Jake Gyllenhaal is known for disappearing into his characters, but the actor recently took his method of acting too far while filming the survival drama Suddenly. According to an in-depth report in Technikart magazine, Gyllenhaal’s erratic behavior caused the $26 million production to fall apart just days before filming was set to begin.
The report paints a picture of Jake Gyllenhaal letting his star power run amok on the Iceland set of the two-hander film. Suddenly was to tell the story of a couple, played by Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby, trapped on a frigid, inhospitably cold island. While Gyllenhaal had signed on as both the lead actor and a producer, his demands for script rewrites, and other peculiar behavior ultimately tanked the project.
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The translated interview reads:
For his ticket to Hollywood, Thomas Bidegain decides to adapt a book by the navigator Isabelle Autissier. “I was looking for an intimate story with one or two characters. There was a film in the first part of the book of Isabelle, a promise, something very intimate in landscapes of madness. I wanted to make a survival, a perfect genre film to smuggle personal ideas.” Since he does not want to write alone, he collaborates with Valentine Monteil, a beginning screenwriter.
Co-written by director Thomas Bidegain and newcomer Valentine Monteil, Bidegain is known for acclaimed films like A Prophet and Rust and Bone and was making his Hollywood directorial debut with the film.
Together, they will tell the story of a shipwrecked couple on a lost island off the coast of Chile, desperately trying to survive hunger and cold, raging elements, like Adam and Eve in Antarctica. He completed the first version of the script in English, entitled ’Suddenly’, for the producer Alain Attal, then finished a second version just before COVID confinement in March 2020.
At this time, Bidegain was contacted by Jake Gyllenhaal, seen in Donnie Darko, The Secret of Brokeback Mountain or Prisoners, who offered him to co-write the next screenplay of Alexander Payne. Bidegain, who is already thinking about the cast of Suddenly, takes advantage of the opportunity to send his scenario to the actor whom he admires.
Filming is set to begin in autumn 2021, but Bidegain learns that Jake is no longer available in autumn as he is set to star in the series on The Godfather, The Offer. “I call, I rattle, I tell him that I can not abandon the film. It works, and he tells me, ‘OK, I’m back.’ ” The film is back on track, and Bidegain sets off to Iceland, Norway, where he catches the Covid.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s arrival in Iceland marked the start of troubles on the set of Suddenly. The actor immediately began pushing for changes to the script. It was clear from the start that Jake Gyllenhaal had his own vision for the project.
When he arrives, Jake seems far away and never takes off his mask. He summons Thomas and his co-writer on the terrace and embarks on a long monologue: “All the people in this room are extremely talented, but you will have to work. And keep the’ open mind. With [Jake’s character], we considered many changes.. ” And Jake gets into vague stuff like “We have to find the truth.”
Yet everything is already planned: the costumes will arrive, and the sets will be built within a week. There is, therefore, no time to lose, and the team meets in a large room:
“We start reading the scenario that began with a big scene in the Providence station, where Jake joins his wife on the dock, promises that he will change, try to convince her to stay.
Their idea was to start the film with the end of a romantic comedy. It must be a very moving amour scene, but the two actors read their dialogues ironically, like the cartoon character Pepe le Pew.”
The session ends on this, but Thomas Bidegain remains confident. “It was a bit humiliating, but I think that there may also be shyness between them. That must be a shame..”
Other eccentric moments highlighted in the report include Jake Gyllenhaal dictating what color his rental car could be and rejecting red and white vehicles. Additional script notes from the actor argued his character should be rewritten as an ex-soldier:
It seems to work since in the evening, after the argument during which Jake threatened to leave the film, he sends an SMS to Thomas, which he writes. “I adore you.” Everything seems soothed for now.
After going for a solitary walk in nature one morning, Gyllenhaal returned to the writing room “inspired”, wanting to refocus the entire film around the theme of humanity’s love for nature. He proceeded to make unusual demands like having the cast and crew listen to a long Greta Thunberg speech while he cried along to it.
Back in the writing room, he tells the communion with nature that will be felt at that time and proposes to base the film around this subject: the love of nature. “He soon puts us on his computer a speech by Greta Thunberg, against a background of rock music,” Thomas remembers. “It lasts a quarter of an hour.’” During the listening, he lets himself cry and comments on his emotions. “I’m crying, I’m crying, it’s real tears !”
As Gyllenhaal pushed for rewrites in-between tears, co-writer Valentine Monteil described trying not to laugh while director Thomas Bidegain realized the film was doomed.
Under her mask, Valentine explodes with laughter. ”It was the biggest laugh of my life. Jake tells us that this is not a film about ’amour, but a film about ’amour of nature.’ He declares that it is necessary to rewrite everything. All declarations of amour must be declarations of nature. I see Thomas telling himself that this will lose the film’s $26 million. He then leans towards me and tells me, ‘How do we say ‘to get fucked’ in Icelandic ? Because it is exactly what just happened.”
Jake Gyllenhaal’s increasingly strange behavior and demands included insisting the script be rewritten to include a scene where his character strips down to his underwear and jumps into the frigid sea in front of the crew. The magazine even obtained a candid photo appearing to show Gyllenhaal wading shirtless into the icy Arctic waters.
Tensions heightened when Gyllenhaal insisted the crew sleep in their cars to avoid COVID, fought with producer Alain Attal over changes, and exploded at the builders arriving to construct the set.
[Bidegain] regains hope at a new reading session. ”When they play, everything comes to life and becomes incredibly powerful. It is moving to see two very big actors take over what’s been written.”
But, after dinner, while the sun still does not set, Jake goes back in a spin, confronts Bidegain again by returning to the truth of the film. Soon, he explodes with rage when he learns that the builders of the whaling base arrive the next day at the hotel.
Terrified by the Covid, Jake states that they must sleep in their cars. He screams, clutches on the fact that he does not want decor, demands to see the plans of the constructions, treats everyone as incompetent and finally declares that if it is like that, then, he is leaving the project. Exhausted by these days of negotiations, Thomas tells Jake “Knock yourself out !”
Driven to the edge by Jake’s Hollywood antics, Bidegain finally told him to leave the $26 million production.
In the aftermath, Vanessa Kirby even tried buying the script to remake the film with Jake Gyllenhaal and without director Bidegain attached, but Bidegain refused and ultimately remade the movie in French with different lead actors. The new interpretation, titled ‘Suddenly Alone’, wrapped production smoothly and is set for a December release.
So while Jake Gyllenhaal is acclaimed for his total immersion into characters, the actor’s excessive method of acting led to the unraveling of the survival drama ‘Suddenly’. Gyllenhaal’s star power and script demands proved too much for the production to withstand. A story meant to depict a couple trapped on a barren island ultimately mirrored Jake Gyllenhaal’s unchecked creative vision trapping the cast and crew in its icy grip.
wtf?, never knew he was such a pretentious weirdo. i feel bad for the crew. lol
“After going for a solitary walk in nature one morning, Gyllenhaal returned to the writing room “inspired”, wanting to refocus the entire film around the theme of humanity’s love for nature. He proceeded to make unusual demands like having the cast and crew listen to a long Greta Thunberg speech while he cried along to it.”
The fantasy of every SJW: round up the heathens and compel them to listen to struggle-session for their kooky religion.