Jake Gyllenhaal’s Strange Demands Cause a Film to Fall Apart, Claims Director

Jake Gyllenhaal’s peculiar set of demands led to the collapse of a film, as disclosed by French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain. Bidegain, who recently debuted his second film as a director in France titled ‘Soudain Seuls,’ initially intended it to be an English-language movie, with Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby in the lead roles, and Margot Robbie reportedly linked to the project at one point.

According to Bidegain, the $30 million film, titled ‘Suddenly,’ faced demise due to Gyllenhaal’s behaviour and unusual requests. In an interview with the French publication Technikart, the filmmaker revealed that just eight weeks before production in Iceland, while sets were being constructed, Gyllenhaal wanted to revamp and rewrite the entire film.

Bidegain further detailed Gyllenhaal’s eccentric demands, including the actor’s insistence on driving a car that was “neither red nor white.” Gyllenhaal also requested set constructors to sleep in their cars due to COVID fears, spontaneously decided to swim in freezing waters and conducted the first script rehearsal in the voice of Pepe Le Pew.

Reportedly, Gyllenhaal even expressed a desire for the script to feature a scene where he slaps a fish, leaving Bidegain perplexed. After four days of script clashes, Bidegain chose to abandon the English language version of the film. Despite Gyllenhaal and Kirby’s interest in continuing the project without him, Bidegain refused to sell the script and instead created a French version with French actors.

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As of now, Gyllenhaal’s representatives have not responded to Bidegain’s claims. Studiocanal, the studio behind the project, attributed the film’s breakdown to “creative differences.” In a statement, the studio acknowledged the challenges faced due to such differences, expressing satisfaction that Thomas Bidegain could realize his vision in the French language version of ‘Suddenly.’