Jake Gyllenhaal reveals his love of difficult movies

Los Angeles - Jake Gyllenhaal enjoys making difficult movies.

The 34-year-old star has appeared in a wide array of films during his career, such as Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain and Nightcrawler, and Jake says it's important to him to take on challenging roles.

He explained: "I love movies that have currency. Movies are political, whether they're escapist or tackle something head on. There's a responsibility in telling a story. There's a responsibility to know your own mind.

"One of the things that changes in your career is that, at the beginning, people are telling you what you fit into, and later, if you do some things that people like, you make the decisions yourself. You have to know yourself well enough to make those decisions."

Jake also insists he's not in the movie industry to win awards, saying it helps him to "learn about life".

He told The Independent newspaper: "I don't do the job for awards. I do it to learn about life. I think acting is an incredibly immature, selfish profession, but on the flipside of that, it helps you practice empathy. When you do your research, you see what real people are doing in the world."