Jake Gyllenhaal has a vision of 20/1250, and he has been wearing intensive corrective lenses since he was about 6 years old.
He was born with a lazy eye, which naturally resolved, but he is still legally blind. The 43-year-old actor recently opened up about it in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, stating:
“I like to think it’s advantageous. 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.”
Aside from perceiving his condition with a positive mindset, being legally blind has also helped him as an actor while filming for the 2015 boxing movie ‘Southpaw’. According to the outlet, Gyllenhaal removed his contact lenses “to force himself to listen more closely” during the scene where the police told his character that his wife has died.
Moreover, the ‘Road House’ actor is reportedly actively seeking for projects that “freak me out a bit.”
“The feeling I want to have is, can I do it? That it’s going to ask of me things that I don’t know about myself yet.”
That being said, you can watch Gyllenhaal in the new courtroom thriller series ‘Presumed Innocent’, which is set to be released on Apple TV+ on June 12.
Sources: hollywoodreporter.com, dailymail.co.uk
Being legally blind myself (Optic Nerve-Head Drusen, which I have and cannot be fixed/helped by corrective lenses), I’m pretty sure that even with proper correction, a VA of 20/1250 would at best be 20/200, which is (as we all know) the best number you can get and still be legally blind. At least he’s not taking SSDI money from the government! Give him some deserved credit. I don’t know why everything has to be constantly picked at these days.
You’re not “legally blind” if your vision can be corrected with glasses or contacts.
Good point! Best corrected visual acuity must be 20/200 or worse. The article doesn’t state his corrected VA.