Jake Gyllenhaal Is Unrecognizable In This First Image from Southpaw

Quick, show this picture to the person nearest to you (without letting them see the headline) and see if they can guess who this is.

Jake Gyllenhaal completely transformed himself for his newest role in Southpaw, a boxing flick penned by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter and directed by Training Day‘s Antoine Fuqua. Deadline released the first image from the film today and it’s clear that Gyllenhaal is going Full De Niro in terms of commitment to the role.

Some of you may remember that Eminem was once in talks to star in this film, but backed out so he could refocus on his music. (Sutter said the film was inspired by some of the rapper’s own personal struggles and his relationship with his daughter.) But alas, it was not to be and Gyllenhaal stepped into the role.

As for the re-casting, it seems like Fuqua is completely thrilled with his star. “I’m so pumped, man,” he told Deadline. ” had him train at Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Vegas and we watched Floyd’s fights, and the Manny Pacquiao fight. He trained in New York at Church Gym with real fighters. We literally turned him into a beast… Jake, my god, he’s a very electric, powerful fighter in this movie, and a guy who fights for his daughter.”

Fuqua said people are going to completely change the way they think about the Nightcrawler. I always thought he was a pretty solid actor, but that picture. Just…DAMN. Damn, Jake.