Andrea Mandell

USA TODAY

Jake Gyllenhaal takes on notoriously tough roles, but his new movie is Boston strong.

In Stronger (in theaters Friday), Gyllenhaal is playing Jeff Bauman, whose story of resilience went national after a jarring photo epitomized the tragedy of the 2013 Boston Marathon attack.

Bauman attended the marathon to cheer on his then-girlfriend, Erin Hurley, who was running her first race. After the pressure cooker bombs exploded, a photographer documented the 27-year-old being wheeled to an ambulance by a bystander in a cowboy hat.

Bauman, now 31, lost the lower portion of his legs that day. He also helped identify the suspects from his hospital bed.

“I can’t begin to think about the pain that he has been through. In fact, I have thought about it a lot. I’ve tried to," Gyllenhaal told USA TODAY during filming in Boston. "But I don’t know if I would have been able to survive. I don’t know if I have the strength that he has. And that’s a question that I ask myself every day with this film.”

Much has changed. Bauman endured multiple surgeries and through extensive rehab and prosthetics learned to walk again. He wrote a book, Stronger, about his experience, married Hurley (Tatiana Maslany plays her) and the two welcomed a daughter, Nora. The couple's personal story has since shifted, with the two announcing their split in February.

The R-rated film, directed by David Gordon Green, isn't about the Boston Marathon bombing, those involved stress, but rather Bauman’s "unlikely path toward a love story, and healing and recovery and acceptance of being deemed a hero when he didn’t believe in himself,” said producer Todd Lieberman.

Gyllenhaal met Bauman, who he calls "inspirational," four months prior to filming. "I woke up one day and Jake was sleeping right next to me," Bauman cracked. Cameras began rolling at the close of a Bruins game, with thousands of fans staying to watch the film crew re-create Bauman’s first public appearance after being hospitalized.

Bauman, Boston Marathon double amputee, returns to work

For Bauman, who attended with his family, it was an amazing sight. “They had the comparison side by side of Erin and I doing it and then Jake and Tatiana, and you couldn’t really tell the difference,” he said. The experience stayed with Gyllenhaal, too. "Half of our crew was in tears," he said.

Bauman, who has toured the country speaking extensively about his experience, says he has learned to compartmentalize when he revisits April 15, 2013. Mostly. “Sometimes I have nightmares and wake up to explosions, but it hasn’t been like that for a while. Definitely going over this, it’s tough — it’s a tough subject for everybody,” he acknowledged.

What he’s excited about is that Stronger focuses on the Bostonians who gave Bauman strength to walk again, including Carlos Arredondo, the man in the cowboy hat who helped rush him to medics ("He's one of my best friends," Bauman said); his doctors who got him upright; and his family, who stayed by his side.

As Hollywood worked to tell his story, in real life, Bauman told USA TODAY he felt gifted by days spent chasing after Nora. “She gives me a good workout,” he laughs.

Hope is what he and Gyllenhaal want to leave audiences with, no matter if attacks occur in Boston or Brussels. "Situations like this are happening, unfortunately, horrifically almost monthly if not weekly now," said Gyllenhaal. "So how do we try and bring into the world a sense of overcoming, of positivity over a situation?"

Added Bauman: "I want to show people you can overcome a tragedy."