Jake Gyllenhaal on the upside of being legally blind: ‘I like to think of it as advantageous’

Jake Gyllenhall doesn’t always wear glasses in his movies, such as Road House, Nightcrawler, and Brokeback Mountain, but he certainly needs them in real life.

The actor was born with a lazy eye that “naturally resolved,” wore corrective lenses since he was 6, and remains legally blind, according to a new profile in The Hollywood Reporter. His vision is now 20/1250.

But he doesn’t mind.

“I like to think it’s advantageous,” he told the outlet. “I’ve never known anything else. When I can’t see in the morning, before I put on my glasses, it’s a place where I can be with myself.”

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In fact, Gyllenhaal has even used his blindness to improve his acting; while shooting a scene in Southpaw, according to the article, “Gyllenhaal removed his contacts to force himself to listen more closely” when police tell his character that his wife has died.

Up next, Gyllenhaal stars next in the Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent, a courtroom thriller from David E. Kelley and executive producer J.J. Abrams that is based on the bestselling novel by Scott Turow. Gyllenhaal plays chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich embroiled in a murder.

Audiences will see the actor wearing a pair of spectacles in the role. He said that his character in the series was modeled after his godfather, the late Paul Newman, and tucks his glasses halfway down a buttoned-up dress shirt, just like Newman.

“He also wore them hanging from his ear and stuff like that,” Gyllenhaal said.

The Oscar-nominated actor knew Newman because of his parents, director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Running on Empty in 1988.

The actor also raved about the talent of his older sister, director and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, and explained that he became interested in acting after seeing her appear in her middle school production of South Pacific.

“My sister has always been brilliant,” he said. “What it did was present something to me that I inevitably would always be chasing. She takes a step and does something and I’m like, ‘Whoa, holy s—. All right, I’m going to try this.'”

Apple TV+ eight-episode limited series Presumed Innocent premieres on Wednesday, June 12.