JAKE GYLLENHAAL
Photograph by James White
May 20, 2004
Los Angeles

With a lead role in The Day After Tomorrow, Gyllenhaal was making the leap from indie films like The Good Girl to big-budget actioners, so White wanted to reference Day's icy vision of disaster and also present Gyllenhaal as a force of nature himself. After shooting a series of portraits, ''we decided to go for it and see what we could come up with,'' says White. The martial arts-like pose is about Gyllenhaal ''trying to break through'' the water. That's one way to make it into the mainstream.