There’s nothing wrong with wanting to win an Oscar, but some folks seem to have a habit of coming up just short.

For years it was Leonardo DiCaprio, but he finally ended his barren streak with the Best Actor win for The Revenant.

Jake has actually only been nominated once, but his Oscar failings certainly aren’t for lack of trying.

Over the past few years he has taken on a number of challenging (and often dark) roles, but the Guardian is anything but sympathetic.

In fact they’re kind of over poor ‘ol Jake, taking a few potshots along the way and insinuating that he’s trying too hard:

…you can often see it in their choice of super-challenging roles, their scarily committed preparation, their hammy over-emoting. They end up trying too hard, and audiences can smell it.

Of particular concern right now is Jake Gyllenhaal: a talented, handsome, versatile actor for sure, but one whose trophy cabinet is, you suspect, emptier than he’d like it to be. He has really been throwing himself into roles lately.

Such as his 2014 newshound thriller Nightcrawler, for which he starved himself to skeletal levels and flipped out on screen with such intensity, he had to have stitches after his mirror-smashing scene. But he didn’t get so much as an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

The next time we saw Gyllenhaal, he was all bulked up again, training hard and straining harder as a damaged boxer in 2015’s Southpaw. He thought he could De Niro his way to an Oscar but, once again, Gyllenhaal got no awards love. After 2016’s double whammy of Demolition (playing a guy on the edge), then Nocturnal Animals (playing two guys on the edge), Gyllenhaal’s “look at how much acting I’m doing!” antics started to become offputting.

It does seem like they’re being a little harsh – what is he supposed to do, choose romantic comedies where he wanders around without a shirt on and cashes cheques?

Next up is Stronger, where Jake plays Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the 2013 Boston marathon bombing.

He’s gone hard at the role and they’re not having it:

As expected, Gyllenhaal takes a painful journey of trauma, disability and reluctant heroism, seasoned with the occasional emotional meltdown. Gyllenhaal didn’t actually get his legs amputated for the role but at this stage in his career, you wouldn’t be surprised.

…let’s hope it pays off this time, otherwise there’s no telling what he might do.

We’ll pop the trailer below in case you haven’t seen it yet:

Could this be the movie that finally scratches his Oscar itch?

Side note – if you want to see real dedication to a role I recommend you watch Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, which details how Jim Carrey went rather off the rails during the filming of 1999’s Man on the Moon.

I don’t care if Jake does or doesn’t win, as long as they end up taking back Sandra Bullock’s Best Actress award for the abomination that was The Blind Side.

[source:guardian]