Jake Gyllenhaal made his acting debut opposite Billy Crystal in the 1991 comedy film City Slickers and has since garnered praise for his on-screen performances.
Gyllenhaal, 43, isn’t about to miss out on any opportunities in his thriving acting career, despite being legally blind.
The “Roadhouse” star was born with strabismus, which he corrected naturally and has been wearing corrective lenses since he was six years old.
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Jake Gyllenhaal talks about being legally blind and how it helps his acting. (Munawar Hossain/Photos International/Getty Images)
“I like to think of it as an advantage,” he said. The Hollywood Reporter On being legally blind: “I don’t know anything else.”
“When I can’t see in the morning, before I put on my glasses, this is the place I can check in with myself,” he added.
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Gyllenhaal has a prescription of 20/1250, as determined by the Snellen eye chart, the test most commonly used by optometrists in the United States.
Gyllenhaal most recently appeared in Road House alongside Conor McGregor. (Laura Radford © Amazon Content Services LLC)
of American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the U.S. government have determined that 20/400 visual acuity is very poor functional vision.
But his blindness worked to his advantage for some roles: In the 2015 boxing film “Southpaw,” when police inform his character that his wife has died, Gyllenhaal removes his contacts so he can carefully listen to his character’s next moves.
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In 2017, he told The Telegraph that his thick glasses, which looked like coke bottles, made him stand out from other pupils at school.
“I was an easy target,” he says, “and I was always a sensitive kid.”
Gyllenhaal said that as a child he was teased for wearing large glasses. (David Livingston/Getty Images)
When it comes to relationships, Gyllenhaal is reluctant to talk about his six-year relationship with French model Jeanne Cadieu and has refused to answer questions about marriage.
“I think we all get into a state where it’s work, work, work. For a long time, my career took priority, but I’m at a stage in my life where I’ve realised that the only thing that really matters to me is my family,” he said.
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