Sadie Sink, photographed
exclusively for Empire at The
Jane Hotel, New York on 31
July 2017.GROOMING: CHARLIE TAYLOR. STYLING: MOLLY DICKSON AT THE ONLY AGENCY.Dress: REDValentino. Boots: Ash
JAKE GYLLENHAAL was terrified before
his first meeting with Jeff Bauman. In order to play
him in Stronger, Gyllenhaal knew he’d be spending
a year learning to ‘become’ Bauman — an
ordinary guy who was bestowed unwanted fame
after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which
killed three people and left 256 injured. Among
them Bauman, then a 29-year-old deli counter
worker, who lost both his legs. His survival and
determination to walk again made him the
symbol of a city’s refusal to cower before terror.
“I was really nervous,” says Gyllenhaal. “I felt
this sense of fraudulence. I know what I’m doing
is pretend. When you meet someone who’s been
through what Jeff ’s been through and survived the
impossible, there’s just something that calls you
out for what you do.” At a lunch that also included
director David Gordon Green and writer John
Pollono, Gyllenhaal struggled to act naturally.
“Then Jeff cracked a joke and put everyone at ease.
He’s incredibly charismatic. I think he’s touched.”
Strangely enough, humour was the key to
bringing Gyllenhaal on board Stronger. When he
heard Bauman’s life was being made into a movie,
Gyllenhaal thought he knew what kind of movie
it was going to be. “I had seen that famous
photograph of Jeff [clutching the remains of his
leg minutes after the bombing] and thought, ‘Is
this going to be exploitative?’” says Gyllenhaal.
“That worried me. Then I read the script andfour pages in I was laughing. It didn’t have those
conventional tropes that I’m averse to.”
The pair found they have a lot in common —
most of Gyllenhaal’s friends grew up in Boston —
and have stayed in contact. Gyllenhaal notes how
Bauman has changed while he’s known him. In the
film, Bauman’s a hard drinker, who lives at home
with his mum and can’t maintain a relationship.
Now he’s a father and has been sober 15 months.
“He drinks almond milk now,” Gyllenhaal says,
raising an affectionately mocking eyebrow.
While getting to know Bauman was easy for
Gyllenhaal, physically becoming him was much
tougher. “When I first saw Jeff take his legs off it
was hard for me to compute,” he says. Bauman’s
legs are amputated several inches above the knee,
meaning Gyllenhaal could show little movement
below the waist. He studied how Bauman used his
body and spent hours quizzing his medical team.
On set, a wheelchair built to hide Gyllenhaal’s
legs, as well as holes in walls, floors, beds — plus
visual effects — complete the transformation. It’s
being hailed as one of the best performances of
Gyllenhaal’s career and has put him at the head
of the race for the Best Actor Oscar. If he wins, it
will be because he resisted the maudlin clichés
of the able-bodied actor playing disabled. You
might cry, but he’d much rather you laughed.STRONGER IS IN CINEMAS FROM 8 FEBRUARYJake Gyllenhaal goes the extra
mile for his performance in Boston
bombing drama StrongerWORDS OLLY RICHARDSJake Gyllenhaal as
Boston bombing
victim Jeff Bauman.
Below: Jeff is
determined to
walk again.