French Director Addresses Claims Jake Gyllenhaal Cost Production Company Millions & Ruined a Movie - Here's What Really Happened

There have been some wild rumors about Jake Gyllenhaal‘s behavior on the set of a movie, and the truth is coming out.

Recently, an article suggested that the 43-year-old actor and planned costar Vanessa Kirby wrought havoc and cost upwards of $26 million when they abruptly exited French director Thomas Bidegain‘s movie Suddenly.

The original story was printed in a French magazine called Technikart, and it alleged that Jake displayed bad behavior, including the claim that he used a “Pepe Le Pew-like accent” while on set in Iceland.

However, the story is not correct. Now, Thomas is correcting the narrative.

Read the truth about Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby’s movie…

Speaking to Variety, Thomas confirmed that both Jake and Vanessa did exit the project. He recast their roles, and it premiered in December 2023 under the title Soudain seuls.

However, that’s seemingly where the story diverges from truth.

“People don’t understand how a film is made. We were not shooting, and we were not in pre-production,” Thomas told Variety. In fact, he met with Jake and Vanessa in Iceland simply to “read the script together.”

Up to that point, he had been working with the pair remotely. Over the time that he was involved, Jake had signed on to also produce the project.

He explained, saying, “I thought it would be good to meet there, since it was where we were thinking of shooting the movie, and it’s a beautiful place.”

“We had just done a new version of the script that incorporated the latest changes, and I did a lot of Zooms with Jake and Vanessa, so I thought the three of us were on the same page. So when we met in Iceland, I assumed that we would just put the finishing touches on it,” he said.

That was not the case. Jake and Vanessa did request more rewrites, and they seemed to have differing visions for the movie and its central message.

Thomas acknowledged that rewrites were “normal” to a point. However, the vision was not coming together, leading to some tough choices.

“I tried to smooth things over once, twice — and then I just realized it wasn’t going to work out, so it had to stop,” he explained.

Clearly, the passion was there from both actors. In fact, Vanessa even inquired about buying the script, a request that was denied.

The director opined that the problem lay in differences between how filmmaking works in France and Hollywood. In particular, he’d never worked with an actor who was also producing the project before.

“It’s a very strange experience when you work with an actor-producer who doesn’t have the same vision than the director,” he said, explaining that, “In France, the director is the one in charge of the telling the story, and he’s in charge of the script, the set design, etc.”

At the time of publishing, neither Jake nor Vanessa appear to have addressed the report.

Have you seen the trailer for Jake‘s new movie Road House? You might also be curious about some drama that the movie has been swept up in.