4. Then came a deep, sad sigh. 5. Teller plays boxer Vinny Pazienza.
Gyllenhaal can currently be seen in Southpaw, in which he plays boxer Billy Hope, biffing his way back from tragedy after the death of his wife.
Perhaps more interesting has been his grooming journey – from mathematically sculptured goatee to this freeform beard, which he debuted at Cannes in the course of promoting the film Hands of Stone, in which he plays boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
Oscar record: Bale won best supporting actor in 2011 for playing boxer Dicky Eklund in biopic The Fighter, also directed by American Hustle's David O Russell.
Leading man Mark Wahlberg, who plays boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward, did a lot of boxing - for quite a long time.
Stallone, 69, gained fame playing boxer Rocky Balboa in the "Rocky" film series, which started in 1976 and had its seventh sequel this year entitled "Creed".
There were enough of them at ringside, actors playing boxers for the big night.
For as long as he has been a movie star, Mr. Wahlberg, 38, has wanted to play a boxer.
Mark trained for four years to play a boxer, and you shot all the fight scenes in just the first three days.
It is not exactly as radical as Robert De Niro adding dozens of pounds of fat to play the boxer Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull".
