Jake Gyllenhaal made his acting debut alongside Billy Crystal in the 1991 comedy “City Slickers” and has since earned accolades for his on-screen abilities. At 43, Gyllenhaal has not let his legally blind status hinder his impressive acting career.
Born with a lazy eye that naturally corrected itself, Gyllenhaal has been wearing corrective lenses since he was six years old. “I like to think it’s advantageous,” he told The Hollywood Reporter about his condition. “I’ve never known anything else.” He added, “When I can’t see in the morning, before I put on my glasses, it’s a place where I can be with myself.”
With a 20/1250 prescription determined through the Snellen Eye Chart, Gyllenhaal’s vision is significantly impaired. The American Foundation for the Blind and the U.S. government classify a visual acuity of 20/400 as very low functional vision. Despite this, Gyllenhaal’s blindness has sometimes been an asset in his work. In the 2015 boxing movie “Southpaw,” he removed his contacts to deeply immerse himself in a pivotal scene where his character learns about his wife’s death.
In 2017, he shared with The Telegraph that wearing thick, Coke-bottle-like glasses in school made him stand out. “I was an easy target,” he said. “And I was always a sensitive kid.”
Gyllenhaal, who is currently in a six-year relationship with French model Jeanne Cadieu, remains private about his personal life. “I think we all get into that space of work, work, work, and for a long time my career took precedence, but I’m at a point in my life where I realize that family really is the only thing that matters to me,” he said, choosing to focus on what truly holds significance for him beyond his career.
Through resilience and determination, Jake Gyllenhaal has proven that even with legal blindness, one can achieve remarkable success and continue to inspire others in the process.
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