What actually happened between Jake Gyllenhaal and this viral French movie Suddenly?
Pepe Le Pew voices, no red cars, and a boat-load of speculation
Aux News Jake Gyllenhaal
Last week, the French film website Technikart published a harrowing account of a production involving Jake Gyllenhaal, Vanessa Kirby, and a Pepe Le Pew impression. Told mostly from the perspective of director Thomas Bidegain, known for A Prophet, it recounts Gyllenhaal’s erratic behavior on set, which, depending on who translated the article, means he wanted to write a scene where his character slaps a fish or forced set builders to sleep in their cars out of COVID precautions. Over four days, the director, who reportedly worked with Gyllenhaal and Kirby for 10 months on the script, decided it wasn’t worth the headache and shut the project down.
Today, representatives for Gyllenhaal and StudioCanal are refuting Technikart’s account, claiming that this English-language version of the film was never greenlit and Gyllenhaal and Kirby’s time in Iceland was part of the development process. A Studiocanal spokesperson said:
“Creative differences are very normal, if unfortunate, regularities in film development. In this case, there were concerns which simply could not be overcome despite great efforts on both sides. We greatly value all our relationships at STUDIOCANAL and are happy that Thomas Bidegain was able to fulfill his vision on the French language version of SUDDENLY. We remain deeply committed to our working partnerships with both Thomas Bidegain and Jake Gyllenhaal, with whom we have always enjoyed a very strong creative relationship.”
Bidegain claims Gyllenhaal and Kirby “humiliated” him by reading the script in a “Pepe Le Pew” accent. In his account, he also claims that Gyllenhaal required specific travel requests, including demanding a car that was “neither red nor white” as he refused to fly out of COVID concerns. Strangely, Bidegain also makes note of how concerned Gyllenhaal was about catching COVID in 2021—when the trip occurred—and mocked the actor for refusing to take off his mask, arguing the virus wasn’t an issue in Iceland.
But the real differences Bidegain found with Gyllenhaal were creative. This was Bidegain’s first English-language script, and he and Gyllenhaal disagreed on the overall meaning of the film. Bidegain interpreted the meaning, “This is the end of the world, and, perhaps, love can save us.” Gyllenhaal, however, saw differently. After a walk in the woods and a meeting with a horse, he reportedly returned to the writer’s room to allegedly play Greta Thunberg videos over rock music and cry, saying the film was about “love of nature.”
However, sources close to the situation told The A.V. Club that neither Gyllenhaal nor Kirby were satisfied with the script. Further, our source maintains that this trip to Iceland was part of the development process, which aligns with most of Technikart’s account, and that the film was never greenlit.
Our source asserted that this is all a normal part of the process, which, sure, maybe it is if you’re working with Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s clear that there are a number of issues with this story that are only exacerbated by everyone using Google Translate to dissect Technikart’s report, resulting in diverging accounts across social media. Nevertheless, Bidegain ended up exiting the Gyllenhaal version of the film and made Suddenly in France with Gilles Lellouche and Mélanie Laurent. It premiered in France last month, Gyllenhaal-free.
39 Comments
Watching the trailer, I thought, “Is that Melanie Laurent or Lea Seydoux?” Neither. As the trailer helpfully points out, it’s Melanie Thierry.
I’m sure you and the trailer must be wrong as the article clearly states it’s Mélanie Laurent.
Guess the author of this article couldn’t spare 96 seconds to watch the trailer…
“Strangely, Bidegain also makes note of how concerned Gyllenhaal was
about catching COVID in 2021—when the trip occurred—and mocked the actor
for refusing to take off his mask, arguing the virus wasn’t an issue in
Iceland.”Well, fuck Bidegain for this alone.
Uh oh, self-righteous mask Nazi alert!
Some supporting context: As of 2022 Iceland had a population of a little less than 380,000 with over 200,000 recorded COVID-19 infections and about 180 confirmed deaths. A bit over a 50% chance of getting infected with a virus that we knew by that point can cause permanent damage to your circulatory and immune systems.So yeah, fuck Bidegain for this.
So many Nordic countries still have this weird romance with eugenics.
Yeah but have you seen the Swedish women’s national soccer team?
No, so I Googled. They are all blonde and look alike in a most unsettling way. And this:“Sweden’s women’s soccer team, silver medalist at the last two Olympics, was eliminated from qualification for the Paris Games and will miss a global championship for the first time [in 2024].”Not sure if I’m supposed to be impressed.
Depends on what you’re looking to be impressed about.
Just following from your reply “yes, but…”You put it out there without context so I don’t know what you were going for. If you think eugenics is a good thing just say so. Or it’s just more of the same old passive/aggressive humor shit from commenters.
I was joking that Nordic eugenics gave us a smoking hot women’s soccer team. Yeesh. I’m not talking shit or a eugenicist.
Begging the question why Gyllenhaal undertook this in the first place. I can understand not wanting to travel internationally in 2021 or work in a close collaborative environment. In which case I wouldn’t have gone.
It’s a common misconception, but despite the name, all of the COVID in 2021 was actually in Greenland.
Just when the bloody hell did it become unreasonable to not want to catch an airborne disease?
A pox on every bloody arsehole that mocks anyone else for being afraid of COVID, apparently the buggers want that sort of thing.
The writers admitted they’re just publishing cheap outrage-bait badly mangled through Google Translate.
I’ve read the Technikart write-up and none of that is true.
“But the real differences Bidegain found with Gyllenhaal were creative. This was Bidegain’s first English-language script, and he and Gyllenhaal disagreed on the overall meaning of the film. Bidegain interrupted the meaning, “This is the end of the world, and, perhaps, love can save us.” Gyllenhaal, however, saw differently. After a walk in the woods and a meeting with a horse, he reportedly returned to the writer’s room to allegedly play Greta Thunberg videos over rock music and cry, saying the film was about “love of nature.””I felt like I was having a stroke reading this paragraph.
By Matt Schimkowitz and Drew GillisTwo people wrote that. That article was the combined effort of two human beings.
A project with two different creatives and an article with two authors. Yeah, it’s kind of messy. They could have at least introduced the film’s title in the first paragraph.
Yes! That is what I was thinking. When “Suddenly” shows up in the quote on paragraph three, I had to scan the first two paragraphs to try to figure out if it was the same movie.
“”””
Ok good it’s kind of early in the morning for me still so I thought it might be my brain.
“Knock knock!”“Who’s there?”“Interrupting Bidegain!” “Interrupting Bidegain wh – ““GODDAMNIT GYLLENHAAL!”
I actually can read French somewhat decently so I read the original article. Given the context of COVID and how they wanted to, you know, collaborate with him, I’m with Jake Gyllenhaal on this one. I’m sure he did some weird creative actory stuff but hey… actors. Bidegain is the one who comes off as a pretentious asshole despite the author of the article trying to present him as the long-suffering genius.
Your assumption of Bidegain being an asshole is due to a wrong interpretation of the text in my opinion. All I see in the original article is a clash between 2 conceptions of cinema, and one very intense and exalted actor.
That’s a fair take too. I think the real story here is the sensationalistic approach of the writer, especially in drawing so much attention to someone trying to avoid COVID. It makes incredible sense for actors to avoid COVID. They still to this day have some of the strictest protocols (in theatre, anyway). So it makes complete sense in the fall of 2021 for an actor to have serious concerns. It sounds like he was a busy guy and getting COVID would really derail things for someone in that scenario, and affect many other people.
That is one goofy story.
hyuk hyuk
it recounts Gyllenhaal’s erratic behavior on set, which, depending on
who translated the article, means he wanted to write a scene where his
character slaps a fish or forced set builders to sleep in their cars out
of COVID precautions
Frankly I think both sound like great ideas
The fish knows what it did
Ha! It hadn’t occurred to me that it might be a specific fish which Jake had some prior beef with.
This looks interesting and very French: lot’s of intense shouting. I can’t understand it but it always sounds like “What tf are you doing?!!!” Big wide gestures, mandatory. Gorgeous shots of nature that look intimate and personal and, of course, lots of f*cking outside in nature. Too bad about Gyllenhaal. I didn’t know he’s so difficult to work with. This account sounds kind of bizarre, but I don’t blame Jake for taking COVID precautions.
Ah, mon ami, zis sounds like a trewible situation, oui oui! I don’t know eef eet’s ze fault of ze directors or ze spoilt actors, but eet’s probably a situation we’ll nevair fully get to ze bottom of, hon hon hon!
depending on who translated the article, means he wanted to write a scene where his character slaps a fish or forced set builders to sleep in their cars out of COVID precautionsNow, it’s a while since I studied French, and I’m sure there’s some very arcane slang that I’m not up to date with, but I would pay good money to hear these two translators argue their respective interpretations of the same text.
Rich people problems.
Suddenly in France with… Mélanie Laurent.Uh, may want to actually look up who’s starring in the film you’re referencing.
“Told mostly from the perspective of director Thomas Bidegain, known for A Prophet,”Thomas Bidegain is the screenwriter of ‘A Prophet’, Jacques Audiard was the director.
“…and made Suddenly in France with Gilles Lellouche and Mélanie Laurent.”
That’s Mélanie Thierry, not Mélanie Laurent (which you can see right there on the trailer embedded in the article).
Jesus Christ, is there even the bare minimum editorial check being done before you publish what you write (between two authors for this article no less)?
What actually happened between Jake Gyllenhaal and this viral French movie Suddenly?What about this movie was “viral”? It’s not about a virus and doesn’t seem to have taken the internet by storm.
This is the chillest behind the scenes “tea” I’ve ever read. A star and his director disagreed on the core vision. One collaborator was unkind about the other’s health concerns. One collaborator maybe made fun of the other collaborator at one point. For the entertainment industry this is nursery school stuff. Really odd to burn bridges for such mild sins. Who’s going to want to work with a director who’s going to try to nail you publicly if things go wrong?