'The Covenant' star Jake Gyllenhaal explains why he's drawn to military roles

At the premiere of the Afghanistan war drama "The Covenant," Jake Gyllenhaal said playing military roles has given him a different "perspective."

In the film, which comes out on Friday, Gyllenhaal plays an Army Special Forces sergeant who is rescued by a local interpreter he recruited. 

When Gyllenhaal’s character returns to the U.S. and "learns that [the interpreter] Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them down first," a synopsis of the Guy Ritchie-directed movie says.