As actor Jake Gyllenhaal turns 40, focus on the strained relationship he had with David Fincher on the set of the thriller “Zodiac”.
Jake Gyllenhaal turns 40! From Donnie Darko to The Secret of Brokeback Mountain, passing by The Day After, Prisoners or Spider-Man: Far From Home, the American actor has shot for many great filmmakers, navigating pretty much all genres. If everything seems to have gone perfectly for him in almost (already!) Three decades in the business, this was obviously not the case in 2007 on the thriller Zodiac.
In an interview with the New York TimesJake Gyllenhaal confessed half-heartedly that working with the demanding and perfectionist David Fincher on Zodiac had turned out to be a particularly difficult experience. “He paints with people” and “it’s hard to be a color”, declared the actor, subtly handling the metaphor.
In a recent interview at the same New York Times for the promotion of the Netflix film Mank, David Fincher returned without language on his collaboration with Gyllenhaal. “At the time, I think Jake’s philosophy was inspired by … Look, he had done a lot of movies, even as a kid, but I don’t think he was ever asked to be so focused as ‘with me and he was very distracted “, says the filmmaker.
During the filming of Zodiac, Jake Gyllenhaal was promoting the war film Jarhead. According to Fincher, the actor “had a lot of people around him whispering to him that this movie was going to be this big production that was going to make him switch categories.” And to continue: “Every weekend he went to festivals in Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, and Catalina. And when he came back to work, he was very scattered. His managers and stupid agents would come to him at lunch to tell him about the cover of the magazine. GQ or whatever. He was nibbled to death by ducks, and not particularly intelligent ducks. They were in his line of sight and it was hard for Jake to concentrate. “
Zodiac: a message from the mysterious killer deciphered 50 years later
To be complete on this funny relationship between the two men, it should be noted that the atmosphere calmed down at the end of the filming of Zodiac with an apology from Gyllenhaal. The latter, in an interview with our colleagues at Première in 2015, definitely seemed to have buried the hatchet: “Fincher… I really think I would be happier if I worked with him today”, declared the actor. “I was, what, 25 years old? I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I should have let myself be carried away by his vision, rather than trying to resist it. Today, I would let it go. You know, I don’t systematically try to impose my choices on the director… “
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