Watch Jake Gyllenhaal Go Job-Hunting in an Exclusive 'Nightcrawler' Clip
In the upcoming thriller Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal plays freelance crime reporter Lou Bloom — a wiry guy fixated on his hunt for the big story. He takes the local broadcast news edict “If it bleeds it leads” to new heights, zooming through the streets of Los Angeles, in search of fresh blood.
In the above clip, seen here first on Yahoo Movies, a scarily focused Bloom — angling for a big contract with a local station — adamantly spells out the nonnegotiable terms of his employment, all of which are delivered with wide-eyed intensity. Clearly, there’s no haggling with this guy.
If you’re wondering who he’s speaking to — as the recipient of his demands is not revealed in the new footage above — it’s Renee Russo, who plays Bloom’s footage-hungry TV producer who unwittingly helps him become a night-paparazzi superstar. And from the look of it, he has some leverage over her.
As crazed as the scheming, self-assured Bloom might come off, however, Gyllenhaal — who’s been earning raves for his performance — doesn’t see his character as mentally disturbed. “People could call him a sociopath,” the 33-year-old actor told The New York Times. “But I wouldn’t at all. I would call it the birth of an artist. It’s poetry to him.”
From what we see in this clip, the “artist” is obsessively focused — and accustomed to getting what he wants. We’ll have to see how negotiations go when Nightcrawler swerves into theaters this Friday, Oct. 31.
Watch the Nightcrawler Red Band Trailer:
