Jay Baruchel is an actor, writer, and director from Montreal, Canada. He first rose to prominence in 2001 with Judd Apatow‘s comedy series, Undeclared. After this, he starred in a number of movies like Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder, and She’s Out of My League. He then lent his voice to the smash hit animation franchise, How To Train Your Dragon.
Baruchel has proven himself as a solid comedic talent in Hollywood and has since earned the praise of critics with dramatic roles in movies like Blackberry. Growing up a massive lover of movies, Baruchel has gone on to star opposite some of his childhood heroes and fulfill his wildest dreams. Here are five things you didn’t know about Blackberry‘s Jay Baruchel.
Jay Baruchel Made His Mark In An Oscar Winning Movie
When he was kicking up a stir in the world of television, Jay Baruchel was still relatively unknown in the movie world. That changed when he starred as Danger Barch in Clint Eastwood‘s Oscar-winning drama, Million Dollar Baby. Although it was very early in his career, Baruchel’s performance as a mentally challenged aspiring boxer stands out as one of his greatest dramatic performances to date. He delivered a subtle performance that manages to touch the heart of the movie’s underdog theme. It is also a role that he is profoundly proud of to this day.
This Is The End Was Inspired By Baruchel’s Troubled Friendship With Seth Rogen
Fellow Canadian, Seth Rogen, starred opposite Baruchel in Undeclared, and the two quickly became good friends. After living together for a while in LA, Baruchel returned to Canada. Naturally, a disconnect was soon formed. Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, are renowned for drawing inspiration from their real lives when writing their movies. That’s exactly what they did with This Is The End in 2013.
This Is The End saw Baruchel and Rogen play themselves alongside the likes of James Franco, Danny McBride, and Jonah Hill. While the movie is focused on its high-concept end-of-the-world plot, Rogen and Goldberg wrote an underlying sub-plot that drew from their real lives. Shortly after Baruchel moved back to Canada, he started to feel uncomfortable around Rogen’s new friendship group when he would visit LA. He would even fly out for a project and not tell Rogen about it. Much to everyone’s surprise, this made for great material for the movie. A rift was also ignited between Baruchel and Jonah Hill that would later be rectified. But that didn’t stop Rogen and Goldberg from writing it into their movie.
Jay Baruchel Is A Gifted Screenwriter
By 2011, Baruchel had already shown Hollywood that he can act. So, he set his sights on a new venture – screenwriting. Goon follows Doug Glatt (Sean William Scott), a tough-as-nails bouncer who sets out to prove his judgemental family wrong and succeed in ice hockey. The story held a close spot in Baruchel’s heart as he admitted he is a massive ice hockey lover. A sequel followed in 2017, which saw Baruchel helm the director’s chair for a feature film for the first time in his career. He then crossed over to horror in 2019 when he wrote and directed the dark and twisted Random Acts of Violence.
Jay Baruchel Is A Huge Arnold Schwarzenegger Fan
Baruchel grew up adoring movies and told CBC News that he would often watch movies that were adult in nature. He said that his father would rent a movie on a Friday night, and if the movie was still in the VHS player the next morning, it was deemed safe to watch. This meant that Baruchel got the chance to watch all kinds of movies. He particularly liked Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s action movies like The Terminator.
Skip forward to 2023, and Baruchel landed his dream job, starring opposite Schwarzenegger in Fubar. Fubar follows Luke Brunner, a retired spy whose life is turned upside down when he discovers that his daughter is also a CIA Operative. Baruchel plays Carter, the downtrodden boyfriend of Brunner’s daughter.
Jay Baruchel Is A Proud Canadian Patriot
Despite breaking into Hollywood at an early age, Baruchel is a self-proclaimed home bird and considers Canada his true home. As well as having a red maple leaf tattoo on his chest to showcase his patriotism, he often chooses projects that can boast his love for Canada. Blackberry focuses on a team of engineers from Canada called Research In Motion, who set out to make the world’s first smartphone in 1996. Baruchel stars in a critically acclaimed performance as Mike Lazaridis, the founder of Research In Motion, and has gathered significant awards season buzz for the first time since Million Dollar Baby.
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