Director Thomas Bidegain has responded to rumors of Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Kirby‘s exit from the independent movie Suddenly, as rumors of Gyllenhaal’s behavior popped up.
Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Gyllenhaal and Kirby left the project, which was just about to end pre-production. According to reports, Gyllenhaal displayed unprofessional behavior while in Iceland, including jumping into a freezing lake, demanding rewrites on the film, and even mocking lines in a “Pepe Le Pew-like accent.”
Speaking to French magazine Technikart (via Variety), Bidegain didn’t outright discuss those claims, he noted that the trio simply didn’t have the same vision for the film, and decided to stop before actual filming began.
Director acknowledges the trio had creative differences
“When we started reading the script in the same room, we realized that we didn’t have at all the same vision of what the film was meant to be,” said Bidegain. “They wanted more and more changes. It’s normal when there are changes to the script before shooting, but this was different. We each had our own idea of what the message of the film was. 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.”
Bidegain also dismissed rumors that the project was abandoned right as it was set to film, noting that they were still “eight weeks away” from actually filming, and simply met in Iceland due to that being the location for filming. The director also claimed that both Gyllenhaal and Kirby wanted the movie to be about different things, leading to the breakup.
While Gyllenhaal and Kirby didn’t end up appearing in the movie, Suddenly did get made. The film stars French actors Gilles Lellouche and Melanie Thierry, and was released in France on December 6, 2023.
