Jake Gyllenhaal’s Indie Film Fell Apart After Alleged ‘Erratic’ Behavior on Set

Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t really known for displaying erratic behavior on set, but according to director Thomas Bidegain, who was in the middle of working with the actor on the indie film Suddenly, the project all fell apart because of that very reason.

During a recent interview with Technikart, via CBR, filmmaker Bidegain revealed that his film Soudain Seuls, which was recently released, was supposed to star Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby, who previously worked together in 2015’s Everest. The project was to feature the pair as a couple who end up stranded on an island and have to fight for survival. As it turns out, the only survival entailed surviving Gyllenhaal’s less-than-professional behavior, at least according to Bidegain. Giving a blow-by-blow of the film’s production, the director reveals filming stopped on the $26 million project when the actor wanted the film to be rewritten as a love note to nature rather than a romance, insisted sets be reworked, and did his first reading of the script with Kirby as they both used a Pepe Le Pew accent during rehearsal.

Jake Gyllenhaal reportedly displayed even more weird behavior that derailed the project

In another bizarre act of alleged behavior, Bidegain claims that Gyllenhaal stripped down to his underwear in front of the crew and dove into the freezing ocean after exclaiming, “When I see sea, I swim in the sea.” Also of note, since filming took place during 2021 as COVID-19 protocols were in place on film sets, the director asserts that Gyllenhaal demanded the film’s set builders sleep in their cares to not risk spreading the virus. The final straw involved the screenwriter of the project not agreeing to make changes to the script that Gyllenhaal insisted would show the “true meaning” of the film. After this disagreement, Gyllenhaal allegedly departed the project.

Even though Gyllenhaal is mentioned as the main source of contention, Kirby also displayed problems while working on the project. Bidegain alleges that the actress wanted Gyllenhaal’s character to die at the end, so it would turn the movie into a feminist film. Kirby also accused the project of not being modern enough, but she reportedly saw something in it to want to buy the script, so she could still do it with Gyllenhaal, according to Bidegain. After the director contacted his producer Alain Attal at her request, it was decided that they would re-write the movie in French and film it with French actors. The end result was Soudain Seals, which was released in December 2023 and starred French actors Gilles Lellouche and Mélanie Laurent.

There is no real rhyme or reason for Gyllenhaal’s alleged behavior unless he was working double time to get off of a project that he thought would be something else when he signed on for it. He wouldn’t be the first actor to have creative differences with a director following getting attached to a film, so this could be the case of what happened here. The actor hasn’t been hurting for work since Suddenly fell apart, appearing in the 2021 Netflix thriller The Guilty, 2022’s Ambulance, and 2023’s The Covenant.