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Shot in only 11 grueling days, the Netflix thriller pushed Jake Gyllenhaal to his absolute limit, and it all started with a chair. Speaking to The Wrap during TIFF 2021, Gyllenhaal shared how being locked into one seat for the entire shoot felt suffocating. “It was 20 pages a day shooting 20-30 minute takes. And I thrive in that space, but I was trapped in a chair. Antoine trapped me in a chair,” he recalled. Known for his full-bodied performances, Gyllenhaal struggled with being still. “Every time I wanted to move…to only be in a chair and having to express ended up doing a number on me as we got farther and farther into the story.”
The Guilty, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2021, told the story of Joe Bayler — a police detective reassigned to 911 operator duty. Across a tense single day, Bayler raced against time to help an anguished caller. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the movie was an English-language remake of Gustav Möller’s 2018 Danish film. With supporting performances from Riley Keough, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard, David Castañeda, Ethan Hawke, and Christina Vidal, it packed heavyweights even behind the Zoom screen.
Yes, Zoom screen. The production mirrored the real-time urgency of the plot. Most actors, dialing in remotely, added to the claustrophobic energy that Gyllenhaal felt sinking deeper with every scene. “Let’s say you’re on a huge Zoom in front of a lot of people you can’t see,” he said in the same interview. “There are three cameras shooting you, and over the course of 11 days, the cameras that are shooting you start getting closer and closer and closer to your face.”
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By the end of it, the entire process felt surreal, almost like training in zero-gravity. “It was like you were in a partial gravity room trying to keep your feet on the ground,” Gyllenhaal explained to The Wrap. Even the dialogue pacing had to shift. Actors were required to start speaking even before their partners finished their lines, keeping the rhythm chaotic and real.
Stillness was one thing. Feeling trapped was another. The lack of movement dragged emotions out of Gyllenhaal that might have stayed hidden otherwise. The Guilty had a limited release starting September 24, 2021, and later hit Netflix on October 1. But the scars from those 11 locked-down days, Gyllenhaal surely carried them long after the cameras stopped rolling.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News.
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