dignity.

Curtis Jackson — aka 50 Cent — co-stars as his manager, while Forrest Whitaker plays the boxing gym owner that could provide Billy a path to redemption… if he’s willing to finally submit to the discipline that has eluded him for so long. Eminem, meanwhile, provides the song on the soundtrack; he was once slated to play Billy, but it looks like Gyllenhaal was the right choice.

One of the biggest shocks from the first trailer is just how beefed up and wired up the actor has gotten; his muscles, as first revealed in a photo released in late November, are absolutely rippling, matching the intensity of his angry screams. He’s also allowed himself to get beaten to hell and even changed his voice, adapting the sort of clipped mumble that is actually reminiscent of Eminem’s non-rapping persona.

“Jake is going to change how people see him,” Fuqua said in November. “I had him training twice a day in the boxing ring, he did two-a-days seven days a week. I pretty much had him with me and my trainer every day. I took him to almost every fight. I had him train at Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Vegas and we watched Floyd’s fights, and the Manny Pacquiao fight. He trained in New York at Church Gym with real fighters. We literally turned him into a beast.”

The beast will be unleashed when the film — perhaps this year’s first big Oscar contender — hits theaters on July 31st.