Jake Gyllenhaal has a brand new Netflix film out with The Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua and, although he has partnered with both the streaming platform and director separately in the past, The Guilty is a different breed of movie for the team up. The film is now near the top of Netflix’s Top 10 list and Gyllenhaal has celebrated by sharing a sweet post about the making of The Guilty with Fuqua, and it’s actually a pretty impressive story.
In his thoughtful Instagram post, Jake Gyllenhaal praises The Guilty director for rising to the challenge of making a film in the middle of a pandemic and finding creative solutions to problems created by COVID. The Spider-Man: Far From Home actor says that Antoine Fuqua actually directed the film from inside a van, and if you didn’t believe it, there are pictures. You can check out the post containing Gyllenhaal’s caption and accompanying pictures below:
Apparently COVID almost stopped The Guilty from being made, but director Antoine Fuqua came in clutch and made the movie happen by directing the entire film from a van and on video calls. In a couple of Jake Gyllenhaal’s posted pictures you can even see the two separated by a pretty high fence, but it looks like communication was kept open throughout the filming process.
With the addition of the directorial van, The Guilty was probably a pretty perfect movie to film during the pandemic. The entirety of the film takes place in just two rooms and there are really only a few people ever on screen, the vast majority of screen time belonging to Jake Gyllenhaal. Co-stars Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, and most other actors in the film never appear on camera and are just heard through phone conversations with Gyllenhaal’s character Joe Baylor.
Antoine Fuqua was able to achieve these off set parts with the help of some creative thinking and Zoom. While this provided more acting challenges for Jake Gyllenhaal, he really rose to the occasion. Even though he is pretty much the only character viewers come face-to-face with, his riveting performance and Fuqua’s presentation of the film makes it easy for those watching to understand and picture everything that is happening off screen as if it were visually unfolding before them.
While the film certainly is one worth watching and, according to Netflix’s Top 10 list, is one that people are streaming by the masses, critics find it lacking when put next to the original Danish film it is based on. Even so, there were many hoops star Jake Gyllenhaal and director Antoine Fuqua had to jump through to make the film happen in the first place, let alone as seamlessly as they pulled it off. That near top spot on Netflix is well deserved for the film, and after Gyllenhaal’s sweet post, we know just how much creativity went into the making of the film.
