The Prisoners actor on the family business: "My family has been in the movie business — my weirdly extended and immediate family. The movies are such a big part of our interactions. It makes me anxious being around a table here because this particular scenario just makes me feel like the dinner table. (Laughs.)"
Ruven AfanadorJake Gyllenhaal recently cut his hand while filming a scene for his upcoming indie, Nightcrawler.
Although Gyllenhaal’s publicist briefly explained the incident in a statement after it happened and indicated that the actor was fine, he was soon spotted wearing a bandage around his right hand, suggesting that he had been cut badly. On Monday’s Ellen show, Gyllenhaal explained what happened during the scene and even revealed his “gross” injury.
STORY: Jake Gyllenhaal Suffers Hand Injury on ‘Nightcrawler’
“A mirror broke in the middle of a scene that I was shooting … and it cut my hand,” the actor explained.
Ellen DeGeneres then asked what he meant when he said that the mirror just broke: “Did you punch it?”
“No, I looked at it real hard,” he joked before DeGeneres correctly deduced that he hit it.
He then showed her and the audience, via a close-up shot, what happened, revealing a dark gash at the base of his palm running perpendicular to his wrist.
When the audience gasped, Gyllenhaal laughed at the “mixture of excitement and … horror.”
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Gyllenhaal and DeGeneres continued joking about his injury, with him answering her question about whether he stayed in character after it happened by saying, “And then they followed me to the hospital and it’s all in the movie.”
But, seriously, he did say that he stayed in character while he was bleeding, something viewers may see in the finished film, and will know the story behind the blood.
Gyllenhaal, who’s also producing the independent film about an L.A. reporter who stumbles upon the world of crime journalism, responded to the incident as a producer as well, asking if they could get an insurance day out of his injury (they didn’t).
Watch Gyllenhaal’s full discussion about his hand injury below.
