STRONGER: Jake Gyllenhaal, survivor Jeff Bauman, tell Boston Marathon bombing story in new film
The new drama, Stronger, tells the story of Jeff Bauman - a Boston native who was critically injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
FOX 5's Erin Como sat down with the real-life reluctant hero, and Jake Gylenhaal - the man who plays him on the big screen, and found that it took losing his legs to learn what it meant to stand up to his personal demons.
"You know, when I first read the script I was laughing so much more than I thought I would because he has such a great sense humor and such a positive spirit," Gylenhaal told Como. "That's, I think, a lot of what got him through this whole thing."
"You can't really feel the joy if you also don't feel the pain. You can't have one without the other and in this movie you have both," Gylenhaal said.
To keep the authenticity of Bauma's story, many of his nurses and doctors were cast in the film. Also, Jake said he spent lots of time with Jeff learning his mannerisms, his Boston accent and learning how he came to terms with the shock of the bombing and the loss of his leg to embracing his role as a living symbol for what it meant to be BostonStrong.
Bauman and Gylenhaal joked that Jeff even gave playing himself in the film a shot before Jake took over!
Bauman said seeing the film for the first time was emotional. "It was overwhelming for all of us to see it up there and to live through it again. It was really overwhelming. It took me a couple of days to sort things out and take things from it." After it sunk in, Bauman said he was really proud of the story the film told.