Jake Gyllenhaal’s Erratic Behavior Made ‘Suddenly’ Film Fall Apart
Jake Gyllenhaal’s erratic behavior on a film set caused the whole thing to fall apart and start from scratch. Gyllenhaal was the lead actor and co-producer of a film titled Suddenly. The Thomas Bidegain-directed, $26 million survival film was originally due to begin filming in the fall of 2021. According to Film Stories, everything seemed to be on track, with the script written, locations in Iceland secured, and construction to begin on an expensive set on the nearby coast. Once the Nightcrawler actor arrived in Iceland, things quickly went south. Bidegain recently described to the French magazine Technikart how Gyllenhaal made the film capsize in just four days.
How A Film Implodes In 4 Days
On the first day, the actor requested his car to be “neither red nor white” and rambled in front of the crew in a long monologue. Then, he and his co-star, Vanessa Kirby, read the crew in mock French accents that recalled the cartoon skunk Pepe Le Pew. By day two, the director said Gyllenhaal lost his temper in getting the start time confused by 30 minutes. Following that, he was visibly unimpressed by the landscape and insisted the script be rewritten. He wanted his character to be an ex-soldier and for a scene to include him slapping a fish. That evening, the actor threatened to leave the film. On the third day, the actor wanted another rewrite of the script to revolve around the love of nature. While playing a speech by Greta Thunberg on his computer with rock music in the background, he cries and states, “I’m crying, I’m crying, it’s real tears!”
When I See The Sea
As if things couldn’t get weirder, on the fourth and final day, when everything exploded, Jake stripped down to his underwear and jumped into the freezing cold sea in front of the whole crew. The actor allegedly announced, “When I see the sea, I swim in the sea.” Later that evening, he exploded with rage when he felt threatened, saying he was worried that he would get COVID by set builders coming the next day. He demanded they sleep in their cars, then insisted he didn’t want a set built. He called everyone incompetent and threatened he’d leave the project once more if that’s how things would be run. Bidegain related what happened to the film’s producer the following morning, and he pulled the plug.
On X, people weighed in on why they thought Gyllenhaal behaved in this way. Many shared the same ideas, with one person writing, “I wonder if it’s a situation that he accidentally found himself in like Dakota Johnson with Madam Web. Where he was sold on an idea that wasn’t what was happening, so he decided to do everything he could to get fired from the movie.” Another said, “‘when I see the sea, I swim in the sea’ hilarious. i bet he was trying to get fired.” Meanwhile, one person joked, “Okay but imagine a whole Jake Gyllenhaal movie in a Pepe Le Pew accent.” Another joked, “So, you’re saying it was gonna be the performance of a lifetime?”
