In L.A.-based “Nightcrawler,” filmed almost entirely at night, Jake Gyllenhaal delivers the acting performance of his career as the paparazzo of the unlucky. His morally bankrupt character Lou Bloom discovers the lucrative world of being first-on-the-scene to videotape the aftermath of horrific car accidents and violent crimes.
Gyllenhaal has been nominated for “Best Actor” by the Golden Globes, SAG and the Independent Spirit Awards for his performance, while screenwriter and first-time director Dan Gilroy is nominated for best screenplay by the Independent Spirit Awards.
The nominations put a spotlight on the film, to the delight of Gilroy as well as the film’s co-star, Rene Russo. Gilroy and Russo, who have been married over 20 years, appeared for an audience Q&A after a Malibu Film Society screening of “Nightcrawler” last Saturday.
In an interview with The Malibu Times, Gilroy, also the screenwriter for films like “Real Steel” and “The Bourne Legacy,” said that in researching the film, he went on a ride-along with a man who makes his living shooting grisly scenes for the local television stations.
“He’s a highly professional family man,” Gilroy said, unlike the character in the film. “But a couple of times, we did arrive at scenes before the police, and it was harrowing.”
Gilroy also spent time at local television stations and shot a number of scenes at KTLA. He said one of the control room operators was used as an actor in the film, and a number of real-life local newscasters also make appearances.
When asked how a first-time-director managed to get a Golden Globe-nominated performance out of his lead actor, Gilroy modestly gives the credit to Gyllenhaal.
”He entrusted his career to me, and respected the script, and never changed a word.”
“The character Lou is like an animal,” Gilroy said. “Jake saw him like a coyote. They just do what they do – it’s animal instinct, pure survival … He’s walking a tightrope between being a psychopath and a satire. He’s funny and dangerous and alien.”
Russo, who plays News Director Nina Romina and Gyllenhaal’s love interest, has starred in films like “Lethal Weapon 3,” “Ransom” and “Tin Cup.”
Russo said she worked out her own character very early on, while her husband was still writing the script.
“I’ve crossed moral boundaries in my life, out of desperation or fear, and that’s how I related to the character.”
When asked about playing the older woman with a younger man, both laughed. Gilroy said the opposite happens so often in film – an older man with a younger woman — that he saw nothing wrong with turning the tables for a change. Plus, “It makes Gyllenhaal’s’ character even wackier,” he said.
Gilroy first came up with the idea for this story 20 years ago, “but I kept trying to plug a hero into it, and finally it made sense to go with an anti-hero.”
He imagined the Lou character “to be abandoned and alone, spending a lot of time on the computer. A lot of his dialogue was inspired by human resource manuals from large international corporations. I laughed to myself when I was writing it, and thought of him as being a little bit Asperger’s.”
His wife joked,“You’d think ‘Nightcrawler’ would’ve been written by this super dark person, but Dan’s favorite movie is ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”
