Los Angeles, Nov 1 (IANS): Actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who features in "Nightcrawler", found it a "dangerous" experience to venture out in the dark to prepare for his role in the movie. But he found it to be exciting too!

He even witnessed a scene of an accident first-hand.

For his role of Lou Bloom, a career-hungry guy in the unscrupulous world of freelance crime journalism, Gyllenhaal went out on the roads at night with real life nightcrawlers. For four whole months, the star roamed the streets on the lookout for mayhem.

Talking about the experience of being the first to arrive at a scene of an accident, he said in a statement: “It does get dangerous. There's a thrill, particularly on the way to the unknown. As you venture with them into the night and then you get a call, you don't know what you're going to be seeing. And there's a terror there.

"But you can feel from them an excitement, too. And it's in those feelings that some people find great success in the work and Lou happens to be one of those people.”

The suspense thriller, set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles, is being released in India via PVR Director's Rare and TOP Entertainment Nov 7.