Jake Gyllenhaal: Being Legally Blind ‘Advantageous’

(Getty Images)

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal said being legally blind can have its advantages for his career.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, it emerged that he has 20/1250 vision. Gyllenhaal, 43, has been wearing intensive corrective lenses since he was about 6, and while the lazy eye he was born with naturally resolved, he is still legally blind.

“I like to think it’s advantageous,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”

A visual acuity of 20/400 is low functional vision, the New York Post reported, citing the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the U.S. government.

An example of how Gyllenhaal used his blindness in his career was in the 2015 boxing movie “Southpaw,” in which he made part of the film more believable by removing his contacts during a difficult scene where police inform his character of his wife’s death, forcing himself to listen more intently.

Gyllenhaal has previously spoken about his vision problems, telling the Telegraph in 2012 that he was often bullied over the corrective glasses he wore at school.

“I was an easy target,” he said of his school years. “And I was always a sensitive kid.”

Reflecting on his teenage years, Gyllenhaal admitted to the Telegraph that he was “a wild kid.”

“I was contrary in a lot of ways, possibly because I was not the best student,” he said.

His rebellion manifested as partying.

“I partied, had fun,” he said. “I don’t know how I was seen but I was definitely not super straight-laced. I was never like that, though usually, our perception of ourselves is very different from what other people think of us.”